2008 KIA SPORTAGE — Complaint #1903744
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:COOLING SYSTEM:FAN filed June 21, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1903744 (ODI reference 11528137) concerns a 2008 KIA SPORTAGE and was filed on June 21, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 14, 2023. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:cooling system:fan, 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: yes, injuries: 2, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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:cooling system:fan 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 2008 KIA SPORTAGE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The radiator fan component was smoking. The car is available at anytime for inspection. I definitely feared that the car was going to explode in front of my baby cousins and elderly Aunt. The car has not been reproduced or confirmed by a dealship or independent service center. It also has not been inpected by manufacturer or police, insurance. The vehicle was not going faster than 30 mph, when parked, the radiator expelled the all the water on floor. It began to let out white smoke, and than black smoke. A lot of black smoke, and than a loud pop sound. The hood of the car melted shut. Everything that surrounds the radiator and battery was melted.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1903744 |
| ODI Number | 11528137 |
| Date Filed | June 21, 2023 |
| Failure Date | June 14, 2023 |
| VIN | KNDJF723X87 |
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.