Tail light, brake light or signal failure on the 2005 Kia Sorento
When tail light, brake light or signal failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Kia Sorento report tail light, brake light or signal failure at a median of 105,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 115,310 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.
21% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11,550 miles | 53,950 miles | 104,900 miles | 117,000 miles | 126,860 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 $100–$900 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 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 135,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 19; the 2005 has 15. 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 own a 2005 and a 2006 kia sorento ex. In both vehicles I must replace lightbulbs continually. On average, I replace headlights approximately once every 60 to 90 days. Brake light bulb replacement is less frequent, but does occur often within the year. There is obviously a problem with the electrical system in these vehicles but kia will not acknowledge any problems. *tr
My kia sorento has electrical problems that cause the interior dash and doom lights to blink off and on. This has been happening for the last fourteen months. The dash lights stay off most of the time now, making it very difficult to monitor my instrument panel at night. I have also had to replace the headlights and tail light a total of six times over the last two plus years. There is also a problem with the heat. The hot air turns cold anytime the vehicle comes to a stop, making it necessary for me to rev the engine to stay warm. This makes a gas guzzler even more wasteful in cold weather. I can get no definitive answers from the dealership for these problems. I'm not an advocate of a lot of government intervention, but someone with authority need to step in and require kia to provide a root cause solution to these issues. *tr
On tuesday may 24, 2011 as I was about to make a turn in my 2005 kia sorento the steering wheel locked and the brake light turned on. I was able to turn the steering wheel to the right slightly and drive diagonal to the sidewalk and park the vehicle. Upon towing the vehicle it was found that the bolt that holds the damper, controlling the steering had broken. I am currently researching how this bolt could have broken. My vehicle has 111,025 miles and I am the first owner. The vehicle is undriveable. *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 powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 15 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 tail light, brake light or signal failure happen on the 2005 Kia Sorento?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is tail light, brake light or signal failure on the 2005 Kia Sorento?
15 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