[fritzheimer]

I just brought my Niro to a local garage, I had suspected a coolant leak and they confirmed that the coolant was low and while they had it they had to top it up a couple times.The weird thing is they can’t find the leak anywhere, there’s no evidence around the reservoir, hoses, on the ground or mixed in the oil. Before I bring it to the dealer I thought I’d ask here if anyone might know where else the coolant might end up? I should also say that the engine hasn’t shown any signs of overheating or even running hot 🤷‍♂️ At first I was worried it might be a head gasket issue, which I guess it still might be but I figured there would be evidence in the oil

Fingers crossed that you don't have the same issue as I did! coolant issue "fixed" for $2000, drove 1500 miles... car now 850 miles away with cracked engine block after coolant issue. New engine $10,500 through Kia. Fighting all the way

 

[fritzheimer]

My 2017 Niro is also losing coolant, at the rate of one gallon per 2 months of summer driving. Also have a bit of white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Took it to the Kia dealership in my town, who at first coudn't locate the leak, but then sure enough, found coolant leaking out of the exhaust. The service center found the heat exchanger to be leaking internally into the exhaust. Gave me an estimate on a replacement front converter/muffler/heat exchanger assembly. Over two thousand dollars! No thanks. Of course my car's power-protect platinum warranty does not cover this, and my mileage is beyond the emissions warranty, so that nothing is covered at all. They claimed to have never seen this problem before. What? My only resort I am told is to go to Kia Customer Relations for some sort of appeal. SMH. If there will be a class action lawsuit over this obvious Manufacture defect, I want onboard.

Why do I feel as if my 2019 Niro's engine block crack (after the $2000 coolant system issue was just fixed), is part of something much bigger? There it sits 850+ miles away. The new engine $10,500 on a car with 123,000 miles. the fight is real

 

[fritzheimer]

I have been denied help twice and will continue to fight. But I’ll likely stick with Toyotas from now on!

 

[jtwaldrup]

Noticed my 2017 Kia Niro was smoking really bad the other day. Thought it could be the hewad gasket until I found this thread. Noticed coolant was low after 4 days of it smoking, it never over-heated. No light came on, on the dash. I stopped driving it and took it to Kia dealership. They just called back and said they can't get it to smoke... When they call back I will see if they can check the heat exchanger. Everything seems fine when driving.

having a similar problem with my Niro. Did you ever resolve the issue?

 

[IL_Niro]

Am having this issue with my 2017 Niro, it has 130k miles. Don’t want to take to dealer and be stuck paying $150 diagnostic fee unless work will be covered. Seems like it would be outside warranty window. Tried taking to local mechanic but they refused to do the bypass. I don’t think it is something I can do by myself. Anyone with advice specific to northern IL such as dealerships that have dealt with issue or mechanics that have done the bypass??

 

[IL_Niro]

My 2017 Niro is also losing coolant, at the rate of one gallon per 2 months of summer driving. Also have a bit of white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Took it to the Kia dealership in my town, who at first coudn't locate the leak, but then sure enough, found coolant leaking out of the exhaust. The service center found the heat exchanger to be leaking internally into the exhaust. Gave me an estimate on a replacement front converter/muffler/heat exchanger assembly. Over two thousand dollars! No thanks. Of course my car's power-protect platinum warranty does not cover this, and my mileage is beyond the emissions warranty, so that nothing is covered at all. They claimed to have never seen this problem before. What? My only resort I am told is to go to Kia Customer Relations for some sort of appeal. SMH. If there will be a class action lawsuit over this obvious Manufacture defect, I want onboard.

Am in the same boat with 130k on my 2017 Niro. I will call Customer Relations, but wondering if they provided you any help. Count me in if there is a class action lawsuit.

 

[jaxterra]

I haven’t tried it but seems pretty simple if you can find a shade tree mechanic they could do it in no time.

