Kia Seltos Complaints

532 consumer complaints on file.

#11711691January 17, 2026
ENGINE
Purchased my 2022 Kia Seltos new from my local dealership and stayed up to date with all scheduled service, as well as all manufacturer recalls and software updates. When driving it in January 2025, I experienced loss of power when accelerating and an engine stall. Took it to the dealer the same day and was told the vehicle was out of oil, and this caused engine damage that would not be covered by my warranty (I have approximately 44,000 miles on the car). Never had any kind of warning signs — no check engine light or any dashboard alerts. Also never had any issues with oil levels between regular oil changes at the dealership. Luckily, I’d not been driving in particularly heavy traffic when the issue emerged, or else could’ve caused an accident. And luckily I took it to the dealer when I did to prevent a more catastrophic engine failure. Seems to have burned through a ridiculous amount of oil in a relatively short period of time while giving no warning signs that it was doing so.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11711359January 16, 2026
ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING
The contact owns a 2021 Kia Seltos. The contact stated while driving 45 MPH, the engine started making an abnormal loud knocking sound. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to drive to the residence. The contact stated that the failure worsened while attempting to drive the vehicle to the dealer. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where it was diagnosed with engine failure. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 21V259000 (Engine), which included the VIN. The dealer informed the contact that a claim could not be submitted to the manufacturer for the engine replacement approval because the contact did not have oil change receipts. The contact stated that the residence had previously caught on fire, and the contact no longer had the receipts. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and a case was filed. The contact was informed that the case could be escalated to an unknown department. The contact had a follow up call with the manufacturer, but no further assistance had been provided. The failure mileage was approximately 24,000.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11711057January 15, 2026
ENGINE, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
I purchased this 2022 Kia Seltos on [XXX] from Serra Nissan Volkswagen Inc, Birmingham. One week afterwards my vehicle cut off at the light while waiting for light to change....This incident has occurred more than 10 x since then. My vehicle have over a 100,000 miles on it which does not qualify for Kia yo check it out. I will be taking my vehicle to get a service check. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11710935January 14, 2026
ENGINE
. Over consumption of oil causing engine failure
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11710528January 12, 2026
ENGINE
I have a KIA Seltos 2021 2.0L, Odom 90288, the engine has failed. I was driving when the engine failed and refused to turn over, start. I was on my way to work at approximately [XXX] when in the middle of a left hand turn at the intersection of [XXX] and [XXX] the engine failed, car shout off which left me in the middle of the street (it was still dark outside, and I was stranded in the middle of the street). Prior to this engine failure I received an email directly from KIA stating that there was a recall on my engine and the car needed to be serviced, however I was unable to make my scheduled appointment because the engine failed, prior to. I recently took my car into Bayside KIA of Waldorf however they are refusing to cover the car and the repairs in correlations to the engine recall. Prior to have the car diagnosed by Bayside KIA the car was inspected by JJ Auto Service of Waldorf, who confirmed that the engine failure may be in correlation to the open recalls on my 2021 Seltos. Three days prior to the engine going out the check engine light came on, and I heard knocking under the engine which is the leading reason I scheduled the service inspection with KIA. I believe my engine failed in correlation to recall #21 V259000 (KIA Recall #SC209). INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11710459January 12, 2026
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
When the stop and go feature re-enables the engine to go. Causes all clusters/ infotainment to shut off and reset. It remain black for a 10-15 seconds
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11709746January 8, 2026
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, UNKNOWN OR OTHER, FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
my sensor does not work and does not detect the gas in tank car wont start or turn on
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11708016December 31, 2025
ENGINE
My Seltos transmission heats up to such an extent that I have to get out of the car and park it for 45 minutes to have it cooled down. Has only 25k miles in it. Took to the dealership and they say nothing is wrong. Numerous reported issues of the same kind on Kia message boards regarding the same issue. Something to do with the dual clutch system and start/stop function
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11707764December 30, 2025
