Excessive oil consumption on the 2013 Kia Sorento
2 crashes 5 fires 5 injuries 12 of the 22 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 excessive oil consumption gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Kia Sorento report excessive oil consumption at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 15th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 65,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 60,459 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 64,341 miles | 73,250 miles | 95,754 miles | 110,356 miles | 124,800 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, 2 a crash, 5 a fire and 5 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 $900–$6,500 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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 65,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 106; the 2013 has 22. 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.
Bought the vehicle new, have had no issues until about a month ago. It started burning oil at an excessive rate. Took it to dealer and were told that we had not maintained properly and that repair/replacement of engine would not be under warranty. Car has 71000 miles, owners manual says to change oil every 7500 miles or 12 months, we have records for 8 oil changes, kia says we need to show 14, that would be an oil change every 5000 miles which is not what manual says. We have been told that there was a recall for the same engine in another kia vehicle, but not for this one. Many complaints for oil related issues on this car for 2011-2014. We have also contacted the kia consumer affairs center. We are still driving vehicle, but check oil before we go anywhere. Dealer wants us to pay $350-$400 to completely tear down engine to take pictures to see if kia will cover under warranty. *tr
Kia replaced my engine twice, due to oil consumption. A month after the first engine replacement, I had the same problems.. Smoke coming out of exhaust, loss of power, stalling and oil consumption. I was in and out of kia's service department. They told me nothing was wrong! I moved from co to ne, my husband and I had to add oil every 100 miles, with smoke coming out of exhaust and stalling. Lincoln ne kia found an oil leak at the exhaust manifold right away! Kia instructs then to replace my engine again! Once they replaced engine, they still saw the leak at the exhaust manifold with resulted in more guessing and parts. The day after I picked it up, my husband and I went out to dinner and my sorento died in the middle of the road. Right away called and got it back in. At first they could not duplicate, however after taking it 50 miles, it died 3 times. They still can't find anything, but feel it may be the throttle body. They put a used one on and have me drive it a few weeks, it didn't die during that time, so they ordered a new one and installed. A month later I drive to co, I break down, it's towed back and kia can't find…
Kia replaced my engine twice, due to oil consumption. A month after the first engine replacement, I had the same problems.. Smoke coming out of exhaust, loss of power, stalling and oil consumption. I was in and out of kia's service department. They told me nothing was wrong! I moved from co to ne, my husband and I had to add oil every 100 miles, with smoke coming out of exhaust and stalling. Lincoln ne kia found an oil leak at the exhaust manifold right away! Kia instructs then to replace my engine again! Once they replaced engine, they still saw the leak at the exhaust manifold with resulted in more guessing and parts. The day after I picked it up, my husband and I went out to dinner and my sorento died in the middle of the road. Right away called and got it back in. At first they could not duplicate, however after taking it 50 miles, it died 3 times. They still can't find anything, but feel it may be the throttle body. They put a used one on and have me drive it a few weeks, it didn't die during that time, so they ordered a new one and installed. A month later I drive to co, I break down, it's towed back and kia can't find…
Also reported on the 2013 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Complete engine failure or seizure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 22 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 excessive oil consumption happen on the 2013 Kia Sorento?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is excessive oil consumption on the 2013 Kia Sorento?
22 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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