Kia Optima, Kia Sorento, model years 2013 to 2015. Filed by Kia Motors America and reported to NHTSA on 10 May 2021. 440,370 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Kia Motors America (Kia) is recalling certain 2013-2015 Optima and 2014-2015 Sorento vehicles previously recalled under recall 20V-519. Brake fluid may leak inside the Hydraulic Electronic Control Unit (HECU), possibly resulting in an electrical short.
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Kia's own number for this recall: SC212. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 21V331 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 21V331 cover?
- Kia Optima, Kia Sorento, model years 2013-2015.
- What is wrong with them?
- Kia Motors America (Kia) is recalling certain 2013-2015 Optima and 2014-2015 Sorento vehicles previously recalled under recall 20V-519. Brake fluid may leak inside the Hydraulic Electronic Control Unit (HECU), possibly resulting in an electrical short.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- An electrical short in the HECU increases the risk of a fire while parked or driving.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Owners are advised to park outside and away from other vehicles and structures until the recall repair is completed. Dealers will install a new multi-fuse, and inspect the HECU for leaks, replacing the HECU if necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed on July 2, 2021.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Kia calls this recall SC212, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
Owners are told to park away from buildings: the wording the agency uses when a vehicle can catch fire with the ignition off.
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 21V331 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Kia Motors America |
| System at fault | Service Brakes, Hydraulic:Antilock/Traction Control/Electronic Limited Slip:Control Unit/Module |
| Reported to NHTSA | 10 May 2021 |
| Model years | 2013-2015 |
| Vehicles named | KIA OPTIMA, KIA SORENTO |
This is not an ordinary campaign.
- Owners are told to park it outside, away from buildings: the wording used when a vehicle can catch fire while switched off and unattended.
What the notice says today
The consequence
An electrical short in the HECU increases the risk of a fire while parked or driving.
The remedy
Owners are advised to park outside and away from other vehicles and structures until the recall repair is completed. Dealers will install a new multi-fuse, and inspect the HECU for leaks, replacing the HECU if necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed on July 2, 2021. This recall supersedes previous NHTSA recall number 20V-519. Owners may contact Kia customer service at 1-800-333-4542. Kia's number for this recall is SC212.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 583 notices in the record whose component field names service brakes, hydraulic. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 37 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 21V331, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/21v331/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
Other Kia notices we hold
- 26V545: 2025-2026 EV9
- 26V431: 2022-2024 EV6 and 2024 EV9
- 26V430: 2020-2024 Telluride
- 26V356: 2027 Telluride and Telluride Hybrid
- 26V232: 2022-2026 Carnival
- 26V173: 2027 Telluride Hybrid SX Prestige and X-Line SX Prestige
- 26V135: 2027 Kia Telluride and 2026 Kia K4
- 26V105: 2025 Telluride
All 164 Kia campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 21V331 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
4335c50c - Consequence
809a19f4 - Remedy
bfcc9466
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 21V331 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Kia Sorento, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
Put this notice on your site
A small badge that links here and names the register's reference. It costs one line of HTML and needs no key.
The badge is free to use. It links to this page and nowhere else, and it never shows advertising.
Owners of these cars
No register publishes what happens after the letter. Owners do: tell us, in two taps.
Anonymous: no account, no cookie, nothing you type is stored beyond these choices. Figures appear once 3 owners have answered, and are published with the record under CC BY 4.0.