Other powertrain problem on the 2011 Kia Sorento
6 crashes 1 fire 2 injuries 9 of the 169 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2011 Kia Sorento report other powertrain problem at a median of 34,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 17,000 miles and a quarter after 76,000 miles, from 144 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 3,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 139,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 135,584 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.
51% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,032 miles | 17,000 miles | 34,000 miles | 76,000 miles | 138,616 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, 6 a crash, 1 a fire and 2 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 $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 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Took possession of 2011 kia sorrento on 2-18-2010. Since that time there have been 14 instances when the car hesitated almost dying out and then surging forward. At one time it died completely out and had to be restarted while being in the lane of oncoming traffic. Twice it hesitated and surged ahead 4 - 5 consecutive times before settling down, once while crossing over a 4 lane highway. It has been back to the kia dealership 3 times and they cannot duplicate the problem, so they claim we do not have a problem. We are very concerned about this and believe it is a safety issue and my wife will not drive the car until this is resolved. Updated 03/16/10 *bf *tr updated ivoq 07/16/10*jb
2011 kia sorento [xxx], having issues with vehicle pulling off to the right while driving at various speeds on various roads/highways. Said vehicle was brought back to dealership service department to look at alignment. Service department's work resulted in vehicle alignment worse than before. Returned vehicle back to dealer service department, had several (dealership service advisor, dealership service manager, kia district service manager) all look at and drove vehicle and noticed issue. Dealership service manager stated that he drove several other 2011 sorento's and noticed a couple of 4 cylinder versions with same issue, and one without the issue. Dealership service manager contacted sister dealership and was informed that they also had a similiar issue with one of their 2011 sorento's. Dealership service department and district manager states vehicle has been put back to factory specs, however, upon customer driving vehicle again along with the dealeship service manager, the said vehicle still pulls to the right significantly. Case number ([xxx]) has been established by kia consumer headquarters. Field tech rep has been…
Something loose on right front wheel of my 2011 kia sorento. There is a clunking sound like something is wrong. Kia claims they are all like that but a new car should not fall apart after 3000 miles. *tr
Also reported on the 2011 Kia Sorento
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other electrical problem
Door latch or handle failure
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 169 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 2011 Kia Sorento?
Across 144 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 34,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 17,000 miles and a quarter after 76,000 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 2011 Kia Sorento?
169 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.3 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