Complete engine failure or seizure on the 2016 Kia Sorento
When complete engine failure or seizure gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Kia Sorento report complete engine failure or seizure at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 105,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 80,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 59,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 79,000 miles | 86,500 miles | 101,206 miles | 116,000 miles | 138,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $4,500–$12,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2003, at a median of 60,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2012 carries the most reports, with 72; the 2016 has 64. 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.
Our 2016 kia sorento has 35k miles and it stopped recently, the engine seized. The dealer claimed it was due to inadequate oil changes (they had records of 2-3 performed by kia dealers, the most recent under two years and 10k miles ago). We never experienced any warning lights or other notifications to foretell the problem. The dealer recommended we replace the engine and are in the process of doing so now. The dealer denied any warranty coverage, claiming abuse due to inadequate oil changes on our part voided their 10-year warranty. Despite the large unexpected cost (dealer estimates ~$6k and have had the vehicle over a month), we are mystified this could have occurred and are grateful it didn't happen on the highway or in other circumstances. We believe the complete absence of any warning indicators constitutes a serious safety issue. *tr
Started going up a mountain highway and my car started jumping and immediately decreased speed. It would not go and kept skipping, like a stop and go type of deal. My check engine light starting flashing and I had to pull over. After I got my car towed it was found that the car had zero oil in it. Like bone dry but with zero leaks anywhere. The mechanic checked everything twice to make sure everything else was intact and it was. My oil light never came on and it never smoked or overheated. I had zero indication that the car didn't have oil. I was 900+ miles from my next oil change. It was like the oil evaporated into thin air. We are completely baffled as to what happened and why the car didn't have any oil in it. Because of no oil, a piston broke and the engine threw a rod and it is ruined. My car needs a whole new engine now. The mechanic stated that the only thing wrong with the car was no oil and that it was like it just disappeared because there was no oil residue anywhere.
Started going up a mountain highway and my car started jumping and immediately decreased speed. It would not go and kept skipping, like a stop and go type of deal. My check engine light starting flashing and I had to pull over. After I got my car towed it was found that the car had zero oil in it. Like bone dry but with zero leaks anywhere. The mechanic checked everything twice to make sure everything else was intact and it was. My oil light never came on and it never smoked or overheated. I had zero indication that the car didn't have oil. I was 900+ miles from my next oil change. It was like the oil evaporated into thin air. We are completely baffled as to what happened and why the car didn't have any oil in it. Because of no oil, a piston broke and the engine threw a rod and it is ruined. My car needs a whole new engine now. The mechanic stated that the only thing wrong with the car was no oil and that it was like it just disappeared because there was no oil residue anywhere.
Also reported on the 2016 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Excessive oil consumption
Head gasket failure
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 64 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 complete engine failure or seizure happen on the 2016 Kia Sorento?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 85,000 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 complete engine failure or seizure on the 2016 Kia Sorento?
64 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 4.6 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