There are 50 owner-reported lighting complaints for the 2017 Kia Sorentoin NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
At night when I am driving, the headlight goes off. The light switch does not work on some settings. I never know when or where this dangerous situation is going to happen. Therefore, I try to avoid driving at night, as much as possible. This problem was addressed to Kia more than a year ago. They keep saying that they don't see a problem.
My headlights come on even when the car is completely off for now reason
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
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.
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.
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's 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Showing 1–20 of 50 complaints
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 26, 2026