2018 KIA SORENTO — Complaint #2124596
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:HEADLIGHTS:BULBS filed August 27, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2124596 (ODI reference 11683420) concerns a 2018 KIA SORENTO and was filed on August 27, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 21, 2023. The report was geocoded to North Carolina based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:headlights:bulbs, 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 exterior lighting:headlights:bulbs 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 2018 KIA SORENTO shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2018 Kia Sorento. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the headlights failed to function as intended. The contact, who was a retired certified mechanic, inspected the headlights and determined that the passenger's side headlight bulbs were blown. The contact then noticed a burning odor in the circuit board inside the headlight. The contact stated that the front passenger's side headlight bulbs were replaced twice within three months due to failure. In addition, the contact stated that an unknown manufacturer's recall was performed approximately two years prior, and the multi-function switch knob was replaced. The contact stated that the headlights were not replaced at the time. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2124596 |
| ODI Number | 11683420 |
| Date Filed | August 27, 2025 |
| Failure Date | August 21, 2023 |
| VIN | 5XYPH4A5XJG |
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.