Brakes seized on new Soul EV after 10 months

[ottsoul]

I'm located in Ottawa (Canada) and got my new Soul EV in April 2016. 10 months later and with only 11575km (7234 miles) on the odometer, I found out today that the brakes on the car are seized. The dealer estimated about $200-$300 CAD to fix the issue. I only found out after bringing in the car for it's first maintenance checkup.

The only indication I had was the brake noise I would hear when driving in reverse. Then once again when I left the car parked indoors for 3 days, I came back and it felt like the brakes were stuck.

Normally the car is driven daily about 38 km, and parked indoors. My garage isn't heated but it is slightly warmer than the outside temperature.

I'm shocked to find out the condition of the brakes after only 10 months. I drive carefully, and mostly in "B" mode. I would have expected the brakes to be in great condition.

In the end I'm grateful the dealer agreed to cover the cost of repairing the brakes. My concern is will this occur again in 10 months?

I think the KIA engineers should have designed the brakes to better withstand winter weather, and the fact that the brakes get used very little due to the regenerative braking.

 

[SoulEV2016]

You use "electric parking brake assistance" ?
(P button ... not the P selector)

but it's cover by the warranty ... no ?

in my contry, the 30 000 km revision schedule a replacment of the brake fluid.

 

[ottsoul]

Are you referring to the electric parking brake? It is the button located in the center console above the ECO button identified as "((P))".

Yes, I do use the electric parking brake when the car is parked indoors.

The dealer said the seized brakes were not covered under warranty by KIA. But the dealership agreed to cover the cost anyway.....I bought the car from them, so maybe it was done to maintain a good customer relationship?

 

[SoulEV2016]

outside temperature ?

 

[EV2016]

I'd be interested in knowing why KIA wouldn't cover it. I know that things like brake PADS and tires and other things that normally aren't covered because they're designed to wear out. I wouldn't think that even if your pads had worn out that that would be the reason the brakes seized. The squeak when you backed up sounds like something wasn't working properly. If it was a wear sensor it should have done it in both directions.

 

[mactech]

My SoulEV 2016 also makes growling noise coming from rear wheels when car is backing up. I noticed it soon after I've got the car. To me it sounded like parking break is not released completely, but the car is not slowing down when going forward and wheels don't get hot. So I just ignore it.
1.5 year and 40000 km later brakes still seem to work fine, other than that noise. Park in a garage, rarely use parking breaks.

 

[SoulEV2016]

Noise can be the arrows ... you must hard press to lock the tablet.

Others noises MUST be report at the local KIA seller ... immediatly (a mecanical guy drive with you and you can notice the noise when they appear).

 

[CarnationSoulEV]

I too have had trouble with my parking brake. It was making noise (the whale song sound) while in reverse. Called dealer and he thought dust on the brakes making noise. We live on a dirt road so sounded reasonable. Took my Soul (2016 bought used) to get seat heater repaired and asked to have parking brake checked. The parking brake had not been releasing completely so I had been driving with it partially engaged. This damaged the rotors. Dealer said it was not a warranty issue because my 12volt battery was out of warranty and low which caused the parking brake to not completely disengage. If this is correct - stupid design. I could still hear the parking brake engage and disengage like normal when it was supposedly not completely released. How would I know when the battery is low and not completely releasing the parking brake? I guess I will have to pay attention to any unusual noise when backing up. Waiting on an answer to this question from Kia. Posted only to have this info online for others.

 

[Kish]

That whaling noise from the rear when backing up is a stuck parking brake? My car has been doing that for over a year and I've been ignoring it, since it just sounded like squeaky suspension. When I bring in the car for service next time I'll have the dealer take a look at it. On the other hand, if it can cause damage to the rotors maybe I should have it look over sooner :roll: Please do keep us updated.

 

[notfred]

Dealer said it was not a warranty issue because my 12volt battery was out of warranty and low which caused the parking brake to not completely disengage.

That is rubbish. When the car is turned on the DC/DC converter will be providing 12V power to charge the 12V battery and run all the 12V electrics including the parking brake. A low 12v battery will only affect things like lock/unlock and the initial turning on of the car. Once the car is turned on then the DC/DC converter is powering everything.

 

[mysoulev]

I too have had trouble with my parking brake. It was making noise (the whale song sound) while in reverse. Called dealer and he thought dust on the brakes making noise. We live on a dirt road so sounded reasonable. Took my Soul (2016 bought used) to get seat heater repaired and asked to have parking brake checked. The parking brake had not been releasing completely so I had been driving with it partially engaged. This damaged the rotors. Dealer said it was not a warranty issue because my 12volt battery was out of warranty and low which caused the parking brake to not completely disengage. If this is correct - stupid design. I could still hear the parking brake engage and disengage like normal when it was supposedly not completely released. How would I know when the battery is low and not completely releasing the parking brake? I guess I will have to pay attention to any unusual noise when backing up. Waiting on an answer to this question from Kia. Posted only to have this info online for others.

Any update from KIA?

my MY16 SoulEV has been making that whaling noise when backing up for over a year as well. When i told the service guy at the dealership he said it was "normal". I also mentioned the clicking noise from braking at slower speed (like just before coming to a stop) and the answer was "normal" as well.

