2021 KIA SORENTO — Complaint #1805763
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:OIL/LUBRICATION:SUMP/TANK:DRAIN PLUG filed April 5, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1805763 (ODI reference 11459692) concerns a 2021 KIA SORENTO and was filed on April 5, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 31, 2022. The vehicle had 10,394 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:engine:oil/lubrication:sump/tank:drain plug, 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 SORENTO cohort independently describe similar engine and engine cooling:engine:oil/lubrication:sump/tank:drain plug 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 2021 KIA SORENTO shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2021 Kia Sorento. The contact stated while reversing, she noticed a trail of oil on the ground. The contact parked the vehicle. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local Pep Boys who informed the contact that oil had leaked onto the skid plate. The engine oil was refilled and the contact drove back to her residence. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and assisted the contact with towing the vehicle to the dealer. The dealer diagnosed that the oil drain plug had fallen out causing the oil leak. Additionally, the dealer diagnosed that the lack of engine oil had caused the engine to fail, and the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but informed the contact that the vehicle would be repaired at her own expense. The failure mileage was approximately 10,394.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1805763 |
| ODI Number | 11459692 |
| Date Filed | April 5, 2022 |
| Failure Date | March 31, 2022 |
| VIN | 5XYRH4LFXMG |
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.