Kia found OBC unit & battery cells to be faulty!

[nickb64]

We took our 2015 Soul EV in to Kia of Cerritos a few times over the last month, and on the third time they had it in they tell us Kia has authorized them to replace the battery pack. I was told last Wednesday that they would have the part in about a week, but that they would update me by Friday. They didn't call Friday, so I plan to call Monday morning to hopefully get an update. I hope they don't tell me it will be a month to get a battery, but we couldn't deal with the steadily decreasing range estimates and constant need to charge at public stations.

Our experience was complicated by the fact that we initially brought the car in the first time several weeks ago because the wall plug on our Level 1 charger melted in the outlet it had been plugged into for the last year in our garage. When that happened, the car discharged from 93% charge to 74% as reported by UVO. Unfortunately we were told that the basic charger is not covered under warranty at all and would be almost $1300 to replace from Kia. We're looking into alternatives from Clipper Creek and exploring the idea of running a new circuit for a L2 charger installation in the garage instead.

 

[SoulEV2016]

Unfortunately we were told that the basic charger is not covered under warranty at all and would be almost $1300 to replace from Kia.

:shock: it's the cord or the charger (onboard charger) ?
if it's the cord, build it !!! (like me)

http://www.mykiasoulev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=434&view=unread#p7443

 

[curtalva]

" I was told last Wednesday that they would have the part in about a week,"

My 2015 Soul EV is also in Southern California (sitting at the dealership) and has been for over a month now with no sign of the battery pack arriving anytime soon. I will be envious should you get a battery pack in a week or two.

I'm glad that Kia is replacing the battery pack but the availability of the required parts (i.e. BMS & Battery Pack) seems to be a problem with Kia.

 

[curtalva]

nickb64 said ..." I was told last Wednesday that they would have the part in about a week,"

My 2015 Soul EV is also in Southern California (sitting at the dealership) and has been for over a month now with no sign of the battery pack arriving anytime soon. I will be envious should you get a battery pack in a week or two.

I'm glad that Kia is replacing the battery pack but the availability of the required parts (i.e. BMS & Battery Pack) seems to be a problem with Kia.

 

[nickb64]

Yeah, the service advisor told me last Wednesday that they should have the parts in this week. He also said he would call me with an update Thursday or Friday, which didn't happen. I called earlier today and was told that the parts are actually backordered and they have no ETA, which is what I pretty much expected after reading this thread over the weekend.

I guess we'll have our loaner Kia Forte for a while... I didn't miss the Costco gas lines for the last almost 2 years.


It was the cord that melted

, service department said there was no damage to the vehicle or OBC, which I hope is true, the car reported that the battery depleted by 20% at the time it happened, which is why I knew it happened at all. I had plugged it in when I got home after charging at a public L2 charger so that it could finish charging from 93%, but when I checked the app to check if it was finished when I went to bed it had 73% charge and I went out to discover that the plug had melted in the outlet. That was 26 days ago, and we took it in the next day to have them check it out and also fix the hood latch which had stopped working shortly before. They claimed at the time there was nothing wrong with the car other than the latch and returned it to us the next day.

 

[notfred]

That's interesting, that's already a replacement plug - the factory one is molded on. You should just be able to cut that off and fit a new plug.

I suspect it melted because the connections were not good strong low resistance ones in the replacement plug so make sure you know what you are doing! The other common failure is the socket in the garage is poor - either poor contacts or poor connection to the house wiring.

The EVSE is meant to sense the drop in voltage from the increased resistance and cut the charging before it gets too hot, but I guess you were unlucky.

 

[Avitt]

The EVSE is meant to sense the drop in voltage from the increased resistance and cut the charging before it gets too hot, but I guess you were unlucky.

I wouldn’t say that...I think he was very lucky, that his house didn’t burn down! Looks like it could have easily happened , and would have been tragic.

 

[nickb64]

That's interesting, that's already a replacement plug - the factory one is molded on. You should just be able to cut that off and fit a new plug.

I suspect it melted because the connections were not good strong low resistance ones in the replacement plug so make sure you know what you are doing! The other common failure is the socket in the garage is poor - either poor contacts or poor connection to the house wiring

Yeah, people on Reddit told me that, I had no idea until that point that it was a replacement plug. We got the car used from CarMax when it was just barely over a year old, their Carfax type thing said it had been a leased vehicle. We never had any problem with our previous Fiat 500e charger and had no problems with the Kia one for over 18 months.

I'm not sure what we're going to end up doing. We may just end up putting in a L2 charger with a new circuit or something, but I'll keep in mind that we may be able to put a new plug on it. I do wonder what happened with the original plug that ended up with it already having been replaced.

 

[curtalva]

Parts (EV battery pack & BMS) did not arrive by the ETA that I was given (11/20/2017). Supposedly arriving at "the end of the month". The dealership has had my car now since 9/27/2017.

