general problems of the 2005 Kia Motor Sorento

Electrical fire under drivers dash. While trying to drive the kia . Called fire department and they responded quickly. I know there was recall on 2006 and believe 2005 should have been included thanks rose lagos 850-786-8074.

I drove my kia and parked in a grocery parking lot. I came back outside to find my car's engine compartment was totally engulfed in flames. The fire department was actively putting out the flames as I approached. No warning this would occur. Kia has refused to return my calls or emails. Very reliable vehicles (I bought 2 brand new in 2005). Very dangerous, and apparently not an unheard of event with certain kias. Several reports online and in person. Could have been disastrous had I been driving, or parked closer to other vehicles (or any structure).

Have experienced repeated failure of cam sensor, cam shaft pulley bolt, failure of engine cooling system, failure of clutch assembly and transmission, failure of air conditioning, failure of electrical system for exterior lights. . All issues are as documented by the hundreds and hundreds of complaints by other owners who are waiting for an investigation, a recall, or enough deaths and injuries to receive any assistance of any kind from this organization or the manufacturer. I can not justify spending one more dollar ( $16,000 in the 3 years since purchased for $4,000). To repair this vehicle and it is once again inoperable for the same issues. . No car dealer wants it as a trade in, the standard offer is $300. I cannot sell it to anyone and then face myself in mirror. Perhaps a public sake. . . $1 per minute to anyone who wants to bash a kia (sledgehammer provided). Proceeds will be applied to purchase of replacement vehicle, which will not be a kia.

I was turning onto a street and heard a big clunk only to find out the bolt on the crankshaft broke off again on 10/29/15 as well as 7/30/13. The power steering went out & battery light came on. Lost power and everything after a big clunk! this happens all the time: there are a multitude of these same complaints: this engine was replaced in may 2010 and the harmonic balancer and pulley have been worked on twice since 2010. There is a defective bolt that was replaced with a new defective bolt. This is happening numerous times to many kia Sorento owners and they are left stranded. Kia knows about it and refuses to do anything! my car is sitting at country kia in charleston, SC because the extended- warranty will not cover this defective bolt and I can't pay $5000. 00 on a car that is now only worth $3000. 00. I had to stay in charleston, SC an extra 2 days at my expense $79. 00 /night, pay $75. 00 for the tow bill and an additional $55 or $65 for the kia dealership to check it out. I had to rent a car to come back to FL as I was stranded in charleston without transportation. I cannot afford the $5000. 00 for repairs and the $1500. 00 to pay it off just to get the title to send this to a junk yard. The mileage just turned to 107,000 or 108,000. This is the 4th time that there was an issue on this part of this car having to do with the same issues related to this defective bolt, harmonic balancer and pulley as a result of this defective bolt. (this is only on one car). You will see how many times this is occurring to many other owners of these kia Sorentos. . Read more...

The vehicle has had several electronic issues. One owner with a garage parked low mileage SUV. The driver seat will not move forward. All other adjustments work fine. This issue has happened several times over the years but now seems to be a permanent problem. The interior overhead light does not illuminate when you open the doors, the driver side door open alarm dings for no apparent reason and the brake lights continually burn out.

On 7/30/14 I noticed my dashboard lights were not working. The morning of 7/31/14 the lights still were not working so I checked the fuse boxes. I found a blown fuse in the fuse box under the hood and replaced it. The dashboard lights still would not work. The evening of 7/31/14 I again checked the fuses and found the fuse I had just replaced in the morning was again blown. I replaced the fuse and had my husband stand at the front of the vehicle while I turned the ignition and headlight switch on. Immediately upon turning on the headlight switch we heard a "pop," checked the fuse and it had once again blown. We tried a third fuse and it blew as well as soon as I turned on the headlight switch. Three fuses in one day and still no answer on how to get my dashboard lights to work.

Recently, our 2005 kia Sorento began having electrical problems when the headlights are on at night. The interior dash lights including the radio, etc. Will randomly go off and on. Last night, the dome lights came on and began flashing involuntarily. I am concerned with an electrical issue that will lead to further damage. I have been researching recalls on this vehicle, but cannot see that there is one for this issue. I did however see other consumers with the same complaint. We purchased this vehicle brand new in 2005 and other than regular maintenance we have not had any major issues. I thought that I would purchase another kia in the future, but now that I see kia is doing nothing to fix this electrical problem I am reconsidering that decision.

