Sunroof failure or glass breakage on the 2013 Kia Sorento
2 injuries 2 of the 26 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 sunroof failure or glass breakage gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Kia Sorento report sunroof failure or glass breakage at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 23 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 95,000 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.
61% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,600 miles | 16,310 miles | 31,000 miles | 66,500 miles | 97,600 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, 2 an injury 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 $700–$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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2015 at 75,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 carries the most reports, with 34; the 2013 has 26. 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.
The front portion of the panoramic sunroof on my kia sorento 2013 exploded while I was driving the car. I did not see anything coming towards the car that could have hit the sunroof. The days was approx 90 degrees and the car had been housed in an interior garage all day. I had been driving for about 15 minutes, I did not go through an underpass before the incident, my speed was approx 50 MPH. The sunroof was partially open at the time. There was a very loud sound then shards of glass everywhere. I pulled over immediately and did not see anything on top of the car that would indicate it was hit by something. I had minor cuts and after clearing the glass drove it right back to the dealer. It's repaired now but thought I would post since there is an investigation into a hyundai model with a similar problem. *tr
My husband and I were driving down the freeway when we heard a loud bang and felt the glass from the sunroof of our 2013 kia sorento sx fall on us and into the vehicle. It was a sunny day and about 50 degrees outside at the time. While the sun shade had been pulled back slightly to let in some sunshine, the sun roof itself was closed. *tr
While driving on a toll road at 65 MPH, the sunroof violently exploded off the roof of the car. Sunroof was closed and fortunately, the sunroof shade was also closed which prevented most of the shattered glass from cutting my wife and I. Stopped the car and found the sunroof shattered with most of the sunroof missing. A car behind us was damaged by the glass flying off our roof. Only the metal sunroof frame remained on our roof. Did not see any flying rocks and found no evidence suggesting anything had hit the sunroof which was closed/flush with our roof. Sounded and felt like a rapid decompression in an aircraft. Had owned car for only 4 months so still under warranty. We've been waiting for almost 4 months for kia to reimburse us for the cost of repair. *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 26 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 sunroof failure or glass breakage happen on the 2013 Kia Sorento?
Across 23 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is sunroof failure or glass breakage on the 2013 Kia Sorento?
26 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