This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The contact owns a 2006 Kia Sorento. While driving 40 mph, the crankshaft fractured and the power steering failed. The contact pulled the vehicle over to the side of the road and had it towed to community Kia (4221 East fwy, baytown, tx 77521, 832-612-3807). The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that they would be in communication with the dealer. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was 74,000.
The contact owns a 2006 Kia Sorento. While pulling out of the driveway at approximately 20 mph, the power steering seized and the battery and emergency brake indicators illuminated. The contact pulled the vehicle back into the driveway. The dealer was not contacted. The contact called the manufacturer and was referred to roadside assistance, but was unable to speak with anyone. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 154,000.
The contact owns a 2006 Kia Sorento. While the contact's daughter was driving 70 mph, she heard a loud bang and felt an impact underneath the vehicle. The driver noticed a piece of metal had detached from the vehicle. The vehicle independently pulled to the right and the steering wheel seized. The vehicle was towed to the contact's home. The vehicle was then towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the crank shaft pulley bolt failed and needed to be repaired. The vehicle was replaced. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. A dealer was contacted and stated that the vehicle was not eligible for a free repair because the mileage was over 100,000. The approximate failure mileage was 160,000. The VIN was unavailable.
Our 2006 Kia Sorento all the sudden while driving on a very busy in city highway, started sounding like it kept trying to turn over and we pulled over. We noticed it started smelling hot but wouldn't turn off so my husband tried taking off the battery but couldn't because it was so hot it burned him and noticed smoke coming from the engine. We finally got it off so we tried to restart it but the battery was totally dead. The shop said the engine is gone.
I was driving on the highway and the brake light & battery light came on. The engine sounded rough, when I went to pull of the highway, I had no power steering
- Houston, TX, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
Less than a year prior, timing belt needed replaced. A costly fix. Only months later due to problem(common issue Kia is aware of) with crankshaft sensor, vehical stalled and died driving down the road. There was no warning for this and when the engine stopped while going down the highway, I lost all control of power stearing, speed, brakes and other main elecrical componets. I was in the middle of a curve of the highway when this occured. This threw me into ongoing traffic. Luckily, I only hit a hwy traffic sign. The recalls for this vehicle needs to be updated and added to. This vehical should not be aloud on the road! its dangerous for everyone on the road.
I was driving on the highway in slushy snow and the brake light & battery light came on. The engine sounded rough. When I went to pull of the highway, I had no power steering.
The contact owns a 2006 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that while traveling 60 mph, there was a sudden loss of power steering and the steering wheel locked with no warning. The vehicle was merged over to the side of the road and the contact was able to restart the vehicle which reset the computer. The contact stated that the vehicle was making an extremely loud abnormal noise when the failure occurred. The vehicle was parked at the contacts residence. An independent mechanic inspected the vehicle and indicated that a bolt fractured into the crank shaft. The vehicle was towed to a repair shop for further diagnosis. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 130,000.
Driving on highway when heard a pop and power steering went out and battery and brake light came on. Had it towed to auto repair shop to find out the crank shaft pulley bolt had broken off into the engine. Auto repair shop unable to get bolt out since it broke off into engine. Only way to repair was a new engine which was around $5000.
I was turning at a stop light when I loss power steering and nearly crashed.I was able to get it pulled over.I raised the hood and saw the crankshaft pulley lying on the the bottom skid plate.I looked on the internet only to find there are probably thousands of similar cases worldwide.I called Kia.they basically blew me off!
While driving my 2006 Kia Sorento on Wednesday December 17, 2014, a week before christmas, the crankshaft pulley bolt loosened up. Under tremendous pressure from the engine the steel pulley bent skewing all belted driving systems: Power steering, electrical, electricity to engine, A/C, wipers, heating and defrosting systems, and etc causing me to lose complete control of car while turning corner at busy intersection; loosing steering, complete engine shutdown, panic, and putting me in 'harm's way'! my wife and I had specifically bought this SUV because we care and drive our 3 beautiful grandchildren to school/back and to all activities and so many other children (their friends) going to the same places and activities. I thank god this didn't happen with any children or my wife in the car and even under worse situations; ex: Expressway driving or so many other life threatening driving situations! I have paid many hundreds of dollars for the repairs and much time and worrying about that terrible incident I have suffered! also my immediate children put much pressure on me to get rid of this unsafe car concerned for their children (my grandchildren) and their friends!
The contact owns a 2006 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that while driving at 35 mph, there was an abnormal loud noise coming from the engine. In addition, the engine and the battery warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that the steering wheel was difficult to turn and excessive force was reuqired in order to turn the vehicle. The contact noticed that a bolt fractured from the front of the vehicle. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 106,575. Updated 4/15/15 updated 9/27/2017
On January 17, 2015, I retrieved my 2006 Kia Sorento LX from the dealership. I had to have the water pump and heater hoses replaced. It was suggested that since my vehicle had close to 60K miles on it that according the manufacturer that the timing belt be replaced. It cost me a little over $1,200. Two weeks later I was at a stop light waiting to make a left turn. As I proceeded to make my left, from a complete stop, the vehicle bogged, stalled, the dashboard lights all came on for an instant and the steering wheel locked. Luckily there was no on coming traffic and I was able to pull into a parking lot. I got the vehicle to stop and attempted to re-start my car and it did. Nothing happened to the vehicle again until a week later and it did the same thing again. I took it that there was a possibility that it was cheap gas. My husband, on Saturday 02/14/2015, moved the vehicle to the front of the house and parked it. At 4 P.M. we went to leave and the vehicle wouldn't start. I googled some information and had to re-set the fuel cut off switch under the hood and that fixed the problem temporarily. Last night, 02/16/2015, the vehicle did the same thing again and again we had to re-set the fuel cut off switch and the engine light remained on. Today, 02/17/2015, we returned the vehicle to the dealership to have it diagnosed and they determined that the camshaft positioning sensors and the crank shaft positioning sensor need to be replaced and now they want to charge me another $1,100. I have gone online and done some research and found several other complaints similar to mine. I also noted that there was a class action lawsuit in NJ for the same thing. It seems to me that Kia motors is aware of the problem and just turning a blind eye. These problems continue after repairs are made according to the complaints I found.
