2017 Kia Sorento Exterior Lighting
Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.
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Chronological view of owner reports
When turning left, after the turn is complete and the multi function switch returns to home position, the right turn signal activates. This could lead to confusion by surrounding drivers resulting in safety concerns. At night, the headlights will randomly turn off while in auto mode while driving. Numerous times this happens and seems to be increasing in frequency. This is a serious safety concern as the visibility is limited to the driver and others on the road. Potential for a serious accident. After the vehicle is parked at the night, the exterior lights remain on all night if the headlight setting is in “auto”.
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
My headlights come on even when the car is completely off for now reason
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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
The lights go off on their own while driving. The lights go on on their own while parked and off.
When in auto-mode, the headlights randomly just turn off while driving which is a huge safety risk. This has been happening randomly every once in a while since at least 2021. It seems to be happening more often now. Also, the taillights are randomly turning on at night when the car is off.
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.
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 while driving 55 MPH at night, the headlights briefly became inoperable. After several attempts at turning the switch off and on, the vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 96,000.
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.
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.
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.
While driving at night, headlights turn off.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Quick Summary
The 2017 Kia Sorento has 85 Exterior Lighting complaints on file. 1 crashes have been reported. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.