Interior electrical lighting turns itself off and on. Headlights will occasionally shut themselves off. Lights regularly burn out/need replacing every 45-90 days. Dash lights haven't worked in over a year - fuse regularly blows, gave up on replacing it.

Vehicle has had continual premature light bulb burnouts of all exterior lamps, headlights, tail lights and stop lights. This happens every 1-2 months.

I've repeatedly had to replace the headlights in this car every couple of months. When one light is replaced, the other side goes out next. This has happened several times for the past several years. I have 189,000 miles on the car now. I don't remember exactly when it started. My driver seat also stopped working. The back goes forward and back, but the base seat doesn't move.

Headlight and dome bulbs burns out very often, I spend more money replacing bulbs than oil change, obviously there is an electrical problem on this model. Please let them fix this issue.

Headlight bulbs have gone out at least once a month since I have purchased vehicle used. Have to keep spare bulbs in vehicle in case it happened again at night which I would not be able to drive with my normal headlights ig I had not carried the spare ones in Sorento. Brake lights have gone out 3 times since I have purchased Sorento in March 2012. Lighting interior does not work unless you manually push the button from the top of ceiling. Door ajar" light came on and started beeping all doors were tightly shut. Was told that the seat belt harness metal part may have caused the drivers door to bend or knock off the diode button.

I constantly have to change tail lights and head lights on my vehicle. Every 4/5 months they are going out. Also the interior light above in the back seating area does not come on when the doors are open, only if manually pressed on and off. The light behind the panel controlling the heat/air temperatures is no longer functional. No one else seems to change their lights as frequently as I do, if at all since they've had their cars. It seems to be an issue with the electrical system.

While driving my vehicle, it began making a "knocking" noise. The power steering then began to fail and then I was unable to accelerate. The car died (on a busy 4 lane hwy with my 7 mos old daughter in the car). Once stopped, I looked under my hood to find a large bolt laying on the floor of the interior of the bumper. The vehicle was towed to a local auto repair shop where, after 2 days and $1300 in repairs, I was told that the "large bolt" I found was half of the crank pulley bolt. It had snapped clean in half leaving the other half inside the pulley. Extensive labor to remove this piece and then reset all the pulleys and belts (timing belt) attributed to the excessive cost. I was told that there was no reason why that bolt should have simply broke in half and that it was a faulty part. Kia refuses to take responsibility and I have read several posts that make it clear that this is not the first time it has happened. Electrically, I have had to change my headlight bulbs several times over the last 3 years and the accuator for the automatic door locks is faulty. The car randomly locks itself at any given time (while driving, when sitting in the driveway during the night, parked and running). I stopped in a parking lot to get my daughter's toy that she had dropped. When I got out of the car to walk around to the other side, the car lock defect locked my daughter inside the car while it was running.

On 6-14-2011 I was driving my 2005 kia Sorento just turning onto my street when it suddenly lost its power steering and the power brake light was on. I managed to drive it a few feet to my driveway to inspect my car and noticed a big silver bolt-like piece of metal approximately 4" long dangling beneath the radiator and took it inside and called my husband. When he came home he looked at the car and checked online to try and see what may be wrong with it and discovered it may be the crank shaft pulley bolt and called the dealership's service department. The man at the service department felt this was not the case but my husband said that he had was holding the bolt in his hand. Nonetheless I scheduled an appointment. The soonest they could get me in was 6-29-2011, 15 days later. I am employed as a physician extender am had to work the weekend (June 18th and 19th), therefore, I had to rent a car for that weekend as we have no weekend public transportation service in our location which cost me $177. 00. My car then had to be towed on the morning of 6-28-2011 to the dealership for service on 6-29-2011 at a cost of $65. 00. Then they were having difficulty honoring my warranty because they could not find my name but I had since married but since it was not changed on the warranty they did not repair the car. I had to contact kia corporate and the person there told me it could take up to 2 weeks to make the change and the car would not and could not be repaired until then and they could only give me a discount on a rental car in the meantime. I had to immediately fax (not email) documentation of sale. I had paid cash for the brand new vehicle at the time. The kia dealership in which I bought the car only keeps sales records for the past 3 years. The corporate person that I was speaking with was not able to correct the information on his end due to a "glitch". They fixed the car and charged me $170. 00 additional for repairs not covered by warranty.

