Missing coolant and refill alert unfixable

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snowy2020

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So, long story short...had my coolant flushed at 37.5k mi per the maintenance manual. Since then, the coolant has been slowly going down. I mean very slowly. The alert came on to refill the coolant after a couple of thousand miles. We were told it was probably just air bubbles working their way out, and got a top off. A thousand miles later, it was down again to the middle between the max and min, but the Refill Coolant alert was coming on frequently. Went back and they checked for leaks, couldn't find any. They told us they had no loaners so we could wait until next week to drop it off. Next week, still no loaners, so we just dropped it. Trip #4!

They had it for a week, contacted Kia and ran tests, and they tell us this is a "known issue". They say there's nothing leaking, it has been flushed again and they made sure there are no air bubbles, but that Kia engineers are working on a fix for this known issue. And that's it. No fix so far, we're just taking it home and hoping for the best.

My next step is to contact Kia directly and ask what the plan is, ETA on the "fix". They say it's perfectly drivable, but I'll be checking frequently to make sure the coolant doesn't go all the way down below the min level marker.

Posting this hoping it will be helpful to others. I haven't seen any mention of this "known issue" anywhere else. I might know more when I contact Kia.
 
I had a similar experience a couple years ago...not after flushing, but coolant was low. They had the vehicle for a few days, said they couldn't find a leak, refilled it...well, so far, so good, but one wonders if there is a hidden issue...
 
CR EV said:
I had a similar experience a couple years ago...not after flushing, but coolant was low. They had the vehicle for a few days, said they couldn't find a leak, refilled it...well, so far, so good, but one wonders if there is a hidden issue...
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Hopefully Kia will tell me more. They said it’s something their engineers are working on. I didn’t find any recalls or TSBs for it. It’s been happening for *counts* 6,000 miles now and has been refilled 3 times.
 
If anyone's interested...I've tried to contact Kia twice and they don't respond. The light doesn't seem to be coming on, but it does appear to be slowly going down still. I'll have to wait a couple of thousand miles to see if it is lower than the max fill line (that's how slow it leaks).

This is the first service I've had with the car and my first dealing with the dealer and Kia...really disappointed so far.
 
Great car...service a bit spotty at some dealerships. Do you have another one not too far away?
 
CR EV said:
Great car...service a bit spotty at some dealerships. Do you have another one not too far away?
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I don’t. But other than leaving me high and dry without a loaner for a week, the dealer doesn’t seem to be the issue. They had to go through Kia for diagnostics and that’s who told them it’s a known issue with no fix. I’ve been trying to contact Kia corporate to find out more about this issue and that’s the dead end. My next step is to just keep calling periodically and buy a bottle of EV coolant and keep records of when I refill it.
 
My dealer (only had to add once in 3 years, btw) refills for free under warranty. I have been told that the battery coolant fluid is not for sale to end users, that you can't just get some blue stuff and add it. Maybe that has changed since I had to look at the issue, but caution advised.
 
CR EV said:
My dealer (only had to add once in 3 years, btw) refills for free under warranty. I have been told that the battery coolant fluid is not for sale to end users, that you can't just get some blue stuff and add it. Maybe that has changed since I had to look at the issue, but caution advised.
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The dealer is 40min away so getting a top off isn’t the most convenient even at the price of free. I guess I’ll find out…when I left last time I asked if they sold the coolant in case I keep having to refill it before a fix is released and they said they did, but who knows. I haven’t been able to find it online.
 
Mine (2020) shows the "refill inverter fluid" warning every few days even though my fluid levels are higher than max. Happens more often during hotter days. I turn the car off then restart with the driver door open. Most of the time it works. There was only 1 day that I had to drive it around a few miles before restarting to.get the light to go away. Sometimes, burping it also helps.
 
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Sakani Gadik said:
Mine (2020) shows the "refill inverter fluid" warning every few days even though my fluid levels are higher than max. Happens more often during hotter days. I turn the car off then restart with the driver door open. Most of the time it works. There was only 1 day that I had to drive it around a few miles before restarting to.get the light to go away. Sometimes, burping it also helps.
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Did it start after you had the coolant flushed?
 