 

[rglloyd21]

I have a 2018 Niro. I had been having an issue with coolant leaking for several weeks. I couldn't see any evidence of it leaking anywhere inside the engine or under the car. there was occasionally steam from the exhaust, but only after driving a fair distance. It was very cold outside, so, I'm not sure that's really evidence. My first indication was that the heat would stop working. I checked the coolant first as I've had experience with other vehicles concerning low coolant and no heat. It wasn't a fast leak. It would only leak about a cup a day. Also, it would only leak if I'd been driving enough. I tried letting it idle in the driveway for more than an hour on two different days and the coolant level never changed. I had brought it to my regular mechanic and had it flushed and they couldn't find any leaks. I finally brought it to the dealer and they told me it was the exhaust heat exchanger. They said I could drive it while i was waiting for a replacement part which was covered under warranty as long as i kept up the coolant level. It didn't take long to change the part, and I haven't had a problem since.

Hi, I'd like to say that thanks to finding this post we had a similar issue resolved relatively painlessly and under warranty, thank you!

 

[Nirouser99]

I just brought my Niro to a local garage, I had suspected a coolant leak and they confirmed that the coolant was low and while they had it they had to top it up a couple times.The weird thing is they can’t find the leak anywhere, there’s no evidence around the reservoir, hoses, on the ground or mixed in the oil. Before I bring it to the dealer I thought I’d ask here if anyone might know where else the coolant might end up? I should also say that the engine hasn’t shown any signs of overheating or even running hot 🤷‍♂️

At first I was worried it might be a head gasket issue, which I guess it still might be but I figured there would be evidence in the oil

We had engine warning, and found coolant leak in Niro 2017, and the local garage cannot locate the leak. We took it to dealer and they have identified there is leak in the R+R EGR valve. Dealer says to replace the EGR valve and heat exchanger costs $4157. There is no warranty after 60k miles. I was wondering if i can do this work in local garage for a lot less. Any ideas. Thanks, we live in NJ

 

[FlNiro]

We had engine warning, and found coolant leak in Niro 2017, and the local garage cannot locate the leak. We took it to dealer and they have identified there is leak in the R+R EGR valve. Dealer says to replace the EGR valve and heat exchanger costs $4157. There is no warranty after 60k miles. I was wondering if i can do this work in local garage for a lot less. Any ideas. Thanks, we live in NJ

If your talking about a leak in the coolant recovery system that's located with the catalytic converter, that should be covered by the emissions warranty since it is part of the catalytic converter. Also I'm pretty sure NJ. is a state that goes by the Ca. emissions standard and that has an even longer warranty.

 

[missy.boyd1999]

2017 Niro with the same diagnosis as stated by many. At 110K miles - have 125K Platinum bumper to bumper warranty. They are claiming it's not cover because it's an exhaust part. I'm in Minnesota. Any advice from anyone that's gotten it covered? Thanks

 

[FlNiro]

If you got the platinum warranty that I have basically the whole car is covered with few exceptions. Plus it's an exhaust part that covered by the emissions warranty and if your state is part of the Ca. emissions the warranty is even longer than what Kia gives you. You need to research this.

 

[missy.boyd1999]

If you got the platinum warranty that I have basically the whole car is covered with few exceptions. Plus it's an exhaust part that covered by the emissions warranty and if your state is part of the Ca. emissions the warranty is even longer than what Kia gives you. You need to research this.

Because the part is connected to the catalytic converter, they are considering it an exhaust part and are refusing to cover it. I'm trying to research it, that's why I posted here.

 

[FlNiro]

That's exactly why it's covered under the emissions warranty. It's part of the catalytic converter.

 

[atc98092]

One comment about the emissions warranty. The law allows the manufacturer the ability to be extremely specific about the covered items. One example: VW would not include the Urea injection system under the emissions warranty coverage, and the EPA allowed them to. That system was critical for the engine to meet emissions requirements (we won't go into how VW gamed the system for that) but they were able to not cover it under the emissions part of the warranty. That meant only the base warranty coverage applied to the part, and problems with the system generally didn't occur until coverage had expired. No, it didn't make any sense that it wasn't covered under the emissions warranty, but that's the way it was. Kia might be making the same argument here that it's technically part of the exhaust, not the emissions system. Depending on what the EPA permitted Kia to list under the warranty, that might be what's happening here.

