2016 KIA SOUL — Complaint #2085793
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:EXHAUST SYSTEM:EMISSION CONTROL:CATALYTIC CONVERTOR filed April 24, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2085793 (ODI reference 11656625) concerns a 2016 KIA SOUL and was filed on April 24, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 28, 2025. The vehicle had 72,000 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 engine and engine cooling:exhaust system:emission control:catalytic convertor, 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 SOUL cohort independently describe similar engine and engine cooling:exhaust system:emission control:catalytic convertor 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 SOUL shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2016 Kia Soul. The contact stated that while driving on the highway at 30 MPH, there was an abnormal smoke odor entering the cabin of the vehicle with an unknown warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the vehicle experienced a loss of automotive power, and the contact proceeded to pull over onto the side of the road. The vehicle was towed to the residence, and an independent mechanic arrived to diagnose the vehicle. The contact was informed that the thermostat, catalytic converter, muffler, exhaust manifold, and sensors were burned, and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 72,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2085793 |
| ODI Number | 11656625 |
| Date Filed | April 24, 2025 |
| Failure Date | February 28, 2025 |
| VIN | KNDJN2A28G7 |
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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.