Engine failure warning: 3 times in 6-month-old Kia Seltos diesel

Don’t get me wrong, I have only positive things to say about this car other than that one annoying thing. The car was a great addition and exceeded my expectations.

BHPian ttm_220d I recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Engine Failure Warning Came Three Times in My New Kia Seltos Diesel

Preface
I am writing this post as a continuation of my update to my new 2023 Kia Seltos Diesel GTX. As many of you know, I have detailed my experiences in several previous posts. I am writing this post in detail about an issue that has occurred three times so far and I would like to know if other owners have encountered the same issue.
For a quick update – the car is a 2023 Seltos GTX Plus Diesel Automatic, purchased in late February 2024. It splits highway and city driving equally, refuelling from Shell or Indian Oil in Bengaluru. The car currently has around 7,500 KM on its odo.
Don’t get me wrong, I have only positive things to say about this car other than that one annoying thing. The car was a great addition and exceeded my expectations.

Problem
At about 5,000 KM on the ODO, the engine management warning popped up on the dashboard. We immediately took it to the dealer and they said it was due to carbon build up and after ‘cleaning’ the carbon for about 30 minutes, the car was ready to go.
Everything went well for about a month, then the warning popped up again. We were a little surprised at first, because this is a car that does a significant amount of highway driving and only refuels at reputable gas stations. The driver took the car to a service center, where they took almost two hours to decarbonize and perform a software update.
Everything seemed fine but this time, two weeks after the visit, the warning came back. I had written an email to Kia India and Advaith Kia regarding this issue and it is now a matter of concern. I took the car on Saturday and it took them a while to diagnose the issue but basically they did the same ‘carbon cleaning’ and software update. The service manager (who was very helpful, in fact the entire Kia team was very courteous and helpful) told me that this issue was due to carbon build-up. But according to me, this warning is not a DPF warning but an engine warning light. From what I understand, he said that if this problem persists, they will have to replace the catalytic converter. He also said that even when this warning comes on, the car is fine or if you drive it for a long time, the warning will go away.
There is also a minor issue that has happened twice so far; the one touch sunroof stops working and I have to reset the sunroof after following online tutorials. I’m not sure if these are related but it’s definitely another software bug.

My concerns-
As stated here and in my review, the car is absolutely perfect, other than that I really have no complaints. Because the car is still new and the team is supportive. But what happens when the warranty expires? My other Diesel cars, all over 5 years old, are still running rock solid. I am not sure if this is a Kia issue or a Diesel DPF issue that affects all new cars. This issue is something that does not give me complete peace of mind. This is the only minor hindrance that prevents me from loving this car completely.
If anyone else has or is experiencing this issue, please let me know how you got on with it and how it was resolved for you. By now I have full faith that Kia will fix this issue (or maybe they have) and this issue will not happen again, but we’ll see. I’ll update the thread.

Here is what BHPian tp_hakim I had to say this about this:

I have a Seltos X-line Diesel, purchased in October – 2023 and manufactured in September – 2023. I too have had this engine management system warning twice during my journeys. My car is used a lot on highways and typical operation involves 80% highway driving.

The first time it happened, the car was parked overnight and this was the warning that came up on the first start. I was surprised because the car had about 5,000 miles on it by then, mostly on the highway. I had driven about 250 miles on the highway the day before. I was in another city and couldn’t take it to a dealership because I had about 450 miles to get home. However, after about 2-3 miles I stopped for breakfast and the warning went away after I restarted it at the stop. The second time I stopped and restarted it, the error went away.

Both times I was not able to take the car to the service and the warning still disappeared. However, after seeing your post, if it happens again, God forbid, I will definitely take it to the service this time. The car has now covered 18,000 km. From what I learned at the Kia service, the catalytic converter in the Seltos is actually faulty and replacing it solves such problems. However, the part is never easily available and the waiting period is close to 4 months from the factory. If they do a root cause analysis and find out what caused it, please update.

In the meantime, here it is BHPian maverickgenius Answer:

I’ve had this happen twice on my Sonet GTX+ DCT. But mine is a petrol car so it can’t be related to the DPF or CatCon.

Here it is BHPian Wadewilson Answer to the topic:

Hi, the same issue is happening in our New Kia Seltos. I think this issue has occurred 4-5 times so far, but after a CEL restart it disappears on its own. The Service Center also told me that Kia has released a critical software update regarding this and I should take it to the service center to get the necessary update. But I didn’t have time to drive 300 km (round trip) to the nearest Kia service center.

I suspect that there is a problem with the software code in our cars that is incorrectly reading the sensor output as an engine fault (whether or not it is a fault) and perhaps a software update will help resolve the error in the code. I will update when I have time to drive 300km to the nearest KIA service centre.

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