Kia makes some great, high-quality cars, but of course, Kia is not perfect. The Kia Forte is one of Kia’s more popular and best-selling cars, but it has had its share of issues, some of which have plagued the car for years. Here’s a look at the Kia Forte and its most common problems.

Lots of engine knocking

Overall, the Kia Forte is a pretty good car that hasn’t encountered that many issues. According to Car Complaints, its worst model year, which was also its first model year, was 2010. Many cars on Car Complaints will have a model year that’s so bad that Car Complaints will tell its readers to avoid that model year at all costs. However, the 2010 Forte wasn’t bad enough for Car Complaints to do that since the Forte is just a solid car overall.

That said, according to Car Complaints, ever since the Forte was introduced, one of its most common issues has been the fact that there’s a knocking noise in its engine. While this was a common issue up until the 2015 model year, it wasn’t an issue that was guaranteed to happen. 

These issues, on average, started happening with about 100,000 miles on the odometer. While this issue wasn’t guaranteed to happen, if it did happen, it’d cost a lot of money to fix. Owners on Car Complaints said that the only way to fix it is by replacing the engine. On average, this cost them about $4,000 to do. Due to how costly this is, Car Complaints said that it’s the Kia Forte’s worst issue.

More recent issues with the 2017 Kia Forte

While that engine knocking issue seems to have been fixed by the 2015 model year, the 2017 Kia Forte had its own slew of issues. Unfortunately for the owners, these issues started popping up early into the car’s lifecycle. For example, the most common issue with the 2017 Forte was the fact that its engine can run roughly.

On average, owners said that their 2017 Forte had only logged about 10,000 miles before this issue came up. Unlike the engine knocking issue, this problem was fixed by replacing the ignition coil, which is a cheaper repair. Car Complaints didn’t report an average repair price, but ignition coils can cost a few hundred dollars at most, and getting it replaced might add another hundred dollars onto that price. Still, though, it’s cheaper than replacing an engine.

While this engine issue was common, the 2017 Forte had other issues too. For example, Car Complaints said that the 2017 Forte’s taillights weren’t sealed properly. A few owners reported that they had water leak into their taillights, and this required a relatively expensive replacement that cost about $700. Once again, this started happening early on in the car’s lifecycle as on average, this happened with just 20,000 miles on the odometer.

The Kia Forte has sound issues too

While Kia offers a pretty decent infotainment package for its cars, the sound system on the Forte isn’t the most reliable part of that package. According to RepairPal, one of the most common issues on the Forte across its model years has been the fact that the sound system just stops working.

On average, this happens with about 73,000 miles on the odometer. Unlike the other most common issues on the Forte, this isn’t a hardware issue. RepairPal said that this is a software glitch, and it can be fixed pretty easily. Owners can choose to do this repair at home, as it just requires doing a “hard reset.” However, it can also be done by a mechanic, though they may charge about $100 to do this hard reset for you.