2017 KIA FORTE — Complaint #2148255
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:WIRING:CONNECTORS/PLUGS:ACCESORY POWER OUTLET/JACK/PORT/USB/SAE/CIGARETTE LIGHTER filed November 13, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2148255 (ODI reference 11699134) concerns a 2017 KIA FORTE and was filed on November 13, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 12, 2025. The vehicle had 141,224 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Arizona based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:wiring:connectors/plugs:accesory power outlet/jack/port/usb/sae/cigarette lighter, 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 electrical system:wiring:connectors/plugs:accesory power outlet/jack/port/usb/sae/cigarette lighter 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 2017 KIA FORTE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2017 Kia Forte. The contact stated that while driving with the phone plugged in on speaker, there was smoke coming from the adapter cord. The contact stated that the charger cord was melting. The adapter was unplugged by the driver. There were no warning lights illuminated. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 141,224.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2148255 |
| ODI Number | 11699134 |
| Date Filed | November 13, 2025 |
| Failure Date | November 12, 2025 |
| VIN | 3KPFK4A70HE |
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.