2015 KIA SOUL — Complaint #2167644
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE filed January 19, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2167644 (ODI reference 11711835) concerns a 2015 KIA SOUL and was filed on January 19, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 1, 2025. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine, 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 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 2015 KIA SOUL shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
Despite receiving official recall notices and taking my vehicle to two separate Kia-authorized dealerships, I have not been provided with the necessary repairs, putting both my safety and livelihood at serious risk. At both dealerships, I was told that the issues, including a clogged catalytic converter and a failing exhaust manifold, fell within the scope of the recall. However, instead of performing the recall work, they simply cleared the codes and returned the vehicle to me. As a result, I was forced to pay out of pocket for repairs that should have been fully covered under the existing recall. Most recently, my vehicle was diagnosed with a failing long block, which is also clearly part of Kiaâs recall campaign. Yet again, I was denied the proper repair. The vehicle is currently undriveable.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2167644 |
| ODI Number | 11711835 |
| Date Filed | January 19, 2026 |
| Failure Date | September 1, 2025 |
| VIN | KNDJP3A54F7 |
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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.