ENGINE
My 2022 KIA Seltos with 52000 miles shut down on me completely in the middle of a road while I was going full speed limit causing the car behind me promptly to change lanes to avoid the collision. It happened 2 more times until I got to my destination l. After I googled what could cause the issue I saw the recall info which I didn’t get any notification about. I brought my car to a dealership and they told me that it passed the recall but I have to replace the whole engine because they found metal filings in the oil. They are refusing to do it under warranty or recall because I cannot produce oil change receipts since January of 2025. I was under the impression that recalls need to be fixed but they denying that it is a recall even though it is to a tee follows the description of a recall.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11706681December 22, 2025
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, POWER TRAIN
Electrical control unit car just shuts off in drive completely goes black no matter what within seconds even on freeway going 70 mph car tune off loss of control then starts back up very dangerous
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11705460December 16, 2025
ENGINE
This 2021 Kia Seltos car’s engine has randomly seized up 4 times over the last year causing very serious safety concern. Fortunately, these 4 seize-ups happened when the powerless Seltos car could be safely directed to the shoulder of the road while driving in slower paced traffic. Each time this occurred, our 2021 Kia Seltos had to be towed; towed twice to a mechanic shop and twice to directly to the dealer. The mechanic diagnosed the problem as the vehicle using excessive oil resulting in the vehicle safety sensors shutting the engine down. However, in those instances when we towed the vehicle to the dealer, the dealership always obfuscated and gave us the impression that they were not taking our safety concerns seriously. They never adequately addressed our concerns and often conducted some minor repairs seemingly to placate us to get us down the road. None of their minor repairs worked or solved the problem. In each instance after their repair the problem repeated. We expressed our extreme frustration and concern for our life safety. We communicated to them that this vehicle’s engine has proven unsafe and that has randomly seize-up several times We have researched the 2021 Seltos and found that these Kia models have many serious recalls for multiple items including the problem that we have experiences with excess oil usage. It is our experience that our KIA dealership will not adequately address our concerns and will not take necessary measures to adequately address our very serious safety issues. We believe that our 2021 Seltos is a "Lemmon" and needs to be replaced, or at least its engine replaced. We hope this complaint results in serious action and that I'm not writing again indicating that this 2021 Seltos “Lemmon" vehicle has again seized up and has resulted in a life-threatening safety issue.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11705286December 16, 2025
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
Can smell gas fumes in and around car. Afraid to drive. Took to dealer. Fuel pump and associated gaskets fittings needed to be replaced. Not cover under 10 yr, 100K warranty even though the vehicle only has 83K miles. Just to right.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11705022December 15, 2025
UNKNOWN OR OTHER, ENGINE, POWER TRAIN
THE CAR WAS MAKING A GRINDING SOUND, VIBRATES, SLOWS DOWN. GRINDING SOUND IS LIKE GRINDING GEARS OR A SNOWPLOW SCRAPING PAVEMENT. THE ENGINE WAS REPLACED IN APRIL BECAUSE OF RECALL. I ONLY HAVE 23765 MILES ON IT BUT ORIGINAL 5 YEAR WARRANTY EXPIRED ON 12/09/2025. THE SAME NOISE STARTED AGAIN ON 12/10/2025 AND IT WAS TOWED TO DEALER I BOUGHT FROM ON 12/10/25. The master warning light came on 12/10/25 incident and some text. There was traffic so unable to read it and light went off.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11704844December 13, 2025
ENGINE
Car had 59,522 miles when I purchased it (now has 64,320), and after driving 1,500 miles, it began hot-idle stall with oil light indicator lit. Restarted and drove OK, but when slowing, it kept stalling. This also happened on the roads when slowing for a light or for traffic, posing a risk to myself and others. After 6-7 times and doing some research, this problem exactly matches the symptoms in Kia’s TSB ENG222 Rev 6. I had it towed to a KIA service center due to the concern that it can throw a bearing during stall (as well as be unsafe). Dealer performed combustion chamber cleaning and replaced the PCV valve ($1,000!). They asked me to keep a close eye on oil consumption. Over the next less-than-1,000 miles of driving, engine consumed 3 quarts, well in excess of Kia’s expectation of no more than 1 quart per 1,000 miles. The dealer contacted Kia’s technical assistance for help and was denied an engine replacement due to me being the second owner, out of power train warranty and just purchasing the vehicle, as well as indicating that the engine had previously been “fixed” pursuant to the TSB; however, clearly it is not fixed. I now unfortunately know that this problem is associated with the poor design of the engine and up to 20% of the owners who have had the problem “fixed” continue to have the same problem recur. The engine has barely more than 60,000 miles on it and was maintained, according to CarFax, rather flawlessly by the previous (and only other) owner. There is no way that properly built and appropriately maintained engine should fail with less than 60,000 miles on it unless there is something inherently wrong with the design or build of the engine. It also seems like a huge copout on Kia’s part to not honor their 100,000 mile, 10 year powertrain warranty simply because the car transferred owners (once), especially with the history of known appropriate servicing AND that the car’s engine has already failed the repair directed by TSB ENG222 Rev 6.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11704626December 11, 2025
