PSA: Kia Recall for HECU Multi Fuse Replacement - Issued 9 October 2024

SimbaGirl on 10/10/2024 - 15:20
Last edited 10/10/2024 - 17:01 by 1 other user

Kia has just issued a recall for more than 100,000 vehicles for an issue which can result in an engine compartment fire and Kia website FAQs regarding the recall. This is a serious issue, and Kia advises the car be parked outside and "away from structures" until the repair is carried out.

Models affected are:

Model Year 2011-2013 AM Soul
Model Year 2009-2013 SL Sportage
Model Year 2013 SLe Sportage
Model Year 2009-2010 KM Sportage
Model Year TD 2011-2013 Cerato
Model Year 2010-2015 TF Optima
Model Year 2011-2015 XM Sorento
Model Year 2011-2016 UB Rio
Model Year 2010-2013 UN Carens
Model Year 2013-2019 RP Rondo

Kia is sending out letters to owners, however if you want to check if your vehicle is affected, I would suggest not relying solely on the VIN search on the Kia website - I have a 2011 Cerato TD and their website shows no recalls for it (as of today, don't know whether they haven't updated all the relevant VINs yet), however when I check the list linked on this page, the VIN is listed.

Automotive Car Kia Kia Carens Kia Rondo Kia Soul SUV

Related Stores

Kia Australia
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Comments

  • pegaxs on 10/10/2024 - 15:29
    +3

    for an issue which can result in an engine compartment fire… and Kia advises the car be parked outside and "away from structures"

    lol… petrol cars don’t catch on fire

    • SimbaGirl on 10/10/2024 - 16:15
      +2

      No, of course they don't ….

      "Globally, EV FireSafe found about 0.0012% of electric passenger vehicles caught fire from 2010 to 2023. While it was difficult to find similar global statistics for petrol and diesel vehicles, EV Firesafe used a range of country reports and found a much higher 0.1% risk of catching fire. That’s more than 80 times the rate EV Firesafe found for electric vehicles."

      "A May 2023 report by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency found vehicles powered by internal combustion engines were 20 times more likely to catch fire than electric vehicles in Sweden. Out of Sweden’s 611,000 electric vehicles, 23 fires (0.004%) were reported. The fleet of 4.4 million petrol and diesel vehicles recorded 3,400 fires (0.08%).

  • Taro Milk Tea on 10/10/2024 - 16:00
    +2

    Replace KIA with GWM/MG//Chery/BYD and you will get completely different narratives here

    • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 10/10/2024 - 17:15
      +1

      And despite this Haval have never had a mass recall like this which makes them far more reliable and safer.

      • JakeyJooJoo on 10/10/2024 - 23:58
        +2

        To be fair, haval have been purchased en mass for like ten minutes.
        Give it 5 more years, they'll have recalls too. Hard to not have some things go that way. I don't think it's really fair to be too hard on a maker in most cases. If you build it right, and it passes QA, sometimes shit just doesn't hold up over time as expected.

        • WoodYouLikeSomeCash on 11/10/2024 - 17:26

          They’ve been around for decades in other countries. No recalls.

          • JakeyJooJoo on 11/10/2024 - 21:37

            @WoodYouLikeSomeCash: You're absolutely full of it, they've only just existed more than a decade, and recently started selling en mass to first world countries.

            Hardly see how selling in third world countries is at all comparable, given the lesser consumer protections around recalls.

            We're literally in the 'wait and see' stage of haval as a brand. Claiming they're either garbage, or superior is just baseless, time will tell.

  • MS Paint on 10/10/2024 - 17:02
    +1

    Model Year 2010-2013 UN Carens

    This one will be complaining to management.

    • mapax on 10/10/2024 - 17:23
      -1

      I want cOmPeNzAtIoN why won’t you think of my children.

      • MS Paint on 10/10/2024 - 17:23
        +3

        Level 11 - Karen ✅

  • Ryk on 10/10/2024 - 17:54
    +1

    Recalls on 15 yr old cars, well done.

  • GordonD on 10/10/2024 - 18:10
    +2

    It looks like one of those absurdly improbable scenarios that require multiple worst-case things to happen simultaneously.

    The power has to stay on to the HECU, rather than cutting off when the ignition is turned off.

    There has to be a water leak into the HECU.

    The water leak into the ECU has to cause a short that starts a fire.

    This is like your home computer staying on when you thought it was off, and a leak in the roof and the ceiling during heavy rain happening to be directly over it, and causes it to catch fire and burn down your house. Rather than just going pffft and not turning on next time you wanted to use it like low voltage electronics stuff does.

    • coffeeinmyveins on 10/10/2024 - 19:00
      +1

      When you have hundreds of thousands of these cars on the road, that ever so tiny chance becomes an almost certainty.

    • SimbaGirl on 10/10/2024 - 20:20

      It doesn’t have to be water, the recall refers to “moisture” - there have been previous recalls regarding an HECU issue with Kia vehicles (and I think Hyundai as well?) and numerous articles indicate the fires which have occurred in vehicles overseas to date were caused by internal brake fluid leaks shorting out the HECU.

  • dan2k on 11/10/2024 - 08:34

    our 2012 Accent is on the list - I received the recall notice this week.

  • Crossgates on 12/10/2024 - 10:55
    +1

    Thanks OP - got a TD Cerato that we purchased used a decade ago and never informed Kia of change of ownership, wouldn't have known about the recall if you hadn't posted this!

    • SimbaGirl on 12/10/2024 - 13:16

      You’re welcome :). I bought mine secondhand a couple of years ago from my Dad when he had to give up driving. I don’t know whether Kia have access to current rego details etc for ownership for the letters being sent out, but if not, they’d still have Dad as the original owner, he’s deceased now and the house was sold, so anything sent to that address wouldn’t get passed on to me.

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