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2017 KIA SOUL — ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

fire · 2203626 · 2026-05-05

Vehicle

Make
KIA
Model
SOUL
Year
2017
Manufacturer
Kia America, Inc.
Component
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
0
Fire
Yes
Crash
No
Police report
No
Medical attention
No
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

I reported the issue yesterday, but we have additional information. Here is a timeline of the incident as recorded by the doorbell camera: 2026-05-03 085400 Car parked 101423 Car is already trying to start by itself 101713 Car still starting, starter slowing down 101734 Starter sounds overheated 101740 Starter slows to stop 101835 First visible smoke 102304 Neighbor notices 102338 I was notified 102452 Used extinguisher 102600 Fire out 102744 Called the fire department 103600 Fire department arrives shortly after I have camera videos showing much of the timeline. I cannot upload because they exceed the limits of this form. Well over an hour after the car was driven, the starter engaged. It ran for almost 4 minutes straight as far as I can tell. In the videos we have, you can hear it seize up from the heat. About a minute later, smoke is visible. Had this not been caught in thte timely manner that it was, it would have been devastating. Here is a link to two of the videos. [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11735880
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown