AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 68 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2014 Kia Sorento

3 crashes 8 fires 2 injuries 13 of the 68 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.

Reports of this failure 68
With an odometer reading 31
Reports per 1,000 built 0.8 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 32%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 13
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 4th

When other electrical problem gets reported

Owners of the 2014 Kia Sorento report other electrical problem at a median of 67,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 27,500 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 31 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 2,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 137,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 135,147 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.

32% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 31 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
1,853 miles 28,000 miles 66,380 miles 114,000 miles 137,000 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, 3 a crash, 8 a fire and 2 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 $250–$2,000 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 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 2,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 120,000 miles.

By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 119; the 2014 has 68. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Tl* the contact owns a 2014 kia sorrento. The contact stated that he could see the speedometer needle. The contact stated that the needle was the wrong color and it made it difficult to determine the speed being traveled. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection where they stated that the vehicle was performing as designed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 180.

180 miles NHTSA complaint 1012454 filed 2013-09-26

Tl* the contact owns a 2014 kia sorento. The contact stated that the speedometer needle became inoperable. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection where they stated that there was nothing wrong with the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 3,000.

3,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1058417 filed 2014-04-21

Tl* the contact owns a 2014 kia sorento. Upon starting the vehicle, the gear was shifted into reverse and the engine revved when the contact lightly depressed the accelerator pedal. As a result, the vehicle backed into a steel post. The front passenger had to help the contact shift the gear into neutral in order to stop the vehicle from accelerating. Suddenly, the vehicle accelerated forward into a field at a high rate of speed while the brake pedal was depressed. The contact had to press the ignition start button in order to stop the vehicle. The contact sustained minor ankle injuries, which did not require medical attention. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic who stated that there was a manufactured electrical cord that was connected to the accelerator, which may have caused the failure. The failure codes did not illustrate that this was the cause of the failure. The manufacturer was not notified. The speed was unknown. The approximate failure mileage was 12,900. Updated 12/01/14*lj *as

12,900 miles NHTSA complaint 1118703 filed 2014-10-09

Also reported on the 2014 Kia Sorento

Other engine problem

226 reports median 101k

Other body or interior problem

110 reports median 78k

Paint peeling or clear coat failure

69 reports median 65k

Other brake problem

48 reports median 76k

Other lighting problem

44 reports median 77k

Headlight failure or clouding

41 reports median 72k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 68 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 electrical problem happen on the 2014 Kia Sorento?

Across 31 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 67,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 27,500 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other electrical problem on the 2014 Kia Sorento?

68 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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