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2001 KIA SEPHIA — Complaint #612856

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NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:DRUM:WHEEL CYLINDERS filed February 10, 2007

NHTSA complaint #612856 (ODI reference 10182223) concerns a 2001 KIA SEPHIA and was filed on February 10, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 12, 2006. The report was geocoded to Maine based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, hydraulic:foundation components:drum:wheel cylinders, 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 SEPHIA cohort independently describe similar service brakes, hydraulic:foundation components:drum:wheel cylinders 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 2001 KIA SEPHIA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2001 KIA SEPHIA
Component
SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:DRUM:WHEEL CYLINDERS
State
Maine

Complaint Description

IN AUGUST OF 2006 I HAD TAKEN MY CAR IN FOR BRAKES. COMING TO FIND OUT MY BRAKES WERE BAD, I NEEDED NEW ROTORS AND MY WHEEL CYLINDERS BLEW OUT. CAUSING ME TO LOSE MY BRAKES ONE DAY ON MY WAY TO WORK. HAD THE VEHICLE TOWED IN TO HAVE IT FIXED. CALLED THE DEALER THEY SAID THERE IS NO COMPLAINTS ON THIS. HAD THE CAR FIXED.. TOOK THEM 6 HOURS TO BLEED THE BRAKES. TOOK THE CAR HOME, THE NEXT MORNING WENT TO LEAVE AND HAD NO BRAKES AGAIN. HAD IT TOWED BACK TO SHOP. HAD TO BLEED BRAKES AGAIN, THEN IN DECEMBER I WENT TO LEAVE FOR WORK AND THE BRAKE PEDAL WENT TO THE FLOOR, I HAD NO BRAKES. GOT THE CAR TO THE SAME SHOP THAT FIXED IT THE FIRST TIME. COMING TO FIND OUT THE WHEEL CYLINDERS BLEW OUT AGAIN CAUSING BRAKE FLUID TO LEAK ALL OVER MY BRAKES. THEY HAD TO REPLACE MY WHEEL CYLINDERS AND BRAKES . THEY WANTE TO CHARGE ME LABOR SINCE THEY SAID IT WAS A DEFECTIVE PART. I REFUSED TO PAY THE LABOR. WE TOLD THEM NOT TO TOUCH THE CAR UNTIL WE CALLED THEM BACK. (I THINK THEY KNEW I WAS CALLING SO

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 612856
ODI Number 10182223
Date Filed February 10, 2007
Failure Date August 12, 2006
VIN KNAFB121015

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.