2016 KIA OPTIMA — Complaint #1784949
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:OIL/LUBRICATION: OIL COOLER filed December 27, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1784949 (ODI reference 11445086) concerns a 2016 KIA OPTIMA and was filed on December 27, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 27, 2021. The vehicle had 141,000 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 engine and engine cooling:engine:oil/lubrication: oil cooler, 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 and engine cooling:engine:oil/lubrication: oil cooler 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 2016 KIA OPTIMA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2016 Kia Optima. The contact stated that while driving at 20 MPH, the oil warning light illuminated. The contact veered to the side of the road and checked the oil level of the vehicle with the assistance of her son. The contact stated that her son noticed that the vehicle did not have oil on the dipstick. The vehicle was taken to Pep Boys who had previously refilled the oil and the oil was refilled; however, the failure reoccurred while driving. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who diagnosed that no issues were found. The dealer advised the contact to bring the vehicle back after 1,000 miles. The dealer also advised the contact to not open the oil cap per the manufacturer's instructions. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring while driving. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that oil was leaking in the engine compartment and an unknown part needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but did no
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1784949 |
| ODI Number | 11445086 |
| Date Filed | December 27, 2021 |
| Failure Date | September 27, 2021 |
| VIN | 5XXGT4L34GG |
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.