Other steering problem on the 2003 Kia Sorento
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 20 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 other steering problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Kia Sorento report other steering problem at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 145,241 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
29% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,559 miles | 32,247 miles | 79,000 miles | 130,000 miles | 151,800 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 crash and 1 an injury are 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 $350–$2,400 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2021 at 210,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 77; the 2003 has 20. 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.
Ongoing problems with power steering. Feels like engine is stalling and power steering is locking up when making turns at low speed. Very difficult to steer. This happens intermittently. *jb
2003 kia sorento would loose power steering assistance when transitioning from moderate speeds (30-50 MPH) to low speed (5-10 MPH), such as when exiting a highway by slowing in a center turning lane and turning left in front of oncoming traffic. First occurance was at 19,000 miles (sept 2003), kia dealer was unable to replicate problem and returned the vehicle to me. Problem continued intermittently until 30,000 miles (may 2004) when I returned to dealer and they discovered a tsb on this issue. Dealer replaced p/s sensor and loaded improved software code. There were a number of near collisions due to this failure. *nm
I own a 2003 kia sorento lx. I used it mainly to go from home to work. This happened 2 days ago, march 16, 2006, at 32247 miles. While making a right turn from a stoplight, I had complete loss of vehicle control, it would not let me stop it and I could not control the steering wheel, it kept turning sharply to the right, and I landed on the sidewalk. Luckily, it happened when I was just entering my neighborhood, going at moderate speed, and there were no cars besides or behind me. To think if I were driving 65-70 MPH on the highway and have this happened and lose control, I would have been dead. But it is the second time it happens in 3 1/2 years. The first time was about 1 1/2 year ago, but I did not pay attention to it since I thought it was due to wet conditions. I was entering the multi-level parking lot where I work. I was going up to the 4th floor where I park, and when I turned left on the 3rd floor, the car went out of control, kept going round, and I could not stop. Luckily again, it was so early in the morning that there were no cars in that floor. Surely, a safety-related defect exists. What happened friday almost got…
Also reported on the 2003 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other fuel system problem
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 steering problem happen on the 2003 Kia Sorento?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other steering problem on the 2003 Kia Sorento?
20 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 6.8 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