general problems of the 2012 Kia Motor Optima - part 1

•I’m not sure what failed, the car was parked. And yes it’s available for inspection. •I had just parked the car coming from work and at the time. If I was in the car any longer than 5 more minutes it possibly could’ve been catastrophic. • all I know as of right now is that 5 days ago, it was escalated and I received a case number and a case manager 3 days ago. •the car has not been inspected •not that I’ve noticed, the engine light was on a week before the accident occurred, after getting off of work and the car system said to check my breaks. I had someone take me home since my car was undrivable. And the next morning I was going to have it towed but everything was working properly. The engine light was gone.

Driving car on the highway then the car started smoking and shut down completely. It would not turn on or anything. It smell burnt.

My steering wheel coupler has obviously gone bad and needs to be replaced. This was an issue with this year kia Optima and my car and kia has extended the warranty to 10 years/unlimited milage. I need this fixed because it sounds like my steering wheel is going to completely fall apart. Please help!!!.

Doors unlock while driving.

Rapid delamination and paint peeling in the color of snow pearl white. The entire car is affected by this defect. Somewhere on the paint assembly line a missing step in the paint procedure is causing detrimental corrosion and overall safety and protection of the elements from outside.

Kia sent out a safety recall notice (23v652). The letter clearly states the remedy is now available for my vehicle; that an engine compartment fire while parked or driving is the primary risk of the default; and that the recall service will take approximately 1-2 hours. I called two dealerships. Both said kia won't send them the parts until an inspection has occurred - potentially resulting in requiring two different appointments prior to this safety recall being addressed - contrary to the verbatim language in the safety recall. I called kia's customer service line and they confirmed that although the letter is written as described above, they won't provide parts to service centers until an inspection has been performed. I filed a complaint with them but know it won't matter unless someone with more authority gets involved. Considering this is a genuine life-safety issue - with the risk being a fire to the engine compartment - and the language in the recall notice - that the remedy is now available and the service will take 1-2 hours (no implication of multiple visits/appointments) - I think this is absolutely unacceptable. Someone needs to ensure kia prioritizes human lives above cost when it comes to safety recalls.

Was driving on the road on the way back to work from lunch, started hitting the brakes at an upcoming stop light, and the car shut down. There was no lights indicating anything prior to the incident. I tried starting it again and it started smoking, I then opened the hood and all the smoke poured out. The engine bay smelled like something electrical melting or of some sort. I towed it to the dealership I work at and had my ex-kia technician coworkers look at it and said they've never seen anything like it, but did confirm the smell was electrical. Obd ii reader was not reading anything at all. I was letting it sit for a while waiting for the recall to have some sort of remedy, but I've grown tired waiting so I decided to file a complaint. And I will reiterate again that none of the lights came on at all until my car decided to break down.

An engine compartment fire while parked or driving can increase the risk of injury. I transport my child in that car and kia is not working fast enough to be fixing the problem or giving people rental cars till they get the part.

When driving the vehicle the engine light is on & under the hood is smoking . It smells like burnt rubber or just burning something. This started happening right after the engine light came on. It’s not safe to drive my vehicle at this point.

Unknown. . . . I just know it has a fire risk.

2012 kia Optima snow white pearl paint. A few months ago the paint started bubbling and then flaking off. There are areas all over the car with bubbles and missing paint. This is a latent defect in the paint process, not a warranty issue. Every area of the car is affected. Kia needs to accept responsibility for their defect and fix this paint problem.

Sunroof trim seal loose, the rubber seal/trim catching under the sunroof glass.

Paint is coming off all over the car. You may look at it at any time. This is a safety concern for our environment and to the child in my home. She likes to attempt to eat or at least put everything in her mouth. It is very visable. No no, the first bit of paint started coming off around a year ago and has progressively gotten worse.

Paint is peeling off top of my car and also along windshield and hood of my car.

