2020 Telluride AWD rear end jerking thumping and vibrating

[Tellthemride]

So lesson learned is to keep replacing driveshafts until you get a good one that doesn’t vibrate?

 

[alexdrums]

sounds like it

 

[ccorry21]

FINALLY some good news.

I got my Telluride back yesterday after a week at the dealership. Although it was fixed late Friday, the service manager (boss of whoever I was dealing with) wanted to keep it over the weekend so he could test the fix personally himself. Did that yesterday (in addition to confirming the flickering camera issue was fixed), and I got it back yesterday afternoon.

Did some test driving on the highway this morning and it FINALLY appears to be fixed. No vibration felt anywhere up to 80mph. Did not want to test my luck any higher.

The tech who drove to my house to drop it back off told me this has been frustrating for them too and that they were sorry I was their guinea pig for all this. They haven’t seen this with any other of their sold Tellurides.

He also mentioned that what can cause this is the driveshaft being out of balance (I think I’ve heard this mentioned in this thread before), and it took two tries to get one that wasn’t imbalanced. Worth noting that my fix (new driveshaft and coupler) is the same as mentioned in the Palisade TSB. Hopefully kia comes around to it at some point.

Happy to have a functioning Telluride for now.

Wowwww. Seriously, your patience has been legendary, and much needed for the good of future owners with this issue.
I’m hopeful Kia will issue their own TSB on this, to alleviate others with the same issue.
Thanks for keeping us updated!

 

[mgoblue]

So lesson learned is to keep replacing driveshafts until you get a good one that doesn’t vibrate?

Yeah basically.

My recommendation to anyone with the issue is to show them the palisade TSB and have them mention that to techline when they reach out.

Techline had them disconnect the driveshaft and then drive it. Every time they did that, the problem went away. Seems like their driveshafts are not great.

(And also not cheap... not sure exactly how they are priced to the dealer, but it’s a $1350 part...)

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[mgoblue]

(Duplicate post)

 

[alexdrums]

So lesson learned is to keep replacing driveshafts until you get a good one that doesn’t vibrate?

The real solution would be for Kia to step up the quality control on these parts before they are ever installed on vehicles. I guess the tolerance for error is extremely small...since even the engineers don’t seem to know the difference between a good and bad driveshaft.

 

[Bev]

Wowwww. Seriously, your patience has been legendary, and much needed for the good of future owners with this issue.
I’m hopeful Kia will issue their own TSB on this, to alleviate others with the same issue.
Thanks for keeping us updated!

That's wonderful news and encouraging. Hopefully, it will stay fixed with no other issues. Like you, I have a love/hate relationship with mine.
Sadly for me, my dealer doesn't want mine back in the shop unless their Kia Tech wants to play with it some more.
I did here from Kia Consumers this morning and they are going through the paperwork I sent them so I think they may be getting ready to buy mine back.
The sad part of it is, I just want my Telluride fixed.
I was going to buy one a year ago and got diagnosed with cancer, so after surgery, chemo, and radiation, I waited for my second clearance from the Oncologist before making the purchase. When I get bad news from them on a fix, I felt victimized since Kia has known about it for so long. I have no idea what else to purchase because this was my dream vehicle.
Guess I'll see what Kia Consumers says.
Best of luck to you.

 

[mgoblue]

The real solution would be for Kia to step up the quality control on these parts before they are ever installed on vehicles. I guess the tolerance for error is extremely small...since even the engineers don’t seem to know the difference between a good and bad driveshaft.

Agree with this, but the cynic in me thinks that this is a bit of “you get what you pay for.”

Kia has achieved a feature-loaded vehicle at a very competitive price. Only way to do that and preserve margin is to find ways to reduce costs. This might mean lower quality (higher defect rate) parts they can get made more cheaply than say, a Honda driveshaft.

The urgency to rapidly increase volume might also be at play here.

Pure speculation here, but that’s my guess. Makes me question what other mysteries this vehicle will hold in the future.

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[Austin3000!]

@Bev - What was the conversation like with Kia Consumer Affairs when you asked them to buy the car back? What paperwork have you sent them?

That would be my dream scenario as I have been dealing with this vibration issue for the last 4 months (2 trips to dealer now for it, 1 with techline engineer) AND just had my windshield crack due to a small chip that spread. That is also a known issue but they are refusing to fix under the 2020 goodwill notice since mine is a 2021.

@mgoblue - Congratulations on your persistence and thank you for sharing your insights with us! You give us all hope

 

[Bev]

@Bev - What was the conversation like with Kia Consumer Affairs when you asked them to buy the car back? What paperwork have you sent them?

