Other powertrain problem on the 2007 Kia Spectra
1 fire 1 of the 6 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.
Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other powertrain problem gets reported
There are 6 reports of other powertrain problem on the 2007 Kia Spectra, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 58,000 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, 1 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 $400–$4,500 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 14; the 2007 has 6. 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.
I purchased my 2007 kia spectra brand new...it only had 55 miles on the vehicle at time of purchase. While driving the vehicle for a few weeks it started to grind in 2nd gear, I took the kia to the dealership, they informed me that some screws had come loose and that is where the grinding was coming from, I was driving with screws in the clutch! They gave me a rental and put the screws back in the clutching system. I got the car back and it did good for a while and the same problem occurred, again they said screws were loose again! I questioned how the screws kept coming loose, they had no explanation for this problem. This time they didn't give me a rental, I had to get my own and they had to leave work early. Got the car back and it did fine for a short while and again the same problem! I took it to kia dealership and they said this time it was some plastic piece that had come loose and that was making it grind in 2nd gear. Again, I was without my vehicle and again, no rental. Got the car back and drove fine for a few days then the same problem. Considering how long they kept my car each time and how long I was without a vehicle…
Tl* the contact owns a 2007 kia spectra. The contact stated that while driving approximately 65 MPH, the vehicle began to decelerate. The vehicle began to shake and the contact noticed a smell similar to burning rubber. The police reported to the scene and assisted in moving the vehicle onto the shoulder of the road. The vehicle was not towed or inspected by a dealer. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 100,000.
I was driving on the highway when all of a sudden the check engine light came on and I lost all power in the gas pedal,( you can floor the peddle and it don't go over 2000 RPM ) almost resulting in a collision. It only comes on when it want to, I had the codes checked at auto zone and they said its saying all the solenoids are bad. I looked up this problem online and there are alot of owners experiencing this same issue in the same year, +1 and-1, and with the same approximate mileage, it says that kia has come out with an update to the transmission computer to remedy the issue, the kia dealer wants an outrageous amount to update the computer, when discussing this with kia corporate they said well if a recall is issued then we can get refund, but I don't have the cash to pay for the repair, an update should be free, they are acknowledging the defect, there for because of the danger it can cause a recall is in order... *tr
Also reported on the 2007 Kia Spectra
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other body or interior problem
Other fuel system problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 6 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2007 Kia Spectra?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2007 Kia Spectra?
6 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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