Other fuel system problem on the 2016 Kia Soul
When other fuel system problem gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Kia Soul report other fuel system problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 84,045 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.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20,755 miles | 37,300 miles | 62,500 miles | 87,475 miles | 104,800 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
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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2013 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2015 carries the most reports, with 41; the 2016 has 37. 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.
When accelerating from a complete stop the vehicle will not accelerate. Pressing the accelerator a little or a lot does not matter. The engine does not produce RPM and does not accelerate for around 3-5 seconds. There is not an engine light on. All other aspects of the vehicle work properly when this happens. The issue is intermittent, but is ongoing every day. The vehicle has been doing this from the time it had a little over 40,000 miles. It has 66,000 miles now. I have tried fuel cleaners several times but the lack of power is still persistent. This happens whether the vehicle is cold or has been hot soaked. It very dangerous when pulling into an intersection or crossing a road and the car does not accelerate properly. Sometimes when I start accelerating the engine starts to build RPM and suddenly it will loose all power. About five seconds later it comes back with a surge in power and RPM.
I have a 2016 kia soul, fully loaded model. Six months after buying the car from the dealer (bought new with 8 miles), I began having problems with acceleration, from a stop or slow. The car would hesitate/lag/almost stall for 2-5 seconds, before catching and starting to speed up. I took it to the dealer. They couldn't find anything wrong with the car. I still have the car and I continue to have the same issues. I take the car in for regular oil changes and every time, have mentioned the acceleration problem and each time they say they can't find what's wrong with it. The last time I took it in, about 4 months ago, they said to put gas treatment in the tank and if I the problem persists, then bring it in to have the crankcase filter changed (this is the upsell they've been pushing on me for a year now. I have under 30,000 miles, most of which are cross-country miles. Today, I have the same acceleration problem but this time around, the check engine light comes on and the brake pedal was very spongy and difficult to slow, when breaking to pull over. I pulled over and put the car in park and let it idle to listen for any odd or…
Also reported on the 2016 Kia Soul
Other engine problem
Catalytic converter failure
Excessive oil consumption
Other electrical problem
Overheating
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 37 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 Soul?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 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 Soul?
37 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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