We were traveling on the freeway at 65 mph when check engine light came on within 2 seconds vehicle lost all power including power brakes and steering.

I have to every 3 -4 months replace the headlights on my 2005 kia Sorento. Kia has told me because your organization has not issues any type of recall on this I will keep on replacing them. This is insane!!!!! I know that I am not the only owner complaining about this.

Own a 2005 kia Sorento. We have a continuous problem with the lights burning out. This includes the headlights, brake lights, park lights, and fog lights. These lights burn out about every 3 to 4 months. Now the power seat has stopped moving forward or back. The driver's side power seat will not move forward or backward. A shorter person that my wife moved her car and she adjusted the seats. When my wife got into the car she was unable to put the seat in the original position. I have tried to jockey the switch back and forth and up and down and the seat will not move.

This car is a safety hazard. Headlights/tail lights/dashboard lights burn out within months of replacements. Just burned through 5 fuses for the dashboard in one day. Dealership will not fix as there has been no recall. Google the make and model and you will see many electrical issues and angry owners. Have a teen driver in the family and we are afraid to let her even drive this car. Please recall this model and make kia own up to their responsibilities!!!!.

This is concerning my 2005 kia Sorento that I never got the recall letter for the icv sensor, it just so happen that my check engine light came on and I called them complaining and they made it seem as if they were doing me a favor and said bring it in, it is covered and I discovered on the computer that there was a recall. I then had two headlights blow out and the check engine light was back on and they told me to bring it in and then said that it was an electrical issue but it was covered. My car later would not pick up speed and I called them and told them I could be on the highway accelerating and could not pick up speed , the SUV was returned for the throttle sensor. Not more than a month later my SUV is sluggish and not picking up speed again and they say bring it in and tells me it is not the same thing but this time it is a sensor in the gas tank that has to be replaced and it is not covered under warranty one person quotes me $395. 00 another quotes $595. 00 (I will be writing the better business bureau after this). I just feel that there has been so much going on with 2005 kias someone is going to get seriously hurt if these issues are not looked into. It should not take a life or major accident for these issues to be addressed. A truck or trailer could have hit me several times while I was on the highway trying to accelerate and could not pick up speed. I feel that right now they are preying on defects that is due to the manufacturer and passing the cost on to consumers who have purchased these vehicles. I purchased my car in 2006 with only 115 miles on it and it has given me nothing but problems. Kia is being allowed to get away with these tactics because no one is looking over them because sadly those who are purchasing these vehicles with problems do not know where or who to turn to for help on them being cheated and mistreated at the dealerships. I pray that this matter get the long awaited attention it deserves before someone is seriously hurt.

I have a 2005 kia Sorento that started to shut off while driving on Jan 3rd 2009. Since then it has happened 4 times. It is random and I am currently in court with kia through the PA lemon law. I wanted to file this complaint so it is on record.

My kia Sorento has electrical problems that cause the interior dash and doom lights to blink off and on. This has been happening for the last fourteen months. The dash lights stay off most of the time now, making it very difficult to monitor my instrument panel at night. I have also had to replace the headlights and tail light a total of six times over the last two plus years. There is also a problem with the heat. The hot air turns cold anytime the vehicle comes to a stop, making it necessary for me to rev the engine to stay warm. This makes a gas guzzler even more wasteful in cold weather. I can get no definitive answers from the dealership for these problems. I¿m not an advocate of a lot of government intervention, but someone with authority need to step in and require kia to provide a root cause solution to these issues.

Everything from interior lights, radio, clock, door locks and headlights burning out have been a problem. While driving and the interior lights just come on. Headlights burn out every 6 months. Everything else works when it wants. I took kia to court to get a equal trade but only got $9,000. Had to give $3,500 to the lawyers. The other $5,500 was not even enough to cover a trade in because the kias have a terrible value for trades. Ended up spending more than half trying to have it repaired, still nothing. Kia knows there is a problem but will not address it. Even the several service managers (off the record) that I spoke with through my horrific experience told me that it's a huge problem and they don't want to do anything because of the cost.

