Other fuel system problem on the 2004 Kia Rio
2 fires 2 of the 4 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.
Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other fuel system problem gets reported
There are 4 reports of other fuel system problem on the 2004 Kia Rio, 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 81,299 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, 2 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 $300–$2,200 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 80,000 miles.
By volume the 2001 carries the most reports, with 12; the 2004 has 4. 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.
Dt*: the contact stated that since the vehicle was purchased on january 19th 2005, it has been experiencing problems with the carburetor and a bad odor that comes from the engine. The vehicle was also sold to the contact without notification of recall defect to the carburetor. The vehicle was taken to the dealers to have a part replaced to remedy problems with the carburetor but vehicle consistently experiences the same problems. The vehicle was taken back on ten other occasions for services related to the problem. The vehicle was than taken to an independent mechanic who determined that the problem was related to fuel injection system. The manufacturer was notified and provided a referral to another dealers for service. The vehicle has been taken to the recommended dealer for service. The engine light illuminated, however the dealer refused to address the problem. The vehicle was pulling to the right, an alignment was performed. The consumer heard a wind noise while driving. The brakes were making a loud noise. Updated 08/01/06. *jb
Our car caught on fire. Kia says that recall notices were sent out to the previous owner to take the car to a kia dealer for repairs. Notice was sent out years ago (2002). Kia knew that the repairs were never done because no dealership had billed kia for repairs. For nine (9) years this car was on the road without a safety recall being performed for fire. For nine years we registered this car and kia made no attempt to find out who owns the vehicle. Kia is being very unethical because they say that a notice was sent out (one notice) and now they have done their obligation. *tr
The car caught on fire, kia says they sent a notification to the original owner, years ago. We feel that we were entitled to a recall notice before the car burned down. We feel this is not a small recall, it was a fire, a fire is very dangerous and can burn and kill people. We had 22 kias rios in our fleet and never received recall notices on any of them. Kia did send notices to the original owner however they had the information as to which cars received the recommended repairs and which cars never came in, there needs to be some follow up. *tr
Also reported on the 2004 Kia Rio
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Fuel pump failure
Misfire or rough idle
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 4 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 other fuel system problem happen on the 2004 Kia Rio?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other fuel system problem on the 2004 Kia Rio?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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