ENGINE
I took my car to the dealership for the recall fix on its engine where they put the noise sensors in. I told them my car was burning oil and my car check engine light came on so I took it back in. Just before going in the light went off, but the code was for a misfire in cylinder 2. They did could not recreate the misfire and sealed my engine and told me to bring it back in 1000 miles. During this time the check engine light came on and went off again for the same code. When I brought it back at 1000 miles they could not recreate the misfire and said my car burned 0.77 quarts of oil in 1000 miles and in order for the engine to be bad that it needed to burn 1.0 quarts in that timeframe. They resealed the engine and I am to bring it back again in 1000 miles. A car should burn next to nothing for oil in 1000 miles. So my engine could burn out almost all its oil before a regular oil change and burn up the engine unless I keep adding oil. I am betting the cylinder misfire is because of oil fouling the plug. I could be on the highway and my motor could stall or blowup from lack of oil. Their recall fix is a joke and saying a regular gas enginecan burn up to 1 quart of oil every 1000 miles is ridiculous. This and every car with this engine problem should have the engine properly repaired or replaced
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11704100December 9, 2025
POWER TRAIN, ENGINE
My vehicle was sent to the Kia dealership for service after a front-end collision there was minor body damage however the car wouldn't move so long story short a modular had to be replaced on the transmission there was multiple issues trying to program it I was told there was an issue with my computer they had to reach out to Kia manufacturer for help. I received my car back and while it was there for service I had them do an oil change I hadn't drove 300 to 400 miles and all of my oil was gone from my car when I called Kia they had me bring it back in couldn't find anything wrong with it and said they want to do a oil consumption after I had already documented oil that I had to put into the car three times in the week up until my appointment because every time I check the car it was empty of oil. Now Kia is telling me to drive a thousand miles on it so they can do an oil consumption however my check engine lights on my oil lights on and it is clearly burning extremely high amount of oil. So in caution of not blowing my engine I added oil to my car yesterday one quart and now my oil light is back on after maybe 20 miles of driving. Haven't gotten to 400 mi yet total out of the thousand Kia wants me to drive and my car has stalled at three red lights and cause me to miss out on two job opportunities. My car is a 2022 and has 62,000 miles on it. Everything I research shows there's piston recalls on the engines that are causing these exact problems that my car is having except there hasn't been a recall put into place for my specific year and make. The 2021 and the 2023 Seltos are listed, but my VIN number shows no recalls. The car has a horrible smell now it constantly smells like burning rubber or oil rather, exhaust stinks now. Car is not performing as you would expect a car would with that low of mileage in less than 3 years of ownership. And related to my accident the only issue was the modular on the transmission according to the mechanics everything else was ok
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11702868December 3, 2025
POWER TRAIN, ENGINE, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
My 2022 Kia Seltos repeatedly stalls and shuts off while driving, including in traffic and at stop signs. The vehicle has also had multiple electrical failures and an emergency brake malfunction. A few weeks ago, October 26th, while going through a Starbucks drive-through, My car completely stopped. I got stuck in the Starbucks line and multiple people had to help me push my car out of the drive through. I can get the name of the lady at the Starbucks and maybe her co-workers to collaborate if need be plus I have text messages with my family because I didn't know what to do. The vehicle has now been at Covina Kia for three weeks, and the dealership has refused to provide a diagnosis, repair timeline, or loaner vehicle. I called today to get an update and was told to expect a response or diagnostics in approximately 10 days. They won't even give me a rental car and I'm stranded without transportation. This is a serious safety hazard that could cause a crash. I am requesting NHTSA investigation and documentation of this defect.”
