2018 KIA SPORTAGE — Complaint #1774073
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE filed October 18, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1774073 (ODI reference 11437214) concerns a 2018 KIA SPORTAGE and was filed on October 18, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 16, 2018. The vehicle had 16,147 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Alabama based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling: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 SPORTAGE cohort independently describe similar engine and engine cooling: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 2018 KIA SPORTAGE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2018 Kia Sportage. The contact stated while driving 25 MPH, the contact noticed a strong odor of gasoline in the interior of the vehicle. Additionally, the check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact took the vehicle to a local dealer who inspected the vehicle but was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The contact later received notification for NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V137000 (Service Brakes, Hydraulic). The contact took the vehicle to the local dealer for the recall repair however, the vehicle was not repaired. The contact was informed to pick up the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 16,147.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1774073 |
| ODI Number | 11437214 |
| Date Filed | October 18, 2021 |
| Failure Date | April 16, 2018 |
| VIN | KNDPM3AC5J7 |
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.