If anyone is interested, Kia has basically abandoned us. They say there’s nothing they can do, I’ve contacted them twice again and they give the same spiel. Their engineers are working on the issue.

Coolant refill light still comes on at least once a day. Turning off the car and back on clears it, but it’s annoying. Coolant still seems to be slowly disappearing. It’s not even to the mid point between high and low after 4K miles since last refilling yet but…clearly it’s going somewhere.

47k on the car now. Warranty has proven worthless.
 
snowy2020 said:
If anyone is interested, Kia has basically abandoned us. They say there’s nothing they can do, I’ve contacted them twice again and they give the same spiel. Their engineers are working on the issue.

Coolant refill light still comes on at least once a day. Turning off the car and back on clears it, but it’s annoying. Coolant still seems to be slowly disappearing. It’s not even to the mid point between high and low after 4K miles since last refilling yet but…clearly it’s going somewhere.

47k on the car now. Warranty has proven worthless.
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Lemon Law? Threaten them and ask for what you need to refill yourself without trekking to them.
 
CR EV said:
Lemon Law? Threaten them and ask for what you need to refill yourself without trekking to them.
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My state's lemon laws are really bad...so I don't qualify. I'd probably have to hire a legal representative to get anywhere. I need to check again but the coolant doesn't seem to be going down much anymore...the refill inverter coolant warning light just constantly comes on and won't go away unless you restart the car (the coolant isn't below the mid mark). I contacted Kia again last week and they gave me the same canned response. My options seem to be to sell the car or just live with it and hope Kia eventually offers a solution (I'm guessing they won't, I doubt they are even working on it).
 
I think that we are going to see an on-going issue with companies, and particularly dealers, for whom EV's are secondary to ICE vehicles. My dealer has one guy who is the EV specialist. I had an AC issue last summer and had to wait over 2 weeks for an appointment because they wanted him on it. I have another EV from an EV only company (Rivian truck). Obviously, everyone there is an EV specialist. Coolest thing is they come to where I am since I'm about 70 miles from their service center. upload_2022-11-22_10-34-6.webp
 
KiwiME said:
I assume we're talking about the blue low-conductivity coolant? Do you think this might be related to the crystallisation issue Ioniq owners with the same coolant are seeing?
Long thread starting here:
https://www.ioniqforum.com/threads/coolant-warning.38495
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Yep, looks like the same issue. Seems like Kia/Hyundai have a serious design flaw that they aren't admitting to. Add this to the motor defect. I guess this is a result of being an early adopter with a company that doesn't have much experience making cars.
 
It’s been almost a year now. Contacted Kia again and the same brushoff. It’s pretty clear Kia will not be repairing my car. My lemon laws in my state are garbage, so I’m not sure what my next steps will be. Seems pretty stupid to have to replace the car because of such a small issue but it’s really annoying having to constantly reset the car to be able to use the instrument panel. I’m at 55k miles now. First and last Kia I’ll be buying.
 
March 2023, a full year after the defect began, and still no fix available. Now we can’t even clear the light by resetting the car. It just stays on the dash blocking everything. It’s also developed a motor ticking at low speeds, and a hum almost like a gas engine at highway speeds. We tried having it looked at and Kia said “it’s normal”. We’ve got the paperwork to begin a buyback but we aren’t hopeful given Kia’s garbage customer service and dealers telling us that obvious problems are just “a normal feature of the vehicle”.

We just want this lousy car gone.
 
snowy2020 said:
March 2023, a full year after the defect began, and still no fix available. Now we can’t even clear the light by resetting the car. It just stays on the dash blocking everything. It’s also developed a motor ticking at low speeds, and a hum almost like a gas engine at highway speeds. We tried having it looked at and Kia said “it’s normal”. We’ve got the paperwork to begin a buyback but we aren’t hopeful given Kia’s garbage customer service and dealers telling us that obvious problems are just “a normal feature of the vehicle”.

We just want this lousy car gone.
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Is this the same ticking that is plaguing the Hyundai Kona Electric owners?
 
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