Other powertrain problem on the 2005 Kia Sorento
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Kia Sorento report other powertrain problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 18 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 87,138 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35,862 miles | 63,600 miles | 94,000 miles | 103,750 miles | 123,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2025, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 95,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 169; the 2005 has 21. 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.
While driving my 2005 kia sorento it suddenly looses power and will not surpass 30 MPH. When I change from automatic transmission to this new standard shift there is no response. This has occurred now 4 times the past 2 months. The dealer checked the codes and nothing shows. I must stop and shut the vehicle off, restart and all systems return to normal. My dealer says that I must bring this to them when it is in this state. This request is impossible to do.*jb
My fiance' and I have recently started experiencing some issues with our 2005 manual transmission. For some reason, from a stop, the car will not move forward once it is on gear. It just won't move. I can take it in and out of gear and it still won't move. I can try it in first or second and still nothing. The work around we figured out is to put it in reverse and maybe move it backwards just a little bit and we are then able to put the car in first and move forward like normal. It has actually happened to her three times in the past week, once last week and twice today. I was able to get to the car last week the first time it happened and saw the issue first hand. I am going to kia about this, but I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue or experienced this issue with the 2005 manual transmission, or any year transmission for that matter. The problem is that this has happened on busy roads and intersections in the middle of rush hour. We are worried that it will happen while she is moving or changing gears. This has to be some sort of safety issue. The car is going to kia tomorrow to have the issue addressed. *jb
The gear shift leaver broke while driving 2005 kia sorrento when examining the leaver it is held together by a small plastic screw that split in half when the lever was shifted into another gear. Thus making the shifter inoperable the car had 65000 miles on it I brought the car to kia and had to replace the shift leaver. I did not ask to keep the old leaver. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Other lighting problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 21 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2005 Kia Sorento?
Across 18 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2005 Kia Sorento?
21 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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