No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2013 Kia Sorento
1 fire 1 of the 40 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 no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Kia Sorento report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 38 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 152,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 141,700 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.
18% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9,900 miles | 61,500 miles | 99,700 miles | 130,761 miles | 151,600 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 $200–$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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 175,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 42; the 2013 has 40. 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.
Driving on interstate at night at 65 MPH lights flicker inside and headlights. Battery warning light comes on and off several times. The vehicle has also had hard shifting around 20 to 30 MPH, almost like applying brakes on slow down and an engine rev when speeding up. Next night (sunday) vehicle lost all power with no warning while driving on two lane highway at night. Made it off to a side road, but engine still running rough, no response to gas pedal, could not shift vehicle to park, had to hold stop button for long time to finally stop engine, lights came back on, but would not start, finally could put in park. Hauled back to dealer. Service replies wasn't on schedule will maybe get to it today. Defective alternator on "e" order will fix all the problems. Wife refuses to drive unsafe, death trap and that she would not had been able to manage safely if she would of been driving when problems shut down the vehicle. *tr
Driving on interstate at night at 65 MPH lights flicker inside and headlights. Battery warning light comes on and off several times. The vehicle has also had hard shifting around 20 to 30 MPH, almost like applying brakes on slow down and an engine rev when speeding up. Next night (sunday) vehicle lost all power with no warning while driving on two lane highway at night. Made it off to a side road, but engine still running rough, no response to gas pedal, could not shift vehicle to park, had to hold stop button for long time to finally stop engine, lights came back on, but would not start, finally could put in park. Hauled back to dealer. Service replies wasn't on schedule will maybe get to it today. Defective alternator on "e" order will fix all the problems. Wife refuses to drive unsafe, death trap and that she would not had been able to manage safely if she would of been driving when problems shut down the vehicle. *tr
04-21-2014 @ 5:30 am. Car will not start. No electrical present on any system-nothing. Called kia roadside service and they suggested a jumpstarted which we did and the car started. I ran the car for an hour or so with no problems. I took it to a local garage and had the battery and alternator tested and no problems were found. I called kia dealership and described the events to them and they stated that it was simply a dead battery. Next morning (yesterday), the car was totally dead once more. Called kia roadside assistance and they wanted to jumpstarted it again. I refused and told them to send me a tow. They did and the car was taken to the closest kia dealership, 65 miles away. Several hours later I called the dealership and they stated that it was a dead battery. They charged the battery for 3-4 hours, tested the charging system and pronounced it "fixed". I left it at the dealership and picked it up this morning (today). It started and my wife is now driving it. I do not believe it was the battery and I expect it to happen again but the dealership's shop will do no further investigation. I'll keep you informed. *tr
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 40 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2013 Kia Sorento?
Across 38 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2013 Kia Sorento?
40 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