. I recently have actually found out about the recall concerning my engine. Manufacture sc148. Nhtsa recall 17v224m I called a dealership. When I asked them about the recalls this one was not mentioned. I wanted to ensure I was reading that properly. Can you explain what that means as far as the engine.

The car just shuts down for no apparent reason and will not restart. It just dies in the road with no warning. Mechanic said there is a wiring issue and noone can seem to find it because it starts and they cant figure out why and most of the time it wont start.

My car caught on fire while driving from somewhere near the engine. The fire was so severe that fire department nor my insurance company were able to determine cause of fire and I’d only had vehicle for 45 days, it was a single owner with no accidents and maintained its entire life up to that point. I am requesting someone to examine vehicle and tell me how this possibly happened.

I was driving down the highway going 75 mph and all of a sudden my car tells me pull over safely do not drive and it shut down while I'm driving. It never turned back on. It started smoking and you could see orange light coming through the vents. I was stuck on a fucking bridge for 4 hours and I missed court that day. I called kia and they came to pick up my car. They said it was free because my car has been recalled but ever since they've had it, they stop answering my phone calls and emails and now they are trying to charge me 5000 to get my car back and fixed. Before any of this happened, I noticed an oil leak at the gas station but was unsure whether it came from my car or not.

My 2012 pearl white kia Optimas paint is peeling in various areas. Large areas of paint was just missing without previous chips. My vehicle looks horrible and is starting to rust in some places. Below you will find an upload of the largest peel on my vehicle, however there are more!!.

The white pearl paint on my 2012 kia Optima ex is peeling all over the car. There are 4 spots that are peeling and getting worse. I’ve read numerous online forums about this issue and there is a latent defect with the paint.

Available for inspection front door latches, driver and passenger, stick in down position and prevent closing of doors to latch. Someone who does notice could have a collision, be ejected, suddenly suprised and crash, break latches permanently. I contacted kia dealer, they said on soul was recalled for same problem. Inspected by my insurance broker. Passenger side was December 2021, and driver side latch gave out June 2022.

While driving approximately 55 mph, the vehicle produced a grinding noise then lurched a few times every couple of minutes and then the engine shut down. Luckily I was able to safely coast to a stop while going downhill and stop the vehicle at the side of the road. Turned the engine off, waited one minute, then pushed ignition button. Hybrid system started but engine did not. Shifted to drive, pressed accelerator, but vehicle would not proceed. Turned everything off and waited five minutes. Pushed ignition button and hybrid system and engine started and shifted to drive. Vehicle would drive at underpowered speed and was able to drive 2 miles home at 35 mph. As I drove into driveway, the engine shutdown again. This occurred just a few hours ago, so it has not been serviced by anyone.

My pulley and belt went bad but still my engine making noises and my mechanic said it sounds like bearings are loose in my engine.

I was driving normal and started to hear a hissing noise in the front of vehicle. A vehicle cut in front of me I hit the brakes and another vehicle didn't slow fast enough and I went to hit the accelerator and had no power as usual and swerved to avoid the collision. I called dealership they said possibly my wastegate is out of normal voltage or need new turbo. I had a second opinion and they noticed the bolts and nut to service wastegate are rounded showing an attempt to maybe service or repair but unsuccessful. The turbo shows full function just inadequate boost. . The manufacturer has a bulletin and testing procedure released on wastegate test and adjusting procedure if needed as possible remedy. But I saw no recalls for my vehicle so reporting what I almost experienced and glad I have good driving experience to avoid an accident or life threatening situation behind the wheel of this vehicle now I don't feel safe until its proven resolved not just temporary fix.

When getting on oil change at mycardoc they wrote the wrong mileage on my car so the carfax is off. My engine broke down randomly the other day on the highway and now I need a whole new engine. . And to find out the mileage was off when getting maintenance done.

My check engine light is blinking; faulty acceleration on highway and going upgrade (uphill), vehicle jerking on local roadways; auto zone says its a faulty knock sensor. It could possibly be an issue with the engine but I'm not sure.

The engine won't turn over I just bought this car too.