That would be my dream scenario as I have been dealing with this vibration issue for the last 4 months (2 trips to dealer now for it, 1 with techline engineer) AND just had my windshield crack due to a small chip that spread. That is also a known issue but they are refusing to fix under the 2020 goodwill notice since mine is a 2021.

@mgoblue - Congratulations on your persistence and thank you for sharing your insights with us! You give us all hope

In your owner's manual, there is an address for the Kia Warranty. I got a sample letter off my Attorney General's page on how to address it and went by that. It has to be sent Certified Mail. I also filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General's office. We have an online complaint form where we can upload repair attempts and the cover letter that was sent to Kia.
I scanned all of my stuff into a folder then uploaded everything in the folder.
Texas usually has a good Lemon Law, although they don't respond back to you personally they'll go after Kia. I probably won't know what will happen on that end. I can only assume Kia got a formal letter from them which may have sped the process up.
I do encourage you to take it back to the dealer a couple of more times for documentation even at another dealership.
The Kia Tech they sent down here twice on my vehicle has been caught in bald-faced lies so it wouldn't break my heart if he lost his job. First, he said it was the right front tire. It set in the shop a week waiting for the tire. Then he said they test drove it using something called a PICOSCOPE. It registered at 25 which he said was within Kia's acceptance range. I called BS on his story and told Kia that he obviously didn't get up to 65-80 MPH because it still vibrates.
I received an email from them yesterday that she received all my information and had forwarded it to upper management. But, what I don't understand is, she called me last week and said upper management wanted to know if I had an EVO account set up? What does that have to do with it?
Anyway, I am in the waiting game.
My service manager told me Kia has already bought one back last week when I picked mine up.
I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Austin3000!]

In your owner's manual, there is an address for the Kia Warranty. I got a sample letter off my Attorney General's page on how to address it and went by that. It has to be sent Certified Mail. I also filed a complaint with the Texas Attorney General's office. We have an online complaint form where we can upload repair attempts and the cover letter that was sent to Kia.
I scanned all of my stuff into a folder then uploaded everything in the folder.
Texas usually has a good Lemon Law, although they don't respond back to you personally they'll go after Kia. I probably won't know what will happen on that end. I can only assume Kia got a formal letter from them which may have sped the process up.
I do encourage you to take it back to the dealer a couple of more times for documentation even at another dealership.
The Kia Tech they sent down here twice on my vehicle has been caught in bald-faced lies so it wouldn't break my heart if he lost his job. First, he said it was the right front tire. It set in the shop a week waiting for the tire. Then he said they test drove it using something called a PICOSCOPE. It registered at 25 which he said was within Kia's acceptance range. I called BS on his story and told Kia that he obviously didn't get up to 65-80 MPH because it still vibrates.
I received an email from them yesterday that she received all my information and had forwarded it to upper management. But, what I don't understand is, she called me last week and said upper management wanted to know if I had an EVO account set up? What does that have to do with it?
Anyway, I am in the waiting game.
My service manager told me Kia has already bought one back last week when I picked mine up.
I wish you the best of luck.

Was the Kia Tech's name Leo? That is who rode with me originally to confirm the issue. Since you are in San Antonio I figured it may be the same person as he said he covers all of Texas and OK (I am in Austin).

I feel like the dealer is slow playing me in the same way. It took 5 full days to put on 3 new tires after riding with Leo.

Thank you for telling your story and I will be following the process you outlined to formalize the complaint with Texas Attorney General.

Perhaps the Kia upper management was asking if you had a UVO account? UVO is the KIA consumer web portal / app that is used for maintenance, remote start, paying your loan, and also tracking your vehicle location.

 

[mgoblue]

@mgoblue - Congratulations on your persistence and thank you for sharing your insights with us! You give us all hope

Thanks. Certainly glad to have this vibration issue behind me.

Sadly though, my camera flicker issue has returned. A relatively minor thing, but after 3 tries they still can’t fix it.

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[Bev]

Was the Kia Tech's name Leo? That is who rode with me originally to confirm the issue. Since you are in San Antonio I figured it may be the same person as he said he covers all of Texas and OK (I am in Austin).

I feel like the dealer is slow playing me in the same way. It took 5 full days to put on 3 new tires after riding with Leo.

Thank you for telling your story and I will be following the process you outlined to formalize the complaint with Texas Attorney General.

Perhaps the Kia upper management was asking if you had a UVO account? UVO is the KIA consumer web portal / app that is used for maintenance, remote start, paying your loan, and also tracking your vehicle location.

