Accordingly, Kia is recalling some Sorento hybrid models in the US, due to the risk of the vehicle catching fire in the event of a collision. The cause is that the fuel line can easily break when the vehicle is involved in an accident.
Owners of affected vehicles will be notified of the recall in early January 2025 and are advised to take their vehicle to an authorized Kia dealer for repairs as soon as possible.
Kia is recalling a total of 1,385 Sorento hybrids manufactured between April 2, 2024 and October 17, 2024. Kia said that in frontal collisions, the front subframe of this SUV can be pushed back. This causes the power steering rack to hit the fuel line, potentially causing damage and leakage.
In fact, so far, South Korea's second largest automaker has not recorded any accidents, injuries, fires or deaths related to this defect.
The issue was only discovered during NCAP crash testing of the yet-to-be-launched 2026 Sorento, where a large front subframe bend damaged the fuel line, triggering an alarm.
Notably, this error only appears on Sorento hybrid models with electric power steering, with electric motors mounted on the rack, not the power steering system with motors mounted on the steering column used on some other Sorento versions.
To address the issue, Kia dealers will install a protective layer around the fuel line in affected vehicles. It’s a relatively simple fix that could prevent the problem from occurring.
