2012 KIA OPTIMA — Complaint #1558406
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NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE filed April 16, 2019
NHTSA complaint #1558406 (ODI reference 11196690) concerns a 2012 KIA OPTIMA and was filed on April 16, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 1, 2017. The vehicle had 61,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Iowa based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine, 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: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. 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 OPTIMA cohort independently describe similar engine 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 2012 KIA OPTIMA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2012 KIA OPTIMA. WHILE THE VEHICLE WAS PARKED, THE CONTACT NOTICED OIL LEAKING FROM UNDERNEATH. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO KIA OF DES MOINES (LOCATED AT 4475 MERLE HAY RD, DES MOINES, IA 50310, (515) 270-0706) WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE OIL FEED LINE THAT ENTERED THE TURBO NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 61,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1558406 |
| ODI Number | 11196690 |
| Date Filed | April 16, 2019 |
| Failure Date | September 1, 2017 |
| VIN | 5XXGR4A64CG |
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Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
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