2012 KIA SORENTO — Complaint #1886445
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:OIL/LUBRICATION:SUMP/TANK:DRAIN PLUG filed April 9, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1886445 (ODI reference 11516191) concerns a 2012 KIA SORENTO and was filed on April 9, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 4, 2023. 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: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 2012 KIA SORENTO shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? The engine seized due to a missing oil plug How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk? The car shut down on the highway with no indication/dash warning lights that there was an issue prior Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? Dealership informed me that the oil plug was missing and could not explain why the oil indicator light never illuminated Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? Yes, dealership denies fault Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? NONEE
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1886445 |
| ODI Number | 11516191 |
| Date Filed | April 9, 2023 |
| Failure Date | April 4, 2023 |
| VIN | 5XYKT3A60CG |
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.