Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure on the 2006 Kia Sorento
Only 5 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 fuel tank, filler or evap failure gets reported
There are 6 reports of fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure on the 2006 Kia Sorento, 5 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 88,000 miles. It is the 20th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 40,000 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 $250–$1,800 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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 37; the 2006 has 6. 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.
We have a 2006 kia the SUV type and the proble is that when we filled the gas tank the gasa gauge would would go to empty in 32 miles and al so the shifter handel poped out the holder
We have a 2006 kia the SUV type and the proble is that when we filled the gas tank the gasa gauge would would go to empty in 32 miles and al so the shifter handel poped out the holder
I own a 2006 kia sorento. Several months ago we noticed an issue with gas spraying back when trying to fill the tank. We went to the kia dealer where we bought our vehicle to learn the dealership had been sold. We notified the new dealer of our need to have warranty work done, explained the problem and was told that no warranty work could be done until they were given "codes" from the parent company. We made many calls over several months and was finally told not to call the dealer, they had our information and would call us. The situation with the gas tank seemed to settle until two week ago when the same problem occurred only to a greater degree, there is a great deal of spray back, and the tank cannot be filled. We returned to the dealer and was told this was a vapor valve issue and since our car now had 70000 miles the warranty would not apply. There is no record of our calls nor is there any record of the "codes". I have initiated a complaint with the parent company, to no avail. After reviewing some of the literature I have noted that kia has had issues similar to this since 1999 with a NHTSA investigation of gas tank leaks…
Also reported on the 2006 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Other lighting problem
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other electrical problem
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 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 6 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 fuel tank, filler or evap failure happen on the 2006 Kia Sorento?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 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 fuel tank, filler or evap failure on the 2006 Kia Sorento?
6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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