Complete engine failure or seizure on the 2013 Kia Forte
1 fire 1 of the 16 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When complete engine failure or seizure gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Kia Forte report complete engine failure or seizure at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 105,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 54,800 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
7% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50,000 miles | 54,500 miles | 61,000 miles | 77,500 miles | 104,800 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $4,500–$12,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 2015 carries the most reports, with 20; the 2013 has 16. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I am the original owner of my 2013 kia forte ex, the vehicle roughly has 70,000 miles on it. The vehicle has always been properly maintained via oil changes, filters, etc on time with quality name brand fully synthetic oil and filters per the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule which is every 7500 miles. I was driving my vehicle home on a very busy freeway on the east coast. I was in the center lane of 5 lanes on the south bound side and all of a sudden my car lost all power and was slowing down at an unsafe rate of speed because I had no power and did not want to touch the brakes obviously. I panicked but was able to put my right signal on to try and get to the shoulder of the freeway I continued to panic because my car was steady slowing and eventually would come to a stop because I had no power, the gas pedal would not function and I knew the car shut down because all the lights were on on the dash as if you were starting the car. Thankfully someone was watching over me that day and I made it to the shoulder before the car rolled to a complete stop. If I were unable to safely move over two lanes and make it to the…
I am the original owner of my 2013 kia forte ex, the vehicle roughly has 70,000 miles on it. The vehicle has always been properly maintained via oil changes, filters, etc on time with quality name brand fully synthetic oil and filters per the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule which is every 7500 miles. I was driving my vehicle home on a very busy freeway on the east coast. I was in the center lane of 5 lanes on the south bound side and all of a sudden my car lost all power and was slowing down at an unsafe rate of speed because I had no power and did not want to touch the brakes obviously. I panicked but was able to put my right signal on to try and get to the shoulder of the freeway I continued to panic because my car was steady slowing and eventually would come to a stop because I had no power, the gas pedal would not function and I knew the car shut down because all the lights were on on the dash as if you were starting the car. Thankfully someone was watching over me that day and I made it to the shoulder before the car rolled to a complete stop. If I were unable to safely move over two lanes and make it to the…
This is the 2nd engine replacement I have had to do in a 2013 car. Driving 60mph without warning car stalled and I was forced to coax to the side of rural country road, in the middle of extreme cold weather the 2nd time. The 1st time I was driving the car abfter just getting oil changed and car made a loud noise and car stalled while driving on interstate at 70mph. Car was towed and engine was blown each time. I have contacted kia on both occasions and on both occasions car was sent to dealership and could not figure out why engine blew. Oil levels where found good. This is ridiculous that I have had two replace 2 engines in a 2013 kia which is financed and kia refuses to do anything about it. I have receipts as well as reports done on car each time this occurred. However they are in glovebox of car at garage getting a new engine!
Also reported on the 2013 Kia Forte
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
Other electrical problem
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Engine knock or bearing noise
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 16 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does complete engine failure or seizure happen on the 2013 Kia Forte?
Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is complete engine failure or seizure on the 2013 Kia Forte?
16 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed