Other fuel system problem on the 2016 Kia Sorento
5 fires 5 of the 27 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 other fuel system problem gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Kia Sorento report other fuel system problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 15th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 75,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 45,100 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.
17% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31,700 miles | 39,050 miles | 64,500 miles | 74,250 miles | 76,800 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, 5 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 $300–$2,200 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 28 miles, and latest on the 2018 at 170,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 32; the 2016 has 27. 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.
While merging on to a highway, the vehicle lost propulsion, when gas pedal was pressed vehicle would not respond and accelerate. This happened while driving on a busy highway outside of boston and my wife narrowly avoided a significant crash with multiple vehicles due to the quick actions of other drivers. When vehicle was brought to dealership the issue is not on a public list of recalls but rather a known safety issue that does not show on an active recall list. We are new owners to the car and the dealership we purchased from was not a kia dealership so alerts did show on vehicle report. I feel a known issue with a safety concern this significant should be shown on a recall list, we were very lucky many people were not injured or worse.
I was driving around 30 MPH on a local side street and the car shut off with no warning lights illuminated on the dashboard. The dashboard went black and the car stopped running. I had to pull the car over, put it in park, turn the key to the off position. I waited a few seconds and started the car again and drove it home (~1 mile from home). I had it towed to the dealership as I did not feel it was safe to drive it there.
Tl* the contact owned a 2016 kia sorento. While driving 25 MPH, the contact was informed by an oncoming motorist that the vehicle was on fire. The fire department extinguished the fire. The contact was informed by one of the firefighters that the fire originated at the fuel line by the firewall. A fire report was filed. The vehicle was towed to a towing facility. Kendall kia of nampa (located at 15700 n idaho center blvd, nampa, id 83687, (208) 467-7000) and the manufacturer were made aware of the failure. The vehicle was destroyed. The approximate failure mileage was 67,000. *js
Also reported on the 2016 Kia Sorento
Other engine problem
Excessive oil consumption
Other body or interior problem
Head gasket failure
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 27 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 fuel system problem happen on the 2016 Kia Sorento?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other fuel system problem on the 2016 Kia Sorento?
27 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.9 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