[cwg_at_opc]

car is headed back to the dealer for AEB/brake problems.

last night dash indicated AEB not working, no cruise control, eventually leading to NO brakes at all.
this morning, naturally, no warnings on the dash, but called it in anyway.
roadside assistance is taking it to nearest dealer(not where it was purchased, unfortunately) for diagnostics.

car has 4366 miles.

will follow up in this thread when i know more.

 

[KiaKrazy]

When you say no brakes at all... do you mean that you stepped on the brake pedal and nothing happened ?!

 

[cwg_at_opc]

yeah, foot to the floor, not a great feeling.

just got off the phone with service - they downloaded a lot of fault codes from the ECU and sent them on to Kia Tech support, so they will be giving me a rental car for a couple days while they sort out why it happened.

 

[cwg_at_opc]

update

so a failure of the Integrated Braking module has been indicated, meaning, i'm now waiting for the replacement part to arrive.
i can say that the Hyundai Santa Fe rental i'm driving is pretty nice tho.

 

[kprenesti]

Yikes! That's terrifying, especially for a brand-new car...!! Glad they found the problem and fixed it, and that they gave you a rental!

 

[PAULRIDES]

Dad Burn Cars are toooooo complicated these days with all this
Electronic / Computer Controlled stuff.

Great when it works I admit, but seems too many things to go wrong.

Break Failure is a what I would call "Very Dang Serious".

That said, I do rememebr the old days - 1952 Ford Master Cylinder leak failure (but pumping the pedal got me stopped and made it to a repair shop).

Also, 1969 Mercury Marquis (my dream car in 1969) had a master Cylinder leak failure also (pumping the pedal got me home where I replaced it).

At least sometimes you could Pump The Pedal and get some braking (holding the pedal on it would leak to the floor).

 

[cwg_at_opc]

UPDATE: 10may2017:

the cruise control, AEB and brake warnings came back on again today.
called customer care and ended up back at roadside assistance.

this is getting to be a scary habit

 

[PAULRIDES]

This is scary -- wonder if many others had such. So far I have not had brake problem.

How would you avoid a wreck when brakes fail completely? Better be thinking about Emergency Brake Pedal use.

That is worse than old days when one master cylinder did all four wheels and started leaking - usually got an indication that had a leak as pedal would slowly go to the floor, but pumping the pedal would give you some braking.

 

[cwg_at_opc]

latest update:

seems to be all fixed; the regional senior tech for Kia came by and supervised checking all the connections in the plugs and wires in the affected systems(AEB, cruise control, braking) and they discovered _one_ connector/wire that was not making good contact. some sort of contact enhancer was used and that seems to have resolved the problem. none of the subsystems individually had any fault codes in memory.

the really good news, for all current and prospective owners, is that all my problems are 'in the computer' and therefore accessible to all Kia dealers so if anyone else has weird braking, AEB, CC problems, i have already experienced it and the fix will be quicker for you than me!

SO, handled well by Kia, local dealer service, i was given a loaner rental car, and i got my car back(goodbye ford fiesta!)

 

[PAULRIDES]

OK --- Still scary to think LOOSE BRAKES.

A lousy connection problem (must be 100s or 1000s or 1000000 connections in these cars of today).

 

[cwg_at_opc]

hello niro friends,

bad news - after many trouble free months, i have had the braking system go belly up again. this time the car went into 'limp mode' and would only go 15mph(which is good because there were no brakes again.) head tech from kia central hq(wherever that is) is here in Simi Valley to inspect and check out the car. naturally, after sitting around for a couple of days, it's not showing the error; i will suggest that my service advisor drive it home until it comes up.

more details as i get them

 

[cwg_at_opc]

did they fix it? dunno yet

so they called and said the head tech was not able to replicate the problem(typical) but some error codes were stored that pointed to something called a PSUV, which is a pressure sensor in the hydraulic system. dont know what the part is exactly as i haven't picked it up yet, but they replaced it.

 

[fernando]

keep us updated

 

[Cranium79]

Had the same issue but mine happened at a very bad moment driving down the hwy at a little below 40mph and the brakes failed. The AEB flashed on the dash but did not function and pressing down on the brakes did not work to stop the vehicle even though we were 3 cars behind so we ended up rear ending the car in front. Our airbags deployed and total frontal damage. Thankfully family was ok but scared and shocked. The other car sustained just a rear bumper damage thankfully. My 2018 Niro is totaled. Brought this up with KIA and they are investigating the EDR box. Lets see how this foils out because there was no indication of brake having issues besides not being as responsive but we just bought the car and not even 4 months. When we asked the dealer, they said because its a hybrid that the brakes have regen and is different to use, which I think its BS, but lets see how this goes. Hope no one else will experience this and thankfully we werent going at hwy speeds of 55+. If any of you Niro owners dont feel comfy with your brakes, please have it checked out.

