Kia Recalls 87,000 Sedans For Potential Fire Hazard

The purpose of a cooling fan in your vehicle is to cool the car’s components under the hood. For nearly 87,000 Kia sedans, that apparently isn’t the case, as a piece of the fan has been found to overheat, melt and start a fire. So should come as no surprise that Kia would then recall those vehicles – which it did over the weekend.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that Kia issued a recall of 86,880 model year 2014 Forte sedans in the U.S. for the potential fire risk.

According to the NHTSA notice [PDF], the recall is expected to begin in February with dealers replacing the cooling fan resistor and multi fuse unit in the affected vehicles.

Owners of vehicles with a 1.8 liter engine will also have the engine control unit software updated.

While Kia reported no accidents or injuries related to the recall, several consumer complaints filed with NHTSA detail instances of the vehicle smoking or catching fire.

In one report, the consumer claims their 2014 Forte becoming engulfed in flames as it was warming up.

A second consumer reports that the car began smoking while driving down the road.

“As soon as I pulled the car over to the shoulder, flames came out of the hood,” the consumer writes. “The local fire department extinguished the fire. The vehicle was a total loss.”

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