 

[nickb64]

Parts (EV battery pack & BMS) did not arrive by the ETA that I was given (11/20/2017). Supposedly arriving at "the end of the month". The dealership has had my car now since 9/27/2017.

That really sucks, doesn't surprise me though. The last update I got on ours is that they are supposed to get the BMS on 11/27 and have no ETA on the battery pack but will update me when they have more info. They've had our car a month or so since they decided that they will be replacing the battery.

 

[curtalva]

Battery pack and BMS finally arrived at the dealership last Friday and still working on my car (2015 Kia Soul EV). Does it typically take a week or more to complete installation and testing of new battery pack & BMS?

The Service Advisor said something about how it does take a little time since they "must remove the underside of the car"??

I did ask them to please check out everything very good since I have to ship (car carrier) the car to get EV service from Arizona to California.
Curt

 

[nickb64]

Battery pack and BMS finally arrived at the dealership last Friday and still working on my car (2015 Kia Soul EV). Does it typically take a week or more to complete installation and testing of new battery pack & BMS?

The Service Advisor said something about how it does take a little time since they "must remove the underside of the car"??

I did ask them to please check out everything very good since I have to ship (car carrier) the car to get EV service from Arizona to California.
Curt

I'm not sure, iirc I was told that once they get the parts for ours it shouldn't take too long.

As an aside, you might want to have them check, we just got a recall notice in the mail, something to do with the steering. Assuming it also applies to yours, might as well have them take care of it since they already have your car.

 

[curtalva]

Right. I saw that (about a new recall). Thanks.

 

[curtalva]

Car shipped to California on 9/27/2017.
Parts were ordered around 10/10/2017.
Parts finally arrived 12/4/2017.
Still waiting to hear that work is completed.

 

[nickb64]

Car shipped to California on 9/27/2017.
Parts were ordered around 10/10/2017.
Parts finally arrived 12/4/2017.
Still waiting to hear that work is completed.

Ours has been at the dealer since 10/25/17 when they decided after bringing it in for the third time in a month that they would replace the battery. We just found out Friday that they apparently finally got the battery and did the work. We are picking it up today. They never let us know that they got the battery in, even though they told us multiple times that they would call when it came in. Someone from Kia HQ even called me last Thursday and said they would try to get an update about when the part would arrive and call me back. They never did call me back, but the dealer called late Friday afternoon and said the car was done. I think Kia was calling us occasionally throughout the process only because we had brought it in 3 times on basically the same issue in the course of a month.

I hope you get yours soon, it's ridiculous to have to wait months just to get your car fixed. I would try calling the 1-800-333-4KIA (4542) number and try to get in touch with someone from KIA HQ and see if they can lean on the dealer or figure out what's taking so long.

 

[curtalva]

I have been working with KIA Consumer Affairs representative through the entire process (since beginning of October). And I have, in fact, been working with an "Escalated Case Manager" since about October 10th (or so). I wonder how it is that you were able to get your car repaired quicker? What dealership were you working with? Kia Of Irvine?

 

[curtalva]

I learned yesterday that my car (2015 Kia Soul EV) is ready to be picked up. Kia is actually going to have it transported back to me here in Arizona. Just waiting to find out how long till it arrives now. I have connected with my car with UVO and it is reading "114 miles" on the GOM.

 

[curtalva]

From what I have learned over these past few months while my car was in the shop waiting for the battery pack to arrive is that there was an entire 'NEW batch' of battery packs manufactured during October-November that was then shipped from South Korea to the states. This is why there was a delay in the completion of the warranty work for vehicles awaiting replacement batteries including my vehicle (2015 Kia Soul EV). I presume these newly manufactured battery packs are the same specifications as the original 2015 model year battery however I am not sure of that. Any thoughts on what the specs are on these 'newly manufactured' replacement batteries that are being used to replace the battery packs on the 2015 models?

 

[curtalva]

I've been informed by Kia that my car will not be picked-up till 12/19 and hopefully back to me on 12/20. That will be nearly 3 months total. Whew.

 

[curtalva]

To avoid another week waiting for my vehicle I contracted to have my vehicle shipped back on my own. I received my vehicle back on Saturday, 12/16/2017. Still testing it out. I received the car with the GOM reading "114 miles" I drove it 50 miles and then recharged it in about 2 hours. The GOM then read "104 miles". I noticed a couple hours after recharging that the SOC read "90%". Hmmm....... Drove it another 50 miles until the SOC read "53%" and GOM = "58 miles". Charged it over on my normal off-peak hour schedule last night and this morning the GOM reads "114 miles" and the SOC= "98%". Should I be worried that it's not reading "100%" after a recharge?

Of note is that during last night's charge the battery accepted 14.2 kwh. This is more kwh that I was able to get into the old battery even when charging from 5 or 10%!

Curt