2012 KIA FORTE — Complaint #1964703
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:DRIVELINE:CHAIN/BELT filed February 5, 2024
NHTSA complaint #1964703 (ODI reference 11570058) concerns a 2012 KIA FORTE and was filed on February 5, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 5, 2023. The vehicle had 130,000 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 power train:driveline:chain/belt, 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 FORTE cohort independently describe similar power train:driveline:chain/belt 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 FORTE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2012 Kia Forte. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V652000 (Service Brakes, Hydraulic) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact stated while driving approximately 35 MPH, there was a rattling sound coming from the front end. After pulling into a driveway and turning off the vehicle, the contact looked at the belt and noticed it was still running and releasing a slight smoke. The contact stated that it took an extended amount of time for the belts to stop moving. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic at the time of failure however, the mechanic was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The dealer was contacted. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The failure mileage was 130,000. VIN tool confirms parts not available.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1964703 |
| ODI Number | 11570058 |
| Date Filed | February 5, 2024 |
| Failure Date | April 5, 2023 |
| VIN | KNAFT4A28C5 |
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.