Yes, the same lazy POS. I think the guy is lazy and just coming up with one excuse after another to keep putting me off.
My dealer, Ancira Kia, has been wonderful thus far. I bought the vehicle in Sangelo en route to Colorado but They've been servicing it here. The service manager thinks it's the driveshaft and adjoining parts but they haven't attempted that part because he said if he did without Kia's authorization, they wouldn't reimburse the dealer for the parts and since they have been in the process of buying another one back for Kia, he acts like he can't do anything without Kia's approval. He has talked to the young lady with Kia and has kind of been working with her separately.
I would suggest you make your formal complaint with Kia and the attorney general's office. I don't know how much leverage it will give you but it gives you an option. Leo doesn't want to work with me on it because I called him on his lazy work. Guess I burnt that bridge. lol
What city are you in? Do you have an option to take it to another dealer locally? Who is your dealer?

 

[mgoblue]

My service tech said similar things FYI. He said he couldn’t do anything on his own since it’s such a new vehicle, and he was required to call into “techline” and follow their instructions in order to do any work.

Not sure why you’re getting different outcomes if they’re doing the same thing.

 

[Bev]

My service tech said similar things FYI. He said he couldn’t do anything on his own since it’s such a new vehicle, and he was required to call into “techline” and follow their instructions in order to do any work.

Not sure why you’re getting different outcomes if they’re doing the same thing.

They haven't done the same things. They replaced my right front tire and that didn't fix it then the tech came back and used a PICOSCOPE and said it vibrated within Kia's limits. My service manager disagrees but his hands are tied. The tech hasn't attempted to try anything else.

 

[JerseySXP]

Barely have 300 miles on my Telluride and I'm noticing the vibration kick in around 50 mph and disappear at 70mph.

My wife swears that she feels nothing sitting in the passengers seat.

I'm feeling it in the driver's side seat.

For those that have successfully gotten this fixed what tips do you have when taking it to the dealership? I'm afraid I'll get a story saying what I'm feeling is common...

Its smooth like butter up until 50mph I will say that...

Is there some other seat I should ask my wife to sit in to see if she feels it?

Thanks gang...and this flat out sucks...

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[Bev]

Barely have 300 miles on my Telluride and I'm noticing the vibration kick in around 50 mph and disappear at 70mph.

My wife swears that she feels nothing sitting in the passengers seat.

I'm feeling it in the driver's side seat.

For those that have successfully gotten this fixed what tips do you have when taking it to the dealership? I'm afraid I'll get a story saying what I'm feeling is common...

Its smooth like buyer up until 50mph I will say that...

Is there some other seat I should ask my wife to sit in to see if she feels it?

Thanks gang...and this flat out sucks...

I'm sorry you're having issues too. It's a love/hate relationship with mine. What's sad is that Kia is aware of the problem and so far is running people around in circles on it.
I wish you the best.

 

[JerseySXP]

I'm sorry you're having issues too. It's a love/hate relationship with mine. What's sad is that Kia is aware of the problem and so far is running people around in circles on it.
I wish you the best.

Definitely love/hate.

The truck is beautiful...am I overreacting or being overly sensitive...possibly but that's what I'm trying to rule out somehow!

 

[Kwim]

Barely have 300 miles on my Telluride and I'm noticing the vibration kick in around 50 mph and disappear at 70mph.

My wife swears that she feels nothing sitting in the passengers seat.

I'm feeling it in the driver's side seat.

For those that have successfully gotten this fixed what tips do you have when taking it to the dealership? I'm afraid I'll get a story saying what I'm feeling is common...

Its smooth like butter up until 50mph I will say that...

Is there some other seat I should ask my wife to sit in to see if she feels it?

Thanks gang...and this flat out sucks...

As I understand it, fate gave you a chance to get to know Kia and find out how it really works. Keep us updated.

 

[Austin3000!]

You should drive right back to the dealership you bought it from immediately, hand them they keys, and demand they refund your purchase or swap you into another one. Worst case they put you into a loaner so you can start the clock on lemon law (in Texas the car must be at the dealer trying to be fixed for 30days before you can declare it a lemon)

This problem has completely ruined my ownership experience since I bought it 5 months ago.

I have found that Kia (HQ and dealerships) are simply not equipped organizationally to provide the level of customer service required on a car this expensive.

I just sent a certified letter to Kia HQ asking for mine to be bought back, along with a Texas Attorney General Compliant, and 2 NHTSA complaints.

Just wait until you windshield cracks from a small chip and they won't pay for a fix because that only applied to 20's. **** Kia.