Other steering problem on the 2012 Kia Sorento
1 fire 1 of the 13 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 steering problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Kia Sorento report other steering problem at a median of 25,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 45,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 1,300 miles at the tenth percentile to 70,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 70,730 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
67% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,320 miles | 4,538 miles | 26,000 miles | 43,250 miles | 72,050 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, 1 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 $350–$2,400 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2021 at 210,000 miles.
By volume the 2017 carries the most reports, with 77; the 2012 has 13. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 kia sorento. The contact stated that while driving 65 MPH, the traction control warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the weather was windy and the vehicle was jerking from side to side as the steering wheel remained straight. The wind was pushing the vehicle eight feet into another lane and eight feet back into the contact's lane. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer but the dealer was unable to diagnose the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was not available. The failure and the current mileage was 1,500.
This vehicle is extremely dangerous in the snow or on wet pavement. You cannot control the vehicle - it just goes where it wants to. This situation is going to cause catastrophic problems and loss of lives. I don't know if the problem is the very light 4 cylinder engine, problematic suspension, steering, or tires, but it is extremely dangerous and will definitely cause accidents. Something has got to be done to make this vehicle much, much safer to drive in wet and/or snowy weather. It is difficult negotiating a hill in either direction, whether going up or down. I literally slide into the street from my driveway, which is by no means a very steep drive and I certainly cannot make it up the drive in the snow without first backing up into my neighbor's drive and getting enough speed up to make it to the top of my drive. We bought and utilize this vehicle to make deliveries and put up to 500 miles per week on the car and our driver now refuses to drive this vehicle because of the imminent danger -- he calls it a death trap! *tr
This has happened four times! While coming to a stop sign, engine dies, power steering out, power brakes out. After shifting into park or neutral, car will immediately restart, and function without this problem for weeks. Kia dealership finds nothing wrong and no "codes" to indicate the car has had problems. *tr
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
Headlight failure or clouding
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 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 steering problem happen on the 2012 Kia Sorento?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 45,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other steering problem on the 2012 Kia Sorento?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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