Headlights blowing on a regular basis. Replace headlights four to five times a year possible electrical issue.

We had issues from the beginning with a fire in the center console of our pre-owned kia. Then we noticed the light for the passenger side air bags was intermittent on picking up whether there was a passenger in the seat. Our clock would go in and out on the lighting especially over bumps. Then we were rear ended on the highway. No air bags went off. The seat belt did not engage and hold either me or my husband back. Then when I fell back against the seat the seat did not stay in place and I fell backwards. I went to the hospital for muscle spasms. The vehicle is being repaired for the physical damage and then will be brought to the dealership.

We have a constant issue with the interior ligts and exterior lights are turning on and off without notice. This is happening while driving down the road and has happened on 10 separate occassions in the last two months, the las occasion being August 6, 2011 at approximately 2:00am. While driving down a major highway here in seattle driving at 50mph the interior and exterior lights both shut down at the same time causing zero visibility. After pulling over and waiting for 10 minutes the lights came back on and I was able to drive ahome without incident. Problem is unknown.

I have a 2005 kia Sorento. I have had a problem with my headlights since I have had my car which I bought new in 2005. I have taken it to the dealer in valdosta GA several times to find out about it and they always say it's not a recall so they can't do anything about it. I have to replace headlights and taillights every 3 or 4 months. It is very expensive. My dome light hasn't worked in years and my check engine light stays on all the time. I know there is some kind of defect in the electrical system and it's been this way from the beginning. The 10 year/100,000. 00 mile warranty is about useless with this car. There has not been one thing since I have had the car that was covered under warranty. I will never buy a kia again and I certainly want ever use kia in valdosta GA again, they have the worst service I have ever seen. There favorite thing to say is "it's not covered under our warranty!" that is supposedly there big selling point and it is worthless! everyone who is having the same trouble needs to complain so we can get this recalled and fixed. I wish I knew where to complain to that could make that happen. They don't really care in valdosta whether you complain or not, there not going to do anything about it anyway. Well I have been stopped numerous times by the police for my lights being out. So far I have not got a ticket, but it is highly dangerous to have no lights while driving at night and you never know when they are going to be out. I know I am not the only one having this problem, I have well over 100 emails from repair pal about others having headlight problems. This needs to be recalled before someone is killed in an accident and then sue the kia company. Sick of buying headlights!.

The battery fails constantly, which means I am faced with a dead battery and a car that won't start. This has happened with no pattern of circumstance; for example: the battery will be dead after driving for 15 miles, parking for 10 minutes while shopping, and returning to a dead battery; or after the car has been parked all day, only to have a dead battery; or a dead battery after being parked at my house overnight (in every sort of weather condition); it is completely random. . . And, be assured, I do not leave any electrical items (radio, temperature controls, interior or exterior lights, etc. ), turned on when I park my car. Therefore, I do not feel safe driving and parking my car anywhere that I am remote, isolated, or unable to get a jump. I carry jumper cables in my car at all times because I never know when I may need them. Sometimes, it takes a long time to charge the battery enough to even start my car. Sometimes the battery is so dead, that the key fob doesn't even work and I have to manually open my doors. . . Other times it's a quick jump. I have to always park my car in a position that I'm able to access the battery for a jump, if need be. I regularly went through (high-end) batteries well before their expiration date and took my SUV into the kia dealership for diagnostics regularly - and the only answer they had is that the cause must be a "phantom (electrical) draw," which they were never able to identify. I also took my SUV into other mechanics and battery specialists, but no one had any answers for me. Still, after 17 years, I have this same problem and burn through a lot of batteries. No answers. The dealership stopped assisting me, even when I was still on my extended warranty. No help from corporate. Very disappointed in kia in their response over all these years, beginning with my purchase of the brand new 2005 kia Sorento. I have always taken my SUV into the kia dealership for the regularly scheduled service. Have others had this problem?.

2005 kia Sorento. The airbag light stayed on. They have replaced the seat, t and sent the seat off to have the sensor replaced. The dealership said there was nothing else they could do. The check engine light came on and the vehicle stalled. This happened twice in one day. The vehicle will restart after waiting a while. Also, the clock had to be replaced twice.