2018 KIA OPTIMA — Complaint #1768944
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:IGNITION:COIL:SPARK PLUGS filed September 17, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1768944 (ODI reference 11433400) concerns a 2018 KIA OPTIMA and was filed on September 17, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 8, 2021. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:ignition:coil:spark plugs, 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 electrical system:ignition:coil:spark plugs 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 2018 KIA OPTIMA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
Vehicle is making a noise when trying to accelerate. Have replaced all spark plugs and coil #4. It is making noise still and shaking. Coil has been switched and issues are reading fuel injector or air intake or electrical. Previous reading was head gasket... Only on spark plug 4 coil is it reporting an issue...All dealerships locally are booked to even get a diagnostic test.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1768944 |
| ODI Number | 11433400 |
| Date Filed | September 17, 2021 |
| Failure Date | September 8, 2021 |
| VIN | 5XXGT4L33JG |
Similar ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:IGNITION:COIL:SPARK PLUGS Complaints for 2018 KIA OPTIMA
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.