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11702377December 1, 2025
ENGINE, FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM, POWER TRAIN
I am writing regarding my vehicle, a 2021 Kia Seltos LX - VIN Number [XXX] , which is subject to a recall NHTSA #25V099, Manufacturer Recall Number SC336. I was informed of the recall April 2025 and have since experienced engine stalling while driving on the highway with my young children with me, abnormal engine noise, complete oil loss and eventually complete engine failure. Unfortunately, this defect caused my vehicle to become unsafe and completely inoperable for the last 8 weeks. Kia said "We have completed the SC336 Piston Oil Ring recall, and your vehicle did pass. This means that the failure of the engine is not covered within the scope of that recall. This vehicle also does not have Kia warranty coverage active now due to age and miles. At this stage, Metro Kia does not have any further recourse for warranty coverage." My kia was stalling on the highway, complete oil loss where it was bone dry which led to engine failure. How did the vehicle "PASS" when EVERYTHING from the description of the recall is EXACTLY what happened to me? This is absolutely wild that Kia is refusing to do anything about this vehicle. It is a 2021, with 65,000 miles on it. The repairs are over 13K and I am being told I would get nothing for the car if I traded it in because it is worth nothing. Because of this situation, I have experienced a complete loss of transportation and have been relying on other methods of transportation and emptying my bank account for numerous towing visits to and from the dealership. Kia has not fixed the recall and instead quoted me over $13,000 to repair the car. I have enclosed copies of relevant documents, including the recall notice, service records, and any related correspondence. I messaged the BBB and attached Kia's response to that, as well as an email with the service advisor at Kia. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11702358December 1, 2025
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
When pressing the horn on the steering wheel of my 2024 Kia Seltos SX Turbo AWD during an emergency no sound was heard. Horn is silent. Fuse is not blown and it appears likely the horn is defective.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11701824November 27, 2025
ENGINE, POWER TRAIN
My 2021 Kia Seltos is experiencing engine problems that match the piston-ring defect involved in Kia Recall SC336. I first took the vehicle to the dealership in August 2025 for excessive oil consumption and engine knocking. The dealer documented the engine was 1 quart low and stated the oil was “most likely being used internally getting past the piston rings.” However, they only performed the software update from SC336 and did not perform any internal engine inspection. Since that visit, the condition has significantly worsened. The vehicle is now consuming more oil than before, the knocking/ticking noises have become louder and more frequent, and fuel economy has declined. I am adding oil between changes to keep the engine from running dangerously low. There are no external leaks, so the oil is being burned internally, which is consistent with piston-ring failure. These symptoms are identical to other Seltos vehicles already included in the recall, yet my VIN is not currently part of it. The progression of engine noise and oil consumption raises serious safety concerns, including potential engine failure, loss of power, or stalling while driving. The dealer acknowledges the internal oil use but refuses further diagnostic work without direction from Kia. I am reporting this because the defect is worsening and poses a safety risk, and the vehicle appears to have the same failure pattern as recalled engines.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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