While stopped at a traffic light, the car was running fine. When the light turned green, I took my foot off the brake and all the lights on my dash illuminated and the car immediately shut off. I shift into park and restart the car with no problems as if nothing happened. No other issues occurred until today (3 weeks later). This time I started my car and was driving through a parking lot with no signs of a problem. After I stopped, to let a car out in front of me, I took my foot off the brake to proceed. Immediately as I stepped on the gas, the dash illuminated, the steering wheel locked, and the car shut off. I tried restarting it a few times, but it wouldn't budge at all. I shut off all electrical devices, such as headlights, radio, and hazard lights and tried starting it again. This time it started as if nothing was wrong. I drove around stopping and going for another 45 mins to see if it would happen again, and nothing. Based on what I've been reading, it sounds like this is a common problem. Why isn't this getting the same attention Toyota and GMC cars received when their cars experienced dangerous malfunctions in several of their cars? perhaps the media needs to be alerted to this to actually bring more attention to the matter. Apparently Kia is waiting for a few deaths first before they part with money to fix the problem.
I was driving out of walgreens parking lot on 6/2/2013 in alsip, Illinois. As I put my car in reverse to back out the parking space then I placed it in drive it was fine. Then I got ready to turn the wheel to come out the parking lot and it was very hard to turn. Then my lights came on the dashboard. The brake light & engine light. I then placed my feet on the brakes and placed it back in P (park) and tired to put in drive again and the same thing happened. It was very hard to turn to get it out of the way. I ended up going up the street to autozone to see if they can put in on the machine or even look at it to see what's wrong. They looked at it and told me it looks like my pulley belt is cracked / breaking / broke. So I park it in a residual area, and I called Kia dealership in oaklawn, il to order the part as autozone told me they did not have that part I will have to go to the dealer. So I called Kia to get the part and they said I had to order it. I did just that picked it up had the tow truck to take to the autoshop for repair. Once the mechanic looked at it he started the bolt was hard to get off to get to the pulley. He stated it is a 50/50 chance that it may break. If it does then I would need a engine. I then told him don't touch it or worry about it I will have it towed to Kia in river oaks which I did. They looked at it and stated the same thing. I said well lets pray they it does not break he laughed and said ok. The mechanic called me back a hour later an said it broke I'm gonna need a engine. He told me the price, and I could not afford it so I had it towed to my house.
I went to the bank in November of 2014. I shut my car off because its started to make a loud noise. I tried to start it when I was done and it would not start. I was able to get a jump to start it back up but it keep on dying. I was finally able to get it started enough to get it home. It died right before my house so we had to push it into the driveway. When I was driving it home the electrical kept cutting in and out and it was making a loud noise. Come to find out the crankshaft pulley bolt broke off into the engine.I only had the car for 8 months and paid $8700 for the car.
While driving down the highway, the crankshaft bolt broke inside the crankshaft causing steering problems, and the car shutdown. This is very dangerous and could cause death by losing steering control or a serious accident with others due to lost of power.
Car dies while driving. No check engine light appears. Later car starts and runs fine until a few days later at next failure. Driver loses engine, power steering, and power brakes. Engine code finally appears after 3rd incident and is P0337 - crank shaft positioning sensor. This is a safety issue and may lead to a crash or death since driver looses all functions of vehicle. Dealer at Kia cerritos, calif. Seemed unconcerned and stated that nothing could be done under warranty, since warranty had expired, even with low mileage. This is safety issue and should be repaired as a recall. Independent auto repair shop group data bases show 100's of incidences of same part failure and engine code with Kia Sorento and low vehicle mileage.
Repeated problems with this vehicle. Not small problems. Life threatening problems. What is the NHTSA doing" why nothing, no questions, no nothing. Thousands upon thousands of consumers with no help from this public Agency. Why? brake problems, widely known. Kia refuses to admit that the brakes don't work on their vehicles, the rotors have to be changed every 3 months. This is a safety hazard. I had many near accidents thinking my brakes were fine and then bringing my car in for an oil change and the rotors are gone, the guys are saying you are lucky to be alive. Now after repeated repairs, while driving the vehicle on 6/13/14 I was almost killed when my car nearly flew out of a high rise parking garage because the crankshaft pulley bolt sheared off causing my harmonic balancer to come off. The result no brakes, no steering while in a high rise parking garage. What will it take? someone needs to die? why? why no enforcement of Kia? please, please, please look into this. Why wouldn't you? if you just take 5 minutes to look on the internet, don't search really hard, just put in Kia Sorento or any Kia and you will see thousands of reports like this. I can't believe that this Agency, the Agency tasked with looking into these things is not looking into this. Hundreds of people have made complaints on your own site but still nothing. Do these companies have to follow the rules of the usa or not because this is a foreign car manufacturer. Apparently not. Again, this has happened repeatedly, I am afraid of my car. My grandchildren ride in this car with me. I cannot afford another repair. In January it was a repair over $1200. I was laid off in may and now another repair of at least $3000 to $4000. I have only 53000 miles on my car. What will it take NHTSA? is it not worth your attention yet? how many lives before it is worthy of your attention"
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Cove, TX, USA