Headlight failure or clouding on the 2012 Kia Sorento
4 fires 4 of the 47 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 headlight failure or clouding gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Kia Sorento report headlight failure or clouding at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 82,500 miles and a quarter after 127,500 miles, from 26 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 55,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 137,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,500 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.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55,250 miles | 82,250 miles | 101,000 miles | 127,675 miles | 137,750 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, 4 a fire is 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 $150–$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 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 60; the 2012 has 47. 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 have a 2012 sorento that has been nothing but a constant headache. Just some minor issues have been a headlight that continuously has to be replaced because of a short that they service department can't get to the bottom of. I medium issue that is becoming a health hazard is that the car is leaking water into the floorboard and causing mold to grow. An even bigger issue is that when with speeding up fast like when entering an interstate or slowing down the vehicle will completely stall and I have to make my way off the road to restart the vehicle. This is extremely dangerous for myself and my kids. I live in a city and I have been lucky to have not have been in a serious accident yet. I have had several close calls. I have contacted consumer affairs and been told to go to a dealership. I go to a dealership and they basically tell me I'm crazy and nothing is wrong. I guess it will take someone getting killed by being in a accident before some action is taken. Hate to be so blunt bit being nice about the issue has yet to work!!!! *tr
I have a 2012 sorento that has been nothing but a constant headache. Just some minor issues have been a headlight that continuously has to be replaced because of a short that they service department can't get to the bottom of. I medium issue that is becoming a health hazard is that the car is leaking water into the floorboard and causing mold to grow. An even bigger issue is that when with speeding up fast like when entering an interstate or slowing down the vehicle will completely stall and I have to make my way off the road to restart the vehicle. This is extremely dangerous for myself and my kids. I live in a city and I have been lucky to have not have been in a serious accident yet. I have had several close calls. I have contacted consumer affairs and been told to go to a dealership. I go to a dealership and they basically tell me I'm crazy and nothing is wrong. I guess it will take someone getting killed by being in a accident before some action is taken. Hate to be so blunt bit being nice about the issue has yet to work!!!! *tr
Purchased new 2012 kia sorento sx 3.5 in may 2012. It now has 54k miles. I have had to replace headlight bulbs both sides on 3 occasions and high intensity driving lights (oem) 2 times each side. The last time 12/23/15 the dealer (langdale kia, valdosta ga) stated that the socket on the passenger side driving light was defective, causing the bulb to explode, and the intense heat and debris caused damage to the reflector and interior of the lens housing, making it not repairable. The replacement cost including 1.5 hr. Labor is over $300, and the service writer stated it was not covered under warranty be cause of age, mileage, and the bulb that caused the damage was not covered under any warranty?? I have also had to replace interior courtesy light bulbs and also tag light bulbs. I have spent approx. $200 since purchasing the vehicle! This is ridiculous for a $38000 vehicle.
Also reported on the 2012 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Complete engine failure or seizure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 47 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 headlight failure or clouding happen on the 2012 Kia Sorento?
Across 26 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 82,500 miles and a quarter after 127,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is headlight failure or clouding on the 2012 Kia Sorento?
47 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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