2016 KIA SORENTO — Complaint #1949773
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:GASOLINE:TURBO/SUPERCHARGER:INTERCOOLER filed December 12, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1949773 (ODI reference 11559779) concerns a 2016 KIA SORENTO and was filed on December 12, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 7, 2023. The vehicle had 143,000 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:gasoline:turbo/supercharger:intercooler, 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:gasoline:turbo/supercharger:intercooler 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 SORENTO shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2016 Kia Sorento. The contact stated after pulling into the driveway, he noticed an abnormal burning oil odor. The contact stated that he inspected the engine compartment and underneath the vehicle, but no oil leak was found. The contact stated the failure recurred several times while at a complete stop. There was no warning light illuminated. Additionally, the contact stated that he noticed that a significant amount of oil had leaked on the undercarriage of the vehicle and onto the ground. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the turbo oil intake lines were damaged. The mechanic informed the contact that the failure could cause oil to leak onto the manifold, which could cause a fire. The contact stated that he replaced the turbo oil intake lines himself. The vehicle was repaired. The dealer and the manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 143,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1949773 |
| ODI Number | 11559779 |
| Date Filed | December 12, 2023 |
| Failure Date | December 7, 2023 |
| VIN | 5XYPH4A15GG |
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.