2016 KIA OPTIMA — Complaint #2177584
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE filed February 17, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2177584 (ODI reference 11718486) concerns a 2016 KIA OPTIMA and was filed on February 17, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 13, 2026. The vehicle had 105,000 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 fuel system, gasoline, 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 OPTIMA cohort independently describe similar fuel system, gasoline 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 OPTIMA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2016 Kia Optima. The contact stated that while driving at 60 MPH, the vehicle stalled with the check engine light illuminated. The brake pedal was depressed, and the steering wheel seized. The contact was able to pull over to the side of the highway and contacted the Highway Patrol for assistance. The contact associated NHTSA Campaign Number: 18V907000 (FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE, ENGINE); with the failure; however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The vehicle was towed to the residence. The dealer was not notified. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 105,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2177584 |
| ODI Number | 11718486 |
| Date Filed | February 17, 2026 |
| Failure Date | February 13, 2026 |
| VIN | KNAGT4L35G5 |
Similar FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Complaints for 2016 KIA OPTIMA
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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.