Kia Niro Forum banner
  • Welcome to the Kia Niro forum! We discuss all models of the Niro, including the Hybrid, PHEV and EV versions. We are glad you stopped by. Feel free to browse the various topics, along with out FAQs. To enable posting, you need to register for a user account. There is no cost for this. Just click in the upper right corner where it says Login/Join. We look forward to your continued parcipitation.

Shuddering and jerking from R to D

19K views 119 replies 29 participants last post by  atc98092  
#1 ·
When my 2023 PHEV is cold and I'm backing out of the drive, when I switch to reverse sometimes, not always, there is a massive shuddering and jerking of the entire car for what seems like 5 to 10 seconds. Anyone know what is up with THAT??? I think I'm coming to a complete stop, albeit I'm not slamming down the brake pedal. Could it be because it's a dial shifter? My husband's ICE vehicle has a gear shift dial control and his never does that.
 
#4 ·
Okay, so I definitely stopped, waited, and shifted. This time it did not start jumping, but there was a bit of clunking going on. Is all of this because it's a PHEV? I was backing out my other car (ICE and also DCT) and was still rolling backwards a little when I shifted to D, no issues at all. This is my first PHEV, so just wondering if it's an oddity of this car. Of course, my friend just bought a new Sorento and the transmission is defective, so I'm super nervous about that too.
 
#9 ·
Did you resolve this issue? We have just bought a new Niro phev and it is doing exactly the same thing. It doesn't do it all the time but when it does it's quite concerning. I phoned the dealer but I don't think they really understand how severe it is. Appreciate your comments .
 
#11 ·
It's crazy, right??? My husband didn't think it was a big deal until he was in the car with me once when it happened. The dealer could never recreate it, and when I went in to show them, I couldn't either. Since then, it's not done it. I'm chalking it up to a settling in period of the transmission. I'm closing on 2,000 miles, but it seemed to have stopped the shuddering around 1,500 miles. My dealer said they were reporting it to KIA, so if others start reporting it, they might work out a fix, so definitely request your dealer report it. I wish I had a better answer for you!
 
#12 ·
Thanks Jenfire. Glad to Hear that yours seems to have resolved itself. I have booked to go into the dealer this week. They will run a diagnostic check on it but I don't think they will find anything. But I will share your experience with them too. Cheers.
 
#14 ·
Whelp...I'm sad to say, it's back! Less often, but still happening. Strangely, the other day, I backed out of my drive and stopped. Before I changed gear it started to shudder, but settled down before getting crazy. I waited until it stopped and put it into neutral, then drive and it seemed fine. That's only happened once, but the violent jerking has happened at least three times over the last month. Anyone else had luck getting this fixed??
 
#15 ·
My 2023 PHEV is still doing this occasionally when I back out of my garage up a slight slope. I don't touch the rotary gear knob at all. The trigger for the problem is if I do the following in exactly this order.
1) Reverse out of my garage in EV mode and up my sloping driveway.
2) lift my foot off the gas pedal while still on the slope.
3) Car starts to roll very slightly back down towards my garage (still in reverse gear).
4) Jerking and shuddering start and I put my foot on the brake.
5) Shuddering continues with my foot on the brake.
6) I have to press the Start/Stop button to switch the car off to stop the shuddering.
I went to my dealer about this but they hadn't really heard of it and didn't really know what to make of it. They ran a scan of the car system but of course everything showed up as fine.
Personally I think it will probably turn out to be a software issue, but I guess time will tell. I'm just worried about how much damage its doing to my motor/gearbox in the mean time. It feels horrible when it's happening.
I'm pretty sure this has happened to me both with and without the Auto Hold turned on.
 
#23 ·
I'm pretty sure this has happened to me both with and without the Auto Hold turned on.
Please double check the behavior with Auto Hold turned on.

I have a steep driveway, and I dislike backing out of a garage soon after starting a car, or backing out of my driveway into the street. I always park by backing into my garage, which has the added benefit of helping me judge placement using the rear camera. As a result, when leaving the garage and going up my steep driveway, the car ( 2023 HEV SX) is never in reverse. I have never experienced the problem you described in any context.

A neighbor has an Infiniti QX50, which is incapable of backing up the driveway at all.
 
#17 ·
Now this is making me wonder if this could be somehow be part of the new yet to be announced recall??? For what I've heard and read the recall has to do with the clutch fluid leaking into the Electroncis for the clutch that disconnect the gas engine from the driveline. I wonder if even a slight amount of fluid or moisture could be screwing up the electronics causing the clutch to not engage/disengage smoothly? I'm no expert for sure but it makes me wonder.
 
#24 · (Edited)
We have a 2023 PHEV and experience exactly the same bucking sensation except in forward, not reverse. Only when cold, only when pulling out of our uphill driveway (we back in down hill to park). It only happens once or twice per month. Only when cold, only when we apply the brakes before entering the Main Street. It seems like the car gets confused between going forward and braking. To get it to stop bucking, I keep foot on the brake and hit the park button. It stops bucking and then I put in D again. No further problems… until the next time it happens Weeks or Months later.
 
#26 ·
In my case, the motor is on electric mode. My total guess at what's happening is that the car is in drive, starts to go up the moderately steep driveway, we apply the brakes, the car may possibly roll back down hill a smidgen, the car decides to apply the parking brake and alternate into drive in quick intervals P,D,P,D,P,D,P,D.... at least that's what it feels like. Very similar feeling though to a car that is bucking against a clutch at low revs. I'm trying to remember if it's happened again since taking the car in for the unrelated recalls. I don't think it's happened in the 3 weeks since.
 
#27 ·
I have a 2023 Kiar Niro HEV. It has about 7,500 miles. All has been well until today when my wife was driving the car. She reported a lot of shudders and jerks while driving. These occurred during acceleration, sometimes when braking and turning, and accelerating from a stop. There were some other instances when I tested it when she got home. This sounds similar to the issues described in this forum. Did anyone take these similar symptoms to the dealer with any success? Anyone know of a TSB around this issue? Thanks for any advice.
 
#28 ·
I'll answer my own post. Took the Kia Niro into the dealer, explained the conditions thoroughly and the next day I got a call indicating they agreed with my description of the problem, did an update to the transmission software, tightened a bolt, and all was fixed. My wife drove the car home and the cars transmission worked as expected. The repair guy had called me and said he was very confident we would like how the transmission responded now and we do!
 
#30 ·
Glad to assist future Kia owners. I think they key for us was giving them a detailed description of what was happening and all the surrounding circumstances (i.e. I told them what happened going up a hill, when accelerating, when decellerating, braking, in eco or sport mode, etc.....Thanks for this forum!!
 
#31 ·
If you ever listened to the "Car Talk" radio show, you know how important it is to provide a detailed description. Of course, half the problem is finding a service manager who will listen, and that's as big a variable as customers who can provide useful descriptions.
 
#32 ·
True that. Is the "Car Talk" radio show the Pat Goss radio show of some years ago (sadly Pat passed away a few years ago). I always enjoyed his segment on Motor Week and he had a local (DC/Balt) radio show that I would listen to occasionally. I'm not all that good with cars, but listening to Pat and others like him made me ask better questions .