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2014 KIA SOUL — Complaint #1557693

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NHTSA Complaint about FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM filed April 13, 2019

NHTSA complaint #1557693 (ODI reference 11196045) concerns a 2014 KIA SOUL and was filed on April 13, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 4, 2019. The vehicle had 65,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as fuel/propulsion system, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: yes, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same KIA SOUL cohort independently describe similar fuel/propulsion system failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2014 KIA SOUL shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2014 KIA SOUL
Component
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Fire
Yes
State
Florida
Mileage
65,000 mi

Complaint Description

LOUD POP IN THE ENGINE WHILE TRAVELING ~70 MPH. CAR BEGAN TO LOSE SPEED, CHECK ENGINE LIGHT TURNED UP, THEN SMOKE STARTED COMING FROM THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT. PULLED OVER TO MIDDLE MEDIAN ON I-75 N AND THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT STARTED ON FIRE WITH 20-FT HIGH FLAMES. THE CAR WAS FULLY ENGULFED. USAA HAS CLAIMED THE CAR AND BEGAN A FIRE INSPECTION. A/C HAD BEEN OFF AT THE TIME OF THE POP. ONLY THE RADIO WAS ON.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1557693
ODI Number 11196045
Date Filed April 13, 2019
Failure Date April 4, 2019
VIN KNDJP3A52E7

Similar FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM Complaints for 2014 KIA SOUL

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.