Good to hear positive results for a change. Where about in the North does your Niro roam?
Tapping or Creaking Noise when coasting at low speed
- Thread starter wizziwig
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David T in Silicon Valley
Active Member
See if you can reach out to some of the folks here who have had the problem in a DM and see if they can share paperwork from their repair process. If you show it to your dealer, it might save you the initial heartache of trying to prove it is not normal. yvesalf, wizziwig, mf989 and sone others in this thread have already run this gauntlet. maybe just getting you repair shop to talk to theirs will work.
Mine started at almost 18000 miles and constant on all regen levels and even on regn0 you can hear it just for a second as soon as accelerator is released. Took it to the dealer (King Kia, Gaithersburg) yesterday and they did acknowledge the tapping sound and they were waiting for the Kia techline to tell that what to do. They did replace my water pump.
That's the highest mileage I've seen for first developing this problem. Makes me worry that even my new motor (only ~2500 miles) will eventually start this noise again. What a tragic design flaw in an otherwise best EV for the price/size/range.
Best advice I can give to anyone trying to get this repaired is to leave the car at the dealer instead of driving with this issue. In my case, they took over a week of running various tests requested by KIA before determining it was the motor. Eventually they gave me a loaner while waiting for the new motor. With the car out of service for an extended period, you have a much better chance of successful lemon-law claim if it ever comes to that.
Best advice I can give to anyone trying to get this repaired is to leave the car at the dealer instead of driving with this issue. In my case, they took over a week of running various tests requested by KIA before determining it was the motor. Eventually they gave me a loaner while waiting for the new motor. With the car out of service for an extended period, you have a much better chance of successful lemon-law claim if it ever comes to that.
Forgot another tip. Go for a ride with the service tech to clearly demonstrate the noise issue so they know exactly what it sounds like and how to reproduce it. If they think it's normal, take them for another ride in a new Niro EV off the lot to compare. Would have saved me a lot of time if I did that on my first service visit instead of just dropping off the car and going home.
I would also not recommend delaying repairs if you hear this issue. It's not just an annoyance and could have dangerous results. On one of the Dutch forums, someone mentioned that an axle broke off the transmission on a dealer demo car after they continued using it for test drives while waiting for parts to repair this noise issue. People often tend to floor the accelerator during test drives so maybe that contributed to such drastic failure.
I would also not recommend delaying repairs if you hear this issue. It's not just an annoyance and could have dangerous results. On one of the Dutch forums, someone mentioned that an axle broke off the transmission on a dealer demo car after they continued using it for test drives while waiting for parts to repair this noise issue. People often tend to floor the accelerator during test drives so maybe that contributed to such drastic failure.
David T in Silicon Valley
Active Member
HOLY MOLY! I guess something must have finally locked up completely in the drive train for that to happen.
Well with that kind of failure, this smells like a design or common build flaw (FOD? Something not aligned properly?) that is going to be recall worthy at some point. If I were Kia (and Hyundai for that matter), I would beguiling out the stops with engineering tests, careful breakdown of problem vehicles with parts inspections and design analyses to figure out WTF is going on before this becomes a DOT thing in the US, which will look very bad. It is worth dropping a few $100k even on a product line that they may be taking a loss on to protect the brand.
I have been wondering what mileage this is kicking in at in Europe, and if it is the same "right off the lot" to "18000 miles" we are hearing about here.
I had expected my service center to replace the motor but they said the traction control unit was bad and they have ordered a replacement. I dont know how traction control works or how it is related to the sound we are experiencing, have to wait and see. Hopefully they know what they are doing. Using a loaner car for now and expecting the part to come in the next few day.
Pretty quick delivery, maybe there is hope after all
Quick update. Took the car in this week and went for a drive with the tech. Unfortunately I made an early AM appt, and the sound usually takes awhile to become pronounced, so the tech basically said that's normal and/or it's the VESS (which it most certainly is not). He also advised that since my mileage is so low, things may still be breaking in. Anyway, I have a road trip coming up so I'm going to make another appt after that, and I'm also planning to record the sound to take in to help make the case. I'll post the sound recording here once I get it done.
This forum really needs a way to edit older posts. Small error above. I meant 20,000 miles or 32000 km.
Got my car back after over 2 weeks at the service center, they replaced the traction control motor and it was part number 711, the sound is completely gone, but now i have a new issue that i noticed on my drive today. It is not braking properly on regen3 and it was very scary on the highway, it was like when you are driving in snow and apply brake felt jerky with some sound like it bumped into something and also a message popped up, orange in color with turtle symbol saying LIMITED POWER. It did not happen in regn1, I will be taking it to the dealer again tomorrow.
David T in Silicon Valley
Active Member
Wow. That is crazy. sounds like something physically changed position from the deceleration from the braking. Maybe they did not tighten something down properly when they reassembled. This probably makes not difference, but were you using the paddle, the foot brake, or was this the auto braking with the radar deciding to slow something down?