 

[CarnationSoulEV]

I called Kia after not getting a response after 1 week from my email which was assigned a case number. I was told they cannot contact Kia directly to get the answer regarding the 12V battery effecting the parking brake failing to disengage. The CSR told me that I should call or go to another dealer or two and get a second opinion to check if the low 12V battery can cause issues. She said they are the experts that talk to Kia directly for any service repair help. Since I bought my EV used, I wasn't as familiar with the car from the beginning and the change in how it was driving. I did call the dealer and ask about the noise a couple months before taking it in and was told it was probably dust on the brakes. What I have noticed since the repair is when I back up now there is no noise and the car rolls freely in reverse once I take my foot off the brake. Before the repair, I needed to press the gas pedal before the car would roll out of the garage. I've noticed the same thing going forward too. The car rolls easier forward than before once I remove my foot from the brake. I plan on following up further but I'm short on time at the moment and the dealers are 45min away. Big hassle. I will definitely pay attention to any noise I hear backing up and follow up immediately. Also, I hear a clicking noise at the front of the car while braking. It has done that since I bought the car and I thought it was normal.

 

[Oinq]

Dealer said it was not a warranty issue because my 12volt battery was out of warranty and low which caused the parking brake to not completely disengage.

That is rubbish. When the car is turned on the DC/DC converter will be providing 12V power to charge the 12V battery and run all the 12V electrics including the parking brake. A low 12v battery will only affect things like lock/unlock and the initial turning on of the car. Once the car is turned on then the DC/DC converter is powering everything.

I completely agree with @notfred, ask them to put that in written, signed and stamped. You will notice a difference in their tone.

 

[Redwin88]

Regarding a 12V Auxiliary battery (under the hood) causing non-full disengagement of the EPB:

Yes, the DC to DC converter in theory does deliver the 14.4 volts to keep the lead acid house battery charged, but the dynamic timing of the delivered pulse for retracting the EPB (Electronic Parking Brake) vs the wake-up period of said DC to DC converter may not fully jive with good engineering practices.

If the lead acid battery is nearing the end of its useful life (and if the Kia engineer in charge of this sub-system didn't fully vet their design) then the "release" parking brake pulse may not FULLY do its job (obviously, a bad scenario for the car owners).

Remember, only a few engineers are excellent; some do VERY well, most are average, and the rest make many mistakes... (sadly) THIS IS the human experience we all must endure.

I'm not sure what's transpired for these affected owners, but I'm interested to hear any feedback they and others can offer.

 

[DrivingForce]

I too have had trouble with my parking brake. It was making noise (the whale song sound) while in reverse. Called dealer and he thought dust on the brakes making noise. We live on a dirt road so sounded reasonable. Took my Soul (2016 bought used) to get seat heater repaired and asked to have parking brake checked. The parking brake had not been releasing completely so I had been driving with it partially engaged. This damaged the rotors. Dealer said it was not a warranty issue because my 12volt battery was out of warranty and low which caused the parking brake to not completely disengage. If this is correct - stupid design. I could still hear the parking brake engage and disengage like normal when it was supposedly not completely released. How would I know when the battery is low and not completely releasing the parking brake? I guess I will have to pay attention to any unusual noise when backing up. Waiting on an answer to this question from Kia. Posted only to have this info online for others.

Any update from KIA?

my MY16 SoulEV has been making that whaling noise when backing up for over a year as well. When i told the service guy at the dealership he said it was "normal". I also mentioned the clicking noise from braking at slower speed (like just before coming to a stop) and the answer was "normal" as well.

I have both of these sounds in my new to me 2016 Soul EV. 40k miles. The 12V battery sounds plausible to me. I had a weird gremlin on the dash where the GOM bars were flickering. It had the feeling of a battery issue

 

[CarnationSoulEV]

I took my car to another dealer for a 2nd opinion not long after the first dealer said the rotors were damaged. The 2nd dealer said everything looked great and they didn't see any damage to the rotors. They also had no idea what was making the whale noise. I gave up at that point. I have gotten a new battery and I just heard the noise again today. Not sure if the cool, rainy weather is causing it to be noisy again.
I recently went back to my nearest dealer (1st dealer) to get the software upgrade so the car could not roll backward while parked and turned off. This happened to me once about 6 months ago. I parked the car in the garage, took groceries into the house and returned to the car to see it roll backward about 3 feet and jerk to a stop. I always use my parking brake but wondered if I could have pulled on the brake then put it in park thus going through reverse which would disengage the brake. Either way, it was in park with the charging door open. I Contacted the NHTSA and got several calls from Kia. Took my car to the dealer and left it so they could go through a long testing process. Mechanics at the dealer thought I was nuts. Nothing found. I guess Kia decided they should at least upgrade the parking brake to engage automatically when the car is powered off. Anyhow, the service guy told me that when they got the notice regarding rolling in park, their mechanics went out to their electric Souls (older models) on the lot, put them in park and rolled the cars backward. Maybe the fix will stop that problem. It should have been done long ago.

 

[notfred]

I have both of these sounds in my new to me 2016 Soul EV. 40k miles. The 12V battery sounds plausible to me. I had a weird gremlin on the dash where the GOM bars were flickering. It had the feeling of a battery issue

The bottom sectors of the GOM flashing has been seen since the Soul EV first came out. It seems to be just a harmless bug in the GOM, not related to 12V battery. I've had it happen with a 12V battery that was fine.

 

[DrivingForce]

Any idea if there is a way to test the 12V battery via OBDII scanner? I have a Bluetooth one. I don't know if it's really useful to load test since there is nothing to "crank" like with a gas car.

 

[notfred]

Load test is the only way to test a battery properly. It needs to be able to power the brake pump and lots of lights etc before the car is turned on and the DCDC converter can drive things.

You can always use the bluetooth dongle as a voltmeter to read the battery voltage https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54568402/how-to-get-the-battery-voltage-of-a-car-using-obd-2 but pay attention to whether you are measuring the battery or the DCDC converter.

 

[IanL]

Something like this is good. However, I have a suspicion that the battery monitor (black box on the +ve terminal) can cause false readings, so I would disconnect the +ve terminal before applying the meter.