 

[FlNiro]

One comment about the emissions warranty. The law allows the manufacturer the ability to be extremely specific about the covered items. One example: VW would not include the Urea injection system under the emissions warranty coverage, and the EPA allowed them to. That system was critical for the engine to meet emissions requirements (we won't go into how VW gamed the system for that) but they were able to not cover it under the emissions part of the warranty. That meant only the base warranty coverage applied to the part, and problems with the system generally didn't occur until coverage had expired. No, it didn't make any sense that it wasn't covered under the emissions warranty, but that's the way it was. Kia might be making the same argument here that it's technically part of the exhaust, not the emissions system. Depending on what the EPA permitted Kia to list under the warranty, that might be what's happening here.

This is what makes lawyers rich.

 

[Sandy L]

My 2017 Niro is also losing coolant, at the rate of one gallon per 2 months of summer driving. Also have a bit of white smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Took it to the Kia dealership in my town, who at first coudn't locate the leak, but then sure enough, found coolant leaking out of the exhaust. The service center found the heat exchanger to be leaking internally into the exhaust. Gave me an estimate on a replacement front converter/muffler/heat exchanger assembly. Over two thousand dollars! No thanks. Of course my car's power-protect platinum warranty does not cover this, and my mileage is beyond the emissions warranty, so that nothing is covered at all. They claimed to have never seen this problem before. What? My only resort I am told is to go to Kia Customer Relations for some sort of appeal. SMH. If there will be a class action lawsuit over this obvious Manufacture defect, I want onboard.

I have the exact. same. problem. No one can find the leak, they just replaced this massive section they say is all one replacement part to the tune of $2700, and it is STILL overheating due to low coolant! Like, we fill the entire passenger side reservoir every four DAYS! I don't even have 100,000 miles on mine. I am happy to begin the process toward lawsuit if anyone wants to join me.

 

[Sandy L]

having a similar problem with my Niro. Did you ever resolve the issue?

Did you ever find a fix? I realize this was posted 9 months ago. Thanks!

 

[Sandy L]

We noticed our 2017 Niro's(85,300 km/ 51,000 miles) heater stopped giving heat. No overheating or low coolant warnings showed up on the car's display. Engine temperatures were normal whenever we checked them. We immediately took it to our local garage to have the car's heating and coolant systems checked out. During the last two weeks it was -27 °C (-15°F) at times in our province. We needed heat. Not having it was not an option.
Our local garage found it was leaking coolant through the exhaust heat recovery unit that is welded to the exhaust near the catalytic converter. These units in turn are welded together as one unit, that is one replacement part. It is my understanding these two units cannot be serviced or replaced independently , they are effectively one welded unit. If one or the function fails you have to buy both. To me that as a consumer makes no sense at all. It makes Kia look less than favourable in the eyes of a customer. The cost of the part before installation and taxes is $3,800 $$Canadian $$. The local garage topped up the antifreeze to the correct level, we noted the number of kilometers on the odometer and a week or so later after maybe 1000 km of driving we noticed the same problem again. In the meantime I had contacted the dealer and had made an appointment for them to do a coolant diagnostic test and inspection last Friday. Later that day we were told by the dealer that indeed there was a leak through the exhaust heat recovery unit and also that we could not drive the car in its present condition. So presently our car has been in the Dealer's Service Centre over the weekend. The general five year / 100,000 km warranty, I believe expired 3 1/2 months ago in Oct 2022. A week before that warranty expiration I put the car into the Dealer's Service Department specifically to deal with potential looming warranty problems, I was assured the car was free of problems. However the Emissions warranty of 8 years or 130,000 km / 78,000 miles is still in effect and I believe the car is still covered under Canadian Emissions Law. The Dealership has put in a request to Kia to cover the $3800 parts replacement costs. Service Departments are closed over the weekend and at this point, it is early in the week and we have not heard back from the dealer but we are hoping for a positive decision in our favour. The Niro is a great little car. I don't know if, in newer models, they have physically separated the exhaust units, ) the exhaust heat recovery module and the catalytic converter), from each other making two distinct replacement parts, thus reducing the financial pain to their customers when one fails. It makes good PR sense to me.

Preach!

 

[Sandy L]

Hi,
So what was the final outcome. Did Kia cover the replacement cost or no? I am having the same issue and the local garage told me the same thing. Will take it to the dealership to see what they say. Where are you located in Canada? Please reply

I am having the same problem. Did yours get resolved?