I'm in central Ohio and I have a 2020 Telluride with about 160,000 miles on it.
The battery light came on and then it went off a few miles later. It came on again and went off. It did this several more times and then it came on solid. The car had been operating perfectly but during this time the car started shifting erratically. I conveniently stopped at and had my mechanic check and test drive it. He said these newer cars which are computer controlled will cause all sorts of crazy problems when the line voltage gets low. While I was driving it during this alternator anomaly, which then died completely, the car started shifting abnormally. It would slam from one gear to the next intermittently and during this time the dash lights all lit up and then started to dim, which suggested to me 'alternator problem'.
The car is new enough that the parts stores do not have a listing on a replacement alternator. The dealer wanted over $700 for just the alternator so I called a dozen salvage yards and none of them locally had an alternator. I was referred to a foreign car yard about 100 miles away who I have dealt with in the past. They had a wreck with one showing, but it turned out to be broken. They referred me to a yard in Cincinnati, who also had a wreck, but it too was broken.
I checked car-part.com that has yards all over the country subscribing to it and found one in South Bend Indiana. They shipped it to my mechanic and he installed it. That fixed the voltage problem, but it still had the shifting problem.
I had a local transmission shop test drive it and he suggested the program for the computer program that controls the transmission could have been corrupted by the low-voltage. He referred me to another shop locally. Long story short, when I talked with him, he said he probably wouldn’t be able to reprogram the computer and referred me to the KIA dealer.
I made an appointment.
The service manager called me back and I explained everything about the symptom and he said that it would be best if his master tech looked at the car. He said the car is drivable as long as I don’t push it hard. I typically do not push it hard.
They put it on their diagnostic computer and did a software upgrade the factory had called for but that did not fix the shifting problem. He recommended an automatic transaxle replacement. The service writer could not answer why this recommendation was made, and I was unable to talk with the technician who worked (?) on my car. I asked the service writer if it would damage the transmission if I continue driving it and she emphatically said YES. They wanted $1950 labor plus $1300 for the remanufactured transmission and $125 for ATF plus $36 to flush the transmission cooler totaling $3400.
Seems to me dealerships only want to replace major PARTS (BIG profit plus hourrs of labor @125/hour) rather than looking for a sensor or control module, which might cause this problem. It seems their only goal is to reap as much money from the customer as they can possibly rape.
I do not believe their diagnosis when the car had been running perfectly prior to this.
I don’t understand how a low bus voltage from a bad alternator would ruin a transmission (which was driven less than 50 miles during the transmission misbehavior), which is purely mechanical except for the computer sensors/module which tell it when to shift into the new gear.
Somewhere here I saw something about a transmission control module so I asked my mechanic about that and he said a used $60 module is a far better gamble than $3500 for a transmission replacement.
BTW, the dealer said no codes showed up on their scan after the program update.
Can anyone explain something about this anomaly and why the dealer only wants to replace rather than diagnose the REAL problem ?
The battery light came on and then it went off a few miles later. It came on again and went off. It did this several more times and then it came on solid. The car had been operating perfectly but during this time the car started shifting erratically. I conveniently stopped at and had my mechanic check and test drive it. He said these newer cars which are computer controlled will cause all sorts of crazy problems when the line voltage gets low. While I was driving it during this alternator anomaly, which then died completely, the car started shifting abnormally. It would slam from one gear to the next intermittently and during this time the dash lights all lit up and then started to dim, which suggested to me 'alternator problem'.
The car is new enough that the parts stores do not have a listing on a replacement alternator. The dealer wanted over $700 for just the alternator so I called a dozen salvage yards and none of them locally had an alternator. I was referred to a foreign car yard about 100 miles away who I have dealt with in the past. They had a wreck with one showing, but it turned out to be broken. They referred me to a yard in Cincinnati, who also had a wreck, but it too was broken.
I checked car-part.com that has yards all over the country subscribing to it and found one in South Bend Indiana. They shipped it to my mechanic and he installed it. That fixed the voltage problem, but it still had the shifting problem.
I had a local transmission shop test drive it and he suggested the program for the computer program that controls the transmission could have been corrupted by the low-voltage. He referred me to another shop locally. Long story short, when I talked with him, he said he probably wouldn’t be able to reprogram the computer and referred me to the KIA dealer.
I made an appointment.
The service manager called me back and I explained everything about the symptom and he said that it would be best if his master tech looked at the car. He said the car is drivable as long as I don’t push it hard. I typically do not push it hard.
They put it on their diagnostic computer and did a software upgrade the factory had called for but that did not fix the shifting problem. He recommended an automatic transaxle replacement. The service writer could not answer why this recommendation was made, and I was unable to talk with the technician who worked (?) on my car. I asked the service writer if it would damage the transmission if I continue driving it and she emphatically said YES. They wanted $1950 labor plus $1300 for the remanufactured transmission and $125 for ATF plus $36 to flush the transmission cooler totaling $3400.
Seems to me dealerships only want to replace major PARTS (BIG profit plus hourrs of labor @125/hour) rather than looking for a sensor or control module, which might cause this problem. It seems their only goal is to reap as much money from the customer as they can possibly rape.
I do not believe their diagnosis when the car had been running perfectly prior to this.
I don’t understand how a low bus voltage from a bad alternator would ruin a transmission (which was driven less than 50 miles during the transmission misbehavior), which is purely mechanical except for the computer sensors/module which tell it when to shift into the new gear.
Somewhere here I saw something about a transmission control module so I asked my mechanic about that and he said a used $60 module is a far better gamble than $3500 for a transmission replacement.
BTW, the dealer said no codes showed up on their scan after the program update.
Can anyone explain something about this anomaly and why the dealer only wants to replace rather than diagnose the REAL problem ?
