KIA Complaints

The contact owns a 2025 Kia Telluride. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V494000 (Structure) and requested to be removed from the recall distribution list. The local dealer was contacted, and the vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure.

On 11/12, my 2024 Kia Carnival was parked as my children were getting settled in the vehicle. My son lifted the second-row passenger seat on the passenger side using the handle provided to access the third row. As he did so, the seatback suddenly collapsed forward with unexpected speed and force and locked in the forward position. Nothing broke, and the mechanism did not appear to jam. The seat moved along its normal path, but it did so so aggressively that it crushed my [XXX] daughter’s left leg while she was strapped into her car seat directly next to it. She was asleep, the car was not moving, and the seat feature was being used in a normal way to access the third row. The force of the collapsing seat fractured her left tibia, confirmed by X-ray. She is currently in a medical boot and under a doctor’s care. This vehicle has no accident history and no modifications. We have multiple witnesses (myself and our children), photos of the injury, and a video that shows how fast and forcefully the seat folds. This presents a serious safety risk in a family vehicle where children commonly sit behind folding second-row seats. A seat access mechanism should not be capable of moving with enough force to break a toddler’s bone in a parked vehicle. I am requesting that NHTSA investigate this seat design and its operation in the 2024 Kia Carnival. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Rear shocks unstable. When on rough roads or small imperfections in the road it’s hard to control vehicle and items/people get abruptly jostled. The dealership has been notified but says it’s not a recall and will look at it but can only take pictures and send it off to main office. No warning of this failure.

The contact owns a 2021 Kia Soul. The contact stated that the vehicle was experiencing excessive oil consumption. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the vehicle stalled on several occasions. The driver was able to pull over to the side of the road as possible, and the vehicle was able to restart after an extended time. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that oil was added every two days to prevent the vehicle from stalling. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be repaired under NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V099000 (Engine and Engine Cooling), and the dealer deployed the Piston Ring Noise Sensing System (PNSS) software on the vehicle; however, no further service was performed, and the failure persisted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that the dealer should repair the vehicle; however, the dealer informed the contact that the manufacturer had advised to deploy the Piston Ring Noise Sensing System (PNSS) software and to only replace the engine if an abnormal sound was present. The failure mileage was approximately 75,000.

I was driving approx 70mph on the highway when a piston ring popped off and blew a hole in the engine, causing the engine to fail once the oil spilled out.

Had to replace a P0014 Exhaust camshaft position timing VCT solenoid - over advanced (Bank1) last year on October 1,2024. Now 2025 December 8,2025 need a nothing camshaft position timing VCT solenoid and also says I need replace my engine. I think something is not right about the engine or something on the engine. Not sure but something is definitely wrong. Never had this kind of problem before , but no cars i've ever had.

AWD lock engaged but not functioning and no error lights indicating the such. This made the vehicle slip aggressively on lightly snowed roads. Once parked it needed to be winched out as only the front wheels spun, not engaging the rear tires.

My vehicle was sent to the Kia dealership for service after a front-end collision there was minor body damage however the car wouldn't move so long story short a modular had to be replaced on the transmission there was multiple issues trying to program it I was told there was an issue with my computer they had to reach out to Kia manufacturer for help. I received my car back and while it was there for service I had them do an oil change I hadn't drove 300 to 400 miles and all of my oil was gone from my car when I called Kia they had me bring it back in couldn't find anything wrong with it and said they want to do a oil consumption after I had already documented oil that I had to put into the car three times in the week up until my appointment because every time I check the car it was empty of oil. Now Kia is telling me to drive a thousand miles on it so they can do an oil consumption however my check engine lights on my oil lights on and it is clearly burning extremely high amount of oil. So in caution of not blowing my engine I added oil to my car yesterday one quart and now my oil light is back on after maybe 20 miles of driving. Haven't gotten to 400 mi yet total out of the thousand Kia wants me to drive and my car has stalled at three red lights and cause me to miss out on two job opportunities. My car is a 2022 and has 62,000 miles on it. Everything I research shows there's piston recalls on the engines that are causing these exact problems that my car is having except there hasn't been a recall put into place for my specific year and make. The 2021 and the 2023 Seltos are listed, but my VIN number shows no recalls. The car has a horrible smell now it constantly smells like burning rubber or oil rather, exhaust stinks now. Car is not performing as you would expect a car would with that low of mileage in less than 3 years of ownership. And related to my accident the only issue was the modular on the transmission according to the mechanics everything else was ok

Vehicle flashed with a "check hybrid system. Stop safely" warning and then forced me to slow until my vehicle stopped - I could no longer press the gas pedal. I was on a highway and luckily was able to pull over safely before the vehicle came to a complete stop, but that was not guaranteed. I ended up being towed to a Kia Dealership where they informed me this was an issue under recall, but that recall is not listed on your system nor was I ever informed of the recall by the manufacturer.

Vehicle experiences sudden and dangerous loss of power while driving, including hesitation during acceleration, consistent with connecting-rod bearing failure risk known in this model’s GDI engine. Dealer estimate found timing and oil-flow component failures connected to internal engine damage. Vehicle is unsafe to drive and stalls/lacks power unexpectedly, creating a high risk of crash.”