AtWhatMileage
Fuel · 1 owner report

Other fuel system problem on the 2008 Kia Spectra5

Only 1 report 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.

Reports of this failure 1
With an odometer reading 1
Reports per 1,000 built —
Filed below 36,000 miles 100%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $300–$2,200
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 6th

When other fuel system problem gets reported

There are 1 report of other fuel system problem on the 2008 Kia Spectra5, 1 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 90,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 1 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 34,185 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

This had been an ongoing problem since about 24,000 miles, but dealer just said to add power booster or something...by the time of this first documented dealer check out, it had gotten much worse... It has been in several times to no avail, and other than spending money on various solutions (that did not work) it has progressively gotten much worse. Finally I was told by dealer to not overfill or top off the tank when filling with fuel. Something that I do not do!!! The vehicle has now reached the point after filling with fuel, I have to use about 1/4 of a tank before it will run somewhat normally (up to 100 miles). It dies at stops, will suddenly cut out going down the road, and when going slowly around curves, will die. This is very hazardous, as the power steering quits at the same moment, making it very difficult to turn. I have just gotten off the phone with kia usa, and the young lady informed me that this was a new one to her. That may be, but the internet is loaded with incidents of this same problem, as is your site. It does not appear to be just the 2008 models either. I believe that NHTSA should take a little look into…

34,185 miles NHTSA complaint 1140108 filed 2014-12-17

Also reported on the 2008 Kia Spectra5

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 1 report 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 1 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 2008 Kia Spectra5?

Across 1 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 35,000 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 fuel system problem on the 2008 Kia Spectra5?

1 reports have been filed with NHTSA. 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