general problems of the 2017 Kia Motor Sorento - part 1

Headlights turn off at night when set in the auto position and turn on when the car is off.

When I drive at night with the headlights on, sometimes the headlights will all go off until I click the button a couple of times then they will come back on, and this scares me because it can cause a wreck when I can’t see.

When my head lights are on automatic, they will cut on and off on their own while driving at night! completely off! my break lights also come and go. I have had the bulbs replaced and still have the same issue.

While I was driving at night, my headlights would turn completely off. Sometimes it would happen when I turned my blinkers on, sometimes when switching from high to low beam, and sometimes totally randomly. Lights were set to auto at the time. It’s been extremely dangerous because most of the time I’ve been driving on dark county roads. Have not taken it to a shop yet was trying to self diagnose the problem first. Found information online that this has been a common occurance with kia Sorentos. No warning lamps light up.

When in "auto" mode for headlights, the lights occasionally turn off while driving. I have to switch to "on" to get them to work again. Very dangerous obviously. Also, sometime the lights do not turn off, or turn on in the middle of the night when the vehicle is parked. Again, this is while in "auto" mode.

The stalk appears to be failing, specifically when lights set to auto. The most alarming aspect of this issue is when head (and maybe tail) lights go out entirely while driving [at night]. This has happened several times, at various speeds, drive times, vehicle occupancy, etc. Additionally, the head and tail lamps will turn on randomly when the car is off and locked. This can happen both hours or days after parking and has been the cause of replacing two batteries within two years.

Over the past couple of months my headlight are shutting off while driving at night. They don’t come on when I start the car some nights. When they shut off it’s hard to get them to turn back on. I’m twisting the knob multiple times to get them back on while driving.

The contact owns a 2017 kia Sorento. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the interior lights and headlights turned off and turned back on without driver input. There were no warning lights illuminated. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 104,082.

I was driving down the highway at night and out of nowhere my head lights turn off. Leaving me and my daughter driving blind going 60 mph. Prior to that on the same night, I picked her up from work I was turning out of the parking lot where she works and the same thing happened but very quickly corrected itself. The area was lit up so it wasn't as noticeable. This is a very dangerous problem.

My 2017 Sorento has been having issues with the headlights for the past 6 months. I keep them on auto mode and half of the time they don't turn on until I click them to "on" and switch them back to auto. There have also been a handful of times where my headlights turn off while driving. This is absolutely unacceptable and extremely unsafe. This needs to become a recall before someone is seriously injured, or dies.

While in auto mode my headlights turn on and off randomly. This is very dangerous at night and has happened several times. When the head lights go off I can not see and no one can see me. There is no warning when this happens. The first occurrence was on August 4, 2024. Kia dealers say it has to be happening when I bring it in but the problem is intermittent. Many other owners have stated they have this same problem in online forums. Canada has issued a recall for this problem (kia canada: rc184).

Driving 70mph, driving lights completely shut off. I was going straight with a car in the distance nobody behind. If my wife and kids were driving that would have been scary.

The headlight setting randomly changes from “auto” to “off” without any operator input. This happens roughly every fourth drive.

The lights go off on their own while driving. The lights go on on their own while parked and off.

Shifter isn't releasing from park. They state the body control module (bcm) I been reading on this and it goes out with higher mileage kia Sorento SUV. This is a safety hazard.

While driving after dark with the auto lights engaged, my headlights suddenly turned off. When I turned the knob on the light switch they came back on and I continued to drive. A short while down the road this happened again. At this point I turned the auto lights off and just ran them in manual on mode. No further incident with them in manual. This has now happened on several occasions.

1) the headlights will turn off while driving when the headlight switch is "automatic. " 2) the headlights and taillights will illuminate after leaving and locking the vehicle leading to a completely drained battery.

The vehicle just lost power at 75mph on i95 northbound heading home to princeton, me, started vibrating really bad misfiring then we pulled over the kia Sorento stalled. Then would not start back up. It’s been using over a quart a week since we got it from the dealership in bangor, maine. We got it towed home our mechanic looked at it and noticed oil on the plugs and said we probably need a new engine. Low beam light keep coming off and on so thinking it’s something electrical. Time to time the transmission take a min to shift the engine rpms stay up n takes a few extra seconds to shift.

When the headlights are on the "auto" setting they will sometimes turn off when driving. Speed or driving conditions do not seem to be a factor. There have also been 2 separate incidents where the headlights are on in the morning. This occurred when noone had been in the car for hours and the keys were inside my home.

