brakes failed

[friendl]

Update: I took my car back to the Kia dealership and they sent out a technician from Kia Canada. They did not find anything wrong with the car and have deemed this to be a driver error. Obviously I do not feel safe driving this car anymore. I live in a very hilly area and having the brakes fail at any point could be fatal.

As I had leased the car, the only option I have been provided with is to buy-out the lease and sell it back to the dealership at a "used and damaged" price. By the time the dust settles, the cost to me will be over $12 000 and in the end I have NO CAR and responsible for higher insurance premiums (ICBC also deems this to be default driver error unless proven otherwise). This car is <24 hours off the lot, ~200 km on the odometer (had 120 before I drove it) and is deemed 100% safe by Kia.

I am beyond frustrated and will be writing letters to Kia Canada. Any suggestions? For those that have had similar concerns, if you are willing to have your name put into a letter, please let me know.

 

[SoulEV2016]

change the pneumatic/hydraulic assistance from the pedale brake command.

this problem has been report on many Leaf (very high difference between the regeneration braking and the mecanical brake level of the pedal).

http://www.kiapartsnow.com/genuine/kia-pressure-source~586204u500.html

Otther tip before you drive :
1) activate your car (ON)
2) pump on the brake pedal (5 times)
3) drive
4) ALWAYS use the electric brake parking (auto-disabled when you move from P to D or B).

do the same everytime you take the car (or when you activate the ON/OFF switch).

 

[Timguy]

hey guys. im new to the forum. i dont own a soul ev YET but im hoping to pull the trigger on a 2017.

im pretty concerned about this brake failure issue. i live in hamilton ontario and as anyone whos been here knows we have an escarpment that splits the city. i have to travel up and down this escarpment daily for work. having a brake failure like im reading about is a major concern.

i recently test drove a 2016 luxury for an hour or so. it seemed to drive great and the brakes gave me no issue. it had 125 km on the clock. i did find it very odd how the brakes engaged tho. almost a disconnected feeling and i guess i know why.
ill be looking forward to any updates on this issues.

 

[JejuSoul]

We don't really know much about this error yet. 99.99% of drivers have not had this problem.
In the few cases where it has occurred Kia could find nothing wrong.
It is the most serious flaw currently mentioned, so worth keeping track of to see what is causing this issue, but not something that would cause me to worry when going out in the car. Here in Jeju it is bad drivers that cause most of the accidents not bad cars.

 

[user 285]

I've been thinking about the 'brake failure' issue for a while. Something occurred to me: there is a difference between an EV and an ICE when it comes to pedal misapplication. In an ICE, if you're in Neutral and you press the accelerator when you mean to press the brake, the pedal goes to the floor and there's a loud roaring noise. In an EV the pedal goes to the floor and nothing happens and then you panic.

For me the moral of the story is never use Neutral. If you're waiting in a queue, use D or B. The computer knows you've got your foot on the brake so it's not straining the motor or anything. And if you're actually stopped, use P (and maybe apply the EPB).

 

[mtndrew1]

I forgot to post here, but my dealer replaced my iBAU due to excessive clunking/banging noises. The new unit is silent in the regen/friction transition and while creeping at low speeds. These were the conditions which made the most noise before.

 

[mysoulev]

clunking/banging noises

no banging noise but definitely some clunking noise when braking since day 1, another SoulEV owner told me she heard the same noise, took it to dealer once but the guy pretended he didn't know what i was talking about.

 

[mtndrew1]

clunking/banging noises

no banging noise but definitely some clunking noise when braking since day 1, another SoulEV owner told me she heard the same noise, took it to dealer once but the guy pretended he didn't know what i was talking about.

This is what they told me at first as well. When the dealer's master mechanic drove it he immediately identified the noise as a defective iBAU and replaced it. Dead silent now.

 

[ralyon]

For me the moral of the story is never use Neutral. If you're waiting in a queue, use D or B. The computer knows you've got your foot on the brake so it's not straining the motor or anything. And if you're actually stopped, use P (and maybe apply the EPB).

Would be easier if they hadn't added that acceleration when you lift off the brake. Would make putting the car into Neutral irrelevant.

 

[SoulEV2016]

... use the Electric Brake Parking ... in B.
easy.

i use many of time (on flat or downhill ... yes, downhill !) when i'm to lazy to push a long time, the pedal brake (on A STOP, not when i drive !).

Electric Brake Parking is automaticly disengage when you push the throttle.

 

[notfred]

Yup, totally agree with SoulEV2016. Just leave the car in B all the time and any time you actually stop for more than 2 secs pull the parking brake. When the way is clear, just press the pedal to go.

Everything is linked together on the main CAN bus. Pressing the accelerator pedal will be picked up by the parking brake controller and it will release the parking brake automatically.

 

[ralyon]

I'll definitely give that a try, sounds like a halfway decent way around it.

 

[JejuSoul]

This thread was started about brake failure. There are two unconfirmed reports of this. If this occurs when driving this is a very serious fault. But according to Kia there was nothing wrong in these 2 cases. I would like to keep this page for the specific discussion of brake failure.

There have been many reports including videos of the brakes making a clunking sound. This has led to the replacement of the IBAU. I am not aware that this clunking is a safety issue. There is already a thread that discusses the IBAU - Check Brake warning. Can we move the general discussion of the brakes there.