I was coming home from work doing around 75 mph on cruise control when all of the sudden the car jerked violently and lost all power, the car behind me would’ve rear ended me if they weren’t paying attention. I just hold the throttle down to get home, misfiring terribly, and the best way I can describe, it smelled hot if that makes sense. I had it looked at and was told it doesn’t have compression in one of the cylinders and that it wasn’t covered under warranty or recall. So now I’m paying for a car that I can’t drive.

My 2012 kia is shutting off while I am driving. I live in a busy area and that's very dangerous. I just got the car from a used dealership and my mechanic cannot find anything wrong with the car it happened about 6 times and now it will not start.

My car slowed down in wouldn't reach over 2000 rpm and the engine light kept blinking and when I put it on a computer engine code p1326 popped on. It's called the ignition control module combustion quality input signal after kia dealership of skibo road supposedly already fixed the problem back in June 2019 now it's September 30, 2020 n it came on again n yes last year had to replace my engine. I was driving on a street in the morning on September 30, 2020 when it happened and it was raining.

I have reason to believe that my car has been hacked due to an incident that occurred approximately one week after being aggressively followed by a mysterious black Nissan SUV with pitch-black tinted windows at my work location. During the incident in question, I was on the phone with 911, with the bluetooth of my car and phone on and connected, calling about a red car that appeared to be following me. I drove around my block and lost the red car but when I returned back to the street where I live, I slowed down as I noticed a slow-moving black SUV with pitch-black dark tinted windows (reminding me of the black Nissan SUV that I encountered a week prior at work). I remember its headlights being off. This time, I was in close proximity to the black SUV- it was on my left side driving the opposite direction and it also appeared to slowed down and got parallel to my vehicle). When my car and the black SUV where almost next to each other, all the interior lights of my vehicle turned on and I heard a sound that sounded like all the doors unlocked. As a petite female who was driving alone at 10pm or later that night on an empty back street, I got terrified and quickly pushed on the gas to get away from the black SUV. With all the interior lights on while trying to drive at night, I had no visibility whatsoever, so I kept pushing the light switch by the driver's side, but no matter how many times I moved the switch, the interior lights did not turn off. After driving, I estimate, 1000+ feet, the interior lights turned off and I regained visibility. At that point I could see my apartment was coming up so I quickly drove into the gated parking area of my apartment complex. As I recall the incident, the light switch was on "door" when I was attempting to turn it off while driving. This incident reveals security/safety vulnerabilities in my vehicle.

Driving car for no longer than 45 minutes. When approaching a green light my car would not accelerate. The light turned red so I had to come to a stop. As I did, all my dash lights came on and my car sputtered. The car then turned off. I tried to restart, but nothing. It began to smoke badly and I rushed out of my vehicle. There was a cop, conveniently close, who stopped and poured water where the smoke was coming from. It continued to smoke but not as bad as before. The car would not turn over still and I was forced to pay to have my car towed out of the middle of the road. After sitting, with engine off, there is still a sting burnt smell coming from under the hood and inside my car.

While passing another car on a highway my car stopped accelerating. I pulled over and it won't start cuz it is seized up. Lucky for me I could make it to a off ramp. Towed it and the repair shop said it was the bearings that are bad and I need a whole new engine and I have less than 50000 miles on the car😤.

Paint keeps chipping and the car bounces I have got it fixed twice and it’s still doing the same thing.

I'd had no mechanical issues w/ my vehicle, whatsoever & all routine maintenance is done on time. While driving on the highway one day & suddenly all the warning lights came on & lots of smoke coming from under the hood. Pulled to the side of the road, had it towed to the nearest kia dealership. After a few days, it was explained to me, by the service team that my engine was shot, but I wasn't given an explanation as to why. There were no recalls at that time on the hybrid vehicles; however, I just got a recall letter for my Optima hybrid, dated 1/27/2021 that described the very thing that I experienced with my car. This prompted me to visit this website to explain my issue.