Other electrical problem on the 2013 Kia Soul
3 crashes 7 fires 2 injuries 12 of the 50 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 electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Kia Soul report other electrical problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 18 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 118,131 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
17% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23,500 miles | 54,438 miles | 70,500 miles | 116,750 miles | 141,631 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, 7 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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2010 at 75,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Airbag exploded on impact with gaping holes with heavy smoke coming out with hot heat causing redness to my chest and redness to my hands and a blow to my wrist that caused fracture to my left wrist. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 kia soul. The contact stated that the instrument panel failed to illuminate when the vehicle was powered on. Additionally, the contact mentioned that the gear shifter would not move out of park without the contact pushing the gear release button. The vehicle was taken to the dealer but the failure was unable to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 25,000. The VIN was not available.
When trying to start the car you turn the key and it does not turn over. You hear a click, all lights on dash light and radio plays but the car doesn't start. Sometimes you can turn the key up to 10 times before it starts. Happens 2-3 times a week sporadically. The car does eventually start. The driver side door also locks by itself at times when you shut the door. It has been to the dealer 3 times and for 17 days, they are unable to replicate the problem. My husband videoed it on jan 5 and took it to the dealer who then kept car for 14 days and said they had over 150 starts and the problem could not be duplicated. Currently waiting for the problem to occur again and an tech will bring portable equipment to the car and test it then. Dealer have been very good in trying to find cause. *tr
Also reported on the 2013 Kia Soul
Other engine problem
Other steering problem
Other brake problem
Catalytic converter failure
Steering column or shaft failure
Excessive oil consumption
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 50 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 2013 Kia Soul?
Across 18 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 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 other electrical problem on the 2013 Kia Soul?
50 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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