 

[rkleivel]

i was out of town this weekend and my wife took my car to drop off my mother in law at a bus stop. as she was pulling into a parking spot, she couldn't get the car to brake. end result, the car bumped into a convenience store and stopped. i was out of town so my wife called aaa and they had it towed to an in network facility. i called Kia yesterday to report this and they said they'd have someone get in touch w/ the shop. it would likely be towed to a local dealer.

i searched online to see if i could find any other instances of this happening and didn't find anything (not that i was expecting to since this car is so new that the sample size can't be that big). obviously this is a no joke but i just don't know what to do other than wait to see what they find. i love this car but this is definitely a huge concern. one of the cops at the scene was giving my wife a bit of a hard time saying that cases like this (understandably so) are usually due to the driver hitting the gas and not the brakes but my contention is that this is an EV. if she was stomping on the gas, the car would have totally plowed into the storefront instead of not even cracking the windshield. No airbags were deployed. my wife and mother in law walked out totally fine and even my 3 yr old in the middle in the back wasn't even scared. she told me over the phone later that morning that "daddy, your car bumped into a store!" :lol: this happened around 7:20 in the morning.

anybody experience any issues at all w/ their brakes?

This is exactly what I am experiencing with my Soul EV 2016 here in Norway. It started some weeks ago, and is getting more and more frequent.
It only happens when the car has been left for at least 5-6 hours (typically during night or a working day). When using the brakes for the first time, I can press it to the bottom, but the brakes don't engage until it has been a couple of seconds. Releasing the pedal and trying again it is quite OK. Puming a few times and it is just as normal.
When this happens the pedal feels just as normal (same resistance etc), but I can press it to the end stop without getting any mentionable effect at the brake disks.
So I'm very eager to know if @carverbaby found any solution to this, or if it happened more times. Luckily I have not had any accident with this (yet), but it has been close a couple of times...

 

[tractioninc]

If you have not already done so, please report this to your Kia dealer RIGHT AWAY.

 

[carverbaby]

I turned mine in once my lease was up. Kia has done their 'investigation' and claimed there is nothing wrong.
What really gets me about how it all went down is that prior to their inspection, I was repeatedly reassured that they have 'little black boxes' that record everything in an accident eg when and whether the brakes were pressed and the response (which I had to press them for) was that the car was traveling too slow so the recorders never started. They basically denied/refused to acknowledge anything. Hopefully whoever gets this same car doesn't run into any similar issues. Off the top of my head the last four of the VIN were 1192 I believe

 

[carverbaby]

Update: I took my car back to the Kia dealership and they sent out a technician from Kia Canada. They did not find anything wrong with the car and have deemed this to be a driver error. Obviously I do not feel safe driving this car anymore. I live in a very hilly area and having the brakes fail at any point could be fatal.

As I had leased the car, the only option I have been provided with is to buy-out the lease and sell it back to the dealership at a "used and damaged" price. By the time the dust settles, the cost to me will be over $12 000 and in the end I have NO CAR and responsible for higher insurance premiums (ICBC also deems this to be default driver error unless proven otherwise). This car is <24 hours off the lot, ~200 km on the odometer (had 120 before I drove it) and is deemed 100% safe by Kia.

I am beyond frustrated and will be writing letters to Kia Canada. Any suggestions? For those that have had similar concerns, if you are willing to have your name put into a letter, please let me know.

I haven't been on this forum in a long time, just saw that one of my messages was quoted so I got back on here to check but I am definitely willing to have my name put down in any complaint communication you have.

 

[notfred]

I have not had brake failure, but I may have some insight in to what is going on.

I've now had my 2016 for 2.5 years so I'm very used to just jumping in it, pressing the brake pedal as I'm sitting down and hitting the power button. Over the past couple of months there have been a couple of occasions when I've felt the brake pedal feel different - twice it has stuck at the top before then sinking to the normal 2/3 depressed position, and once it has gone all the way down to the end stop. Taking my foot off the brake pedal and pressing it again and everything is normal. It brakes normally when driving.

We know that the brake unit has to pump up the pressure and it does that as you open the drivers door (noticeable sound in a quiet garage). I think a couple of times I've caught it as it is doing this and going through some form of self test. The ABS capability means that it can generate pressure and release pressure in the brake lines and I suspect that I've caught it at the wrong time in its self test a couple of times, either generating pressure so the pedal is rock solid, or releasing pressure so the pedal goes to the floor.

I wonder if the failures may have been either a problem in the brake unit or a problem in the power to the brake unit so it does a new self test when driving?

Remember that the Electric Parking Brake is actually quite powerful and that is a way to stop the car if you do ever have brake issues!

 

[carverbaby]

If they did find any problems, they certainly didn't mention it to me. I turned in the car at the end of my lease. Hope this doesn't happen to the next driver

 

[vifrus]

OK, guys, it seems I just totaled 2017 Soul EV yesterday, 3000miles odometer, 2 months old... same issue with brakes.. front car suddenly stopped I pressed brake pedal hard as I could... but the car did not slow down properly, as the normal (non-electric car) would do.. the brakes were like pressing a rubber ball.. the car just continued slowly moving forward until it hit the front car.. called Kia, we'll see what happens...