2015 KIA SOUL — Complaint #2178454
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE filed February 19, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2178454 (ODI reference 11719055) concerns a 2015 KIA SOUL and was filed on February 19, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 8, 2026. The report was geocoded to Idaho 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
My 2015 Kia Soul (VIN: [XXX] ) experienced sudden catastrophic engine failure: loud pop, knocking, and immediate loss of power. The engine has a hole in piston #2 and a hole in valve #3. This is a known safety defect included in the Hyundai/Kia Theta II engine settlement. My vehicle has KSDS update installed, but Kia and the dealership are denying warranty repair unless a specific code (P1326) or rod-bearing damage is found. The engine failure occurred without warning and placed me in danger. Kia's refusal to cover a known safety defect leaves an unsafe vehicle unrepaired. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2178454 |
| ODI Number | 11719055 |
| Date Filed | February 19, 2026 |
| Failure Date | February 8, 2026 |
| VIN | KNDJX3A59F7 |
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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.