I took my 2022 GtLine in yesterday for the recall (I got this car about a month ago) and when I went to pick it up I started it and was immediately given the “check electric vehicle system warning”. I went in to get the service advisor and they came and started the car to have the “12V battery low please stop safely” message pop up when they put it into reverse…
I also got a notification on the Kia Access app about a motor Control Unit issue (in picture)
I’m really confused because according to them all they did were the software updates. They ran a test on the 12V and it said it was fine but at a THREE PERCENT CHARGE after charging it for about 20 minutes.They ended up keeping it overnight to try to recharge it.
Anyone have any ideas about what’s going on here??
One thing I learned, because I actually argued with the service manager about it, is that theres a software limit to charging. Basically, if there are 10 “abnormal” charging conditions (it’s actually states this in thr manual somewhere), the car stops charging the battery, but also does not tell you that this is happening (really Kia!!!)… So if you get the recall, and your battery is already shot, which it likely is, the car will just stop charging it, and not tell you aside from you coming back to a bad battery.
The dealer just replacing the battery fixed this issue for me. Could be an actual iccu issue… But also could just be a battery that’s already been drained enough times that it’s a gonner and needs to be replaced, the car has stopped charging it, so it’s dead… And the damned car doesn’t warn you… It just leaves you dead in the water …
That’s really interesting. I feel like I read something about that. Another plot twist here is that I bought the car used and someone had replaced the original 12V with a AGM one, so it’s not original.
Update, the 12V won’t hold a charge and they don’t know why. Because previous owner put a non OEM replacement in they want $330+ for new OEM battery. They don’t want to replace it until they can figure out what’s draining it though. They are getting me a loaner car thankfully. Ugh. Not the end of the world just hoped it wouldn’t happen to me
Good: They want to try and figure out what is draining the battery. Unless there was something wrong with the AGM battery (always possible), something must be causing excessive draw.
Bad: $330 put in another shitty Kia lead acid battery is highway robbery. Their standard OEM batteries are absolutely horrible. $330 is crazy amount of money for them to be charging, it has about a $100 street price from online Kia parts dealers (plus shipping of course, but that would be $50 worst case). If they happen to be opting to put in a Kia AGM, that’s a little better, but you can buy your own for $180 at Walmart (EverStart Platinum AGM) or Costco (Interstate AGM).
Catch is, you’re probably going to be stuck with a diagnostic fee due to the non-OEM battery, but they may “waive” that if you get another OEM battery from them. In reality, that’s just being built into the absurd price they are charging for the battery. They also aren’t going to be interested in putting in 3rd party battery you bring them, but they may be willing to put the car out in the lot and you install your own outside the shop.
As far as what killed the battery, do you happen to be using Kia Connect a lot (like constantly checking it), or did you grant any 3rd party services access via Kia Connect, like a power company that does time-of-day based rates or something along those lines? Even if they did the recall update without 12v charger hooked up, being an AGM battery, it shouldn’t have gotten killed entirely by that where it won’t take a charge any longer
Yeah, the service advisor mentioned that they are putting in only AGM batteries, and that it was because it wasn’t an interstate brand was the reason. I’ve bought about a dozen 12V batteries in my life so far including a few bigger AGM, so I agree the price is bonkers. I will definitely check because that price for a standard lead acid battery is way too much.
I do use the Kia connect maybe 4-5 times a day. Mostly if someone forgets to lock the door, or to check if the car is actually charging (sometimes after a long road trip it will charge for 30 minutes and stop). I don’t think it’s excessive. I’m not using any third party apps, after reading people had similar issues I was trying to not run into this problem lol.
There are some folks with battery monitors on their 12V who have posted graphs of the hit the 12V takes whenever Kia Connect is fired up to talk to the car, it’s a pretty significant voltage hit. I really can’t say if that frequency of use is a root cause, but certainly a contributing factor to potential 12V issues.
Under normal scenario, when the car is OFF and it see the 12V drop below a certain voltage, it connects the HV battery and charge the 12V back to the correct voltage. There is logic in this process that there is a “10 attempts” limit, meaning if it can’t successfully charge the battery back to the desired voltage after 10 attempts, it stops this process. The 10 attempts will reset the next time the car is turned on then off.
if the 12V battery has gotten to some degraded state in general (age, heavy discharge cycles, etc), and then you throw on external loads like frequent Kia Connect use, it’s possible you were ending up in this cycle where the car would stop to try and charge the 12V battery, and then you would put load on it (ie. Kia Connect), drawing it down even further, all eventually leading to the battery being totally dead.
That’s also theory of course, you would have had to been monitoring battery voltage (or the orange light on the dash) to see if this was in play. I would think there is data in one of the cars ECU’s about charge attempts and timing of it, but have never seen anyone say they were able to get that info from a dealer pulling it, or finding it via a 3rd party OBD2 scanning app.
Same exact thing happened to mine when they did the update. They tried to sell me a $300 battery. I left and went to Costco and got one for $180 and put it in. I guess the car died when they did the update and they didn’t even pay attention. Trash dealership trash update. Seems like this is a common issue with the update recall
My Kia dealership did this as well. Firmware update choked half-way through because the idiot tech didn’t connect a trickle charger before beginning. Thankfully it didn’t brick the computer. But it added a couple of hours to my wait.
Next time I take the car for service, which will be for the ICCU check-up, I’ll trickle charge the 12V myself before taking to the dealer to ensure it’s topped. I’ve also since installed an AGM battery.
Here’s a odd question. Has anyone replaced the 12v with either a sodium ion or lithium ion replacement? Not had this issue yet on my 2023, but I’m guessing it’s coming.
A lot of people have chosen to get 12v LFP batteries. Ohmmu was really popular but then someone opened one up in a YouTube video and it was horrendous inside. I would never buy one of there batteries.
There are a number of other options out there. I would be concerned about any random Chinese brand being just as bad as Ohmmu inside. There are some other brands sold under american labels that may be better, but no one has opened them up. Those batteries are also sold for $600-1000, which is a steep price to pay for a battery. The LFP’s are all touted as “last 10 years” but I’ve only seen 1 company actually offer a 10 year warranty and the battery is $1000. I’ve seen $500+ LFP batteries with 1 year warranty only, which is totally absurd. I’ve seen some with 3-4 which isn’t bad, but if you are touting technology that is supposed to last 3x that of a regular battery, I expect better warranty coverage, because I can get that same warranty on a regular battery.
For me, being in the US, when you consider the fact that you can get an AGM battery for $180 with a 4 year non-prorated warranty (EverStart Platinum at Walmart), which you can get replaced at any Walmart in the country, there is zero reason to spend $500+ on a LFP battery. Those LFP batteries may or may not last as long as they say, and if you need a warranty replacement, you’re now probably dealing with shipping, a major hassle for batteries.
I haven’t seen anyone with sodium 12V. The availability of sodium 12V batteries is so new, there won’t be any meaningful sample size to make an informed decision on them.
Fair warning about the everstart Walmart battery. As many Walmart stores have closed their automotive departments you are SOL getting the warranty honored. Bought one for my versa. Battery failed in one year. Took an hour and a half for the service desk to figure out how to honor the warranty.
Say what you want about auto stores. Autozone tends to be a 10 minute affair.