 

[yticolev]

Did you think of hitting the emergency brake? I should try that myself as an experiment to see how much braking it provides.

I once had the air brakes go out on an (over) loaded 20 ft U-Haul truck going down an exit ramp on the elevated I-10 in New Orleans just past evening rush hour (a truck drivers worst nightmare - not being a pro I didn't think of testing the brakes before a downhill stop - I was familiar with this ramp). Red light at bottom of ramp crossing a four lane. I visually confirmed that I had my foot on the correct pedal and that it was bottomed on the floor. Also checked the air pressure gauge. Normal. Gathering speed, I considered downshifting (manual). Decided that wasn't practical and would not scrub enough speed to not go through the red light. Emergency hand brake required ducking down to activate and I didn't want to not steer blind through the intersection so I didn't use that either. Clipped a taxi on his rear bumper and spun him around. Didn't hit any pedestrians but going forty or so I was about to hit a line of slow moving cars going in my direction. That probably would have been safest, but avoiding collisions is so ingrained that I ducked into a gas station on my right, straightened back out (didn't want to hit the pumps) and ended up hitting a house. They are elevated in New Orleans. So the house foundation stopped and my truck came to a stop with the cab just inside the house. An elderly black lady came into the room and left in a hurry screaming. I found out later she had just been resting on a day bed against the wall I had hit a couple minutes previously. She had a religious experience from this as she had gotten up to attend a prayer meeting.

I had to wait at the scene for an expert cop to show up. His expertise consisting of climbing into the cab and confirming the brake pedal hit the floor (so I wasn't arrested or even given a ticket). U-Haul towed the truck to Atlanta to have a professor look at it. They determined it was operator failure and declined to cover my housing costs. Of course, the brake lines were all torn off by the house foundation so any loss of brake fluid could not have been confirmed. I didn't see any brake fluid at the accident site.

Anyway, don't be surprised if they tell you it was your fault, and not the car.

 

[Cranium79]

Did you think of hitting the emergency brake? I should try that myself as an experiment to see how much braking it provides.

I once had the air brakes go out on an (over) loaded 20 ft U-Haul truck going down an exit ramp on the elevated I-10 in New Orleans just past evening rush hour (a truck drivers worst nightmare - not being a pro I didn't think of testing the brakes before a downhill stop - I was familiar with this ramp). Red light at bottom of ramp crossing a four lane. I visually confirmed that I had my foot on the correct pedal and that it was bottomed on the floor. Also checked the air pressure gauge. Normal. Gathering speed, I considered downshifting (manual). Decided that wasn't practical and would not scrub enough speed to not go through the red light. Emergency hand brake required ducking down to activate and I didn't want to not steer blind through the intersection so I didn't use that either. Clipped a taxi on his rear bumper and spun him around. Didn't hit any pedestrians but going forty or so I was about to hit a line of slow moving cars going in my direction. That probably would have been safest, but avoiding collisions is so ingrained that I ducked into a gas station on my right, straightened back out (didn't want to hit the pumps) and ended up hitting a house. They are elevated in New Orleans. So the house foundation stopped and my truck came to a stop with the cab just inside the house. An elderly black lady came into the room and left in a hurry screaming. I found out later she had just been resting on a day bed against the wall I had hit a couple minutes previously. She had a religious experience from this as she had gotten up to attend a prayer meeting.

I had to wait at the scene for an expert cop to show up. His expertise consisting of climbing into the cab and confirming the brake pedal hit the floor (so I wasn't arrested or even given a ticket). U-Haul towed the truck to Atlanta to have a professor look at it. They determined it was operator failure and declined to cover my housing costs. Of course, the brake lines were all torn off by the house foundation so any loss of brake fluid could not have been confirmed. I didn't see any brake fluid at the accident site.

Anyway, don't be surprised if they tell you it was your fault, and not the car.

Its very difficult to flip a button for the ER brakes while heading towards a car knowing you cant stop. The old lever was much easier, but finding the button is not easy and makes it impractical while driving to find it. I believe KIA will ofcourse say yea its not their fault since they are investigating it. Its been over 2 weeks and when I emailed them, they said they have someone finally going to visit the yard to see the Niro and take the data box and they should have the results by end of the week. Should I trust KIA to be truthful, ofcourse not, but other peoples lives may be at risk and that is not something to take lightly. We should not be guinea pigs. Thankfully my insurance paid the full price I paid for the Niro so at least no financial lost there. We loved the Niro when we first got it, would like another but waiting to see how KIA takes care of their customers who have issues like this.

 

[NiroJoe]

I have a 2018 touring. Breaks haven't failed but have had a "honking" sound like air somewhere in the system when pressing the pedal. This started just after 7000 miles. It's been to the dealer twice. They bleed the breaks but the sound has come back after a week. No pedal fade but this isn't confidence inspiring in traffic.