2016 KIA OPTIMA — Complaint #1853928
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE filed November 15, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1853928 (ODI reference 11493689) concerns a 2016 KIA OPTIMA and was filed on November 15, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 15, 2022. The vehicle had 110,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as fuel system, gasoline, 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 fuel system, gasoline 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 upon activating the heater while driving, she smelled an abnormally strong gasoline odor. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact related the failure to Kia Independent Recall Campaign Number SC172 (High Pressure Fuel Pump Outlet Inspection). Additionally, the contact stated while driving and depressing the accelerator pedal, the vehicle hesitated to respond and then lunged forward abruptly. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring while driving. The dealer and the manufacturer were notified of the failure and informed the contact that she needed to pay for a diagnostic test and the repair cost because the VIN was not included in any recalls. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 110,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1853928 |
| ODI Number | 11493689 |
| Date Filed | November 15, 2022 |
| Failure Date | September 15, 2022 |
| VIN | 5XXGT4L30GG |
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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.