Vehicle
2020 KIA TELLURIDE
Manufacturer
Kia America, Inc.
Components
ENGINE
Dates
Incident: 09/06/2026
Filed: 09/12/2026
Owner complaint summary
I have a Kia Telluride 2020 EX AWD automatic. I bought it used about 2.5 years ago. It’s been having some ongoing issues with oil consumption, which from what I have learned is pretty common in this car. Since I learned that I’ve been increasing the frequency of oil changes and topping off oil in between. It burns oil at an absurd rate, and gives no warning when oil is low. On the most recent change, a month ago, the mechanic recommended changing it after 3,000 miles. Yesterday the car completely shut down while driving on the highway, no warning or anything, just a noise, smoke and then the car died in a matter of seconds. I nearly got in an accident trying to drift to the side of the road with no power or anything. No control of the car. Ended up stuck in traffic going 70 mph with a toddler. After it was towed, our mechanic found there was no oil left and we had two holes in the engine casing. He explained it looks like when the oil ran out completely, some part broke off in the engine and shot through the housing. So it’s looking like we need a new engine. We had NOT driven it 3000 miles since the last oil change just a month ago, and we have even topped off the oil since that change, most recently a week ago. This means the car burned through about 9 quarts of oil in 3000 miles. Multiple mechanics have told us this is a known issue with the car, and there is nothing to do to prevent it. When we called the dealership to inquire about getting a new engine, they told us we would need to do an oil consumption test. Obviously this is impossible on a car that does not drive and has two holes in the engine. So we are stuck paying out of pocket. Kia is well aware of this issue and is doing nothing.
Official record ID (ODI): 11763802. This page is the human-readable source link used across afterwarranty. The raw JSON link proxies NHTSA's public API for machine verification; prefer this page when reading the complaint.