My headlights, when set to ‘auto’ randomly turn off. Very scary and dangerous at night! also, illegal. I can get them to come back on by turning the lights off and on multiple times from the left stalk. But can’t believe kia hasn’t addressed this.

The contact owns a 2017 kia Sorento. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the front and rear exterior lights shutoff unexpectedly. The contact turned off the light switch and then back on and the failure was fixed. Additionally, the vehicle had experienced excessive oil consumption and engine oil was added shortly after having an oil change performed. The vehicle also experienced harsh driving due to the oil consumption failure. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 65,000.

Sporadically during night driving the headlights will go out. Headlights set to auto each time. Most recently while turning right. Had not used right turn signal.

While driving at night, headlights turn off.

Headlights intermittently turn off when set to the "auto" setting while the vehicle is in use. I received a warranty notification from kia for the issue and attempted to have it fixed through a kia dealership. Kia dealership did not have the part to fix it and does not know when they will have the part. This issue first started happening in October 2023. Visit to the dealership was November 22, 2023. Issue is still not resolved.

I have had my lights to go off at night while driving.

1. During nighttime driving, the headlights suddenly go off. Headlights are on auto and it happens randomly. The first time it happened was in August 2023 and then on 09/08/2023 twice during night driving. 2. It's very risky to be in the dark on a rural road. I really worry for my family's safety. 3. I could not reproduce the issue, nor have I taken it to a technician or dealer yet. 4. Not inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives, or others. 5. There was no warning on the dash prior to that happening.

Headlights turned off on 3 occasions in the last 2 weeks. First I was driving on an unlit section of a residential thoroughfare, dark night and suddenly, while both hands on steering wheel, not having had any interaction with dashboard/radio controls, smooth section of roads (no obvious bumps) the lights turned off. I immediately fiddled with the steering column mounted light control switch, which did not give me an immediate relief, flipped it to highbeams and they worked. 2nd and 3rd time (yesterday 9/8/23) while on semi lit highway they again shocked me by turning off, I again toggled the light switch, this time highbeam flip did not work, I was doing 65 on a 70 and having lights turn off, with no reason, scary. 80,000 miles. I have had the light switch in automode.

Headlights switch set in auto position. Headlights turned on spontaneously, two different times while auto was off and locked. This resulted in battery being drained and auto would not start. This has not happened since switch was set to off position.

The vehicle headlights intermittently turn off while driving the vehicle.

On many occasions while driving at night (happens almost every night when we are driving), the headlights turn off on their own. This is when the headlights are set to "auto". This is a very dangerous situation - especially when driving on poorly lit roads. When it happens, I can get the lights to come back on by switching from "auto" to "off" and back to "auto". Drivers should not need to do this. Apparently a lot of people with my (or similar) year kia Sorentos have experienced this issue based on online postings.

The vehicle turns the headlights on while the engine is off, parked, and no occupants in the car and no keys in the ignition. I have experienced this multiple times. There are many other reports of this on the internet as well. The multi switch was in the auto position. I started the car, then turned it off, removed the keys, locked the doors and the lights went off. I checked on it later and the headlights had come back on (with the tail lights) while parked in my driveway. I then searched on the web for others having this issue and there are many with this same year and model. This could run down the battery repeatedly, and also it is unknown if it is an electrical/fire hazard because something is clearly still activated after the car has been turned off.

The shift release has been replaced for 2017 kia Sorento but now it is traffic light switch causing one of my car problems. In gas I spend 40 dollars a day for less than 110 miles of driving even with an full synthetic oil change just done is problem two. The speedometer is off by 3 to 5 I have had bmv and officers do their test on vehicle along with the head and tail lights being replaced every 6 to 8 weeks what am I to so with a vehicle that I am still paying on.

The headlights randomly turn on and off while driving and with the switch set to “auto”. This also occurs when the vehicle is shutdown with no key in the ignition and with no one in the vehicle. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. Having the headlights turn off when driving at night presents a risk of the driver not being able to see the road and for other drivers to not see the vehicle. These risk may lead to an accident causing great harm to life and property, including death. The vehicle is currently with the dealer for diagnosis. There are no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure. This problem began in the spring of 2023 with less than 60,000 miles on the vehicle.

While driving at night on dark road 50 mph with lights on auto. Lights went out completely. Had to make hard stop and turn lights to on position.

Headlights in auto mode will randomly go off while driving without any change in ambient light. Dangerous on unlit roads.