Bad Airbags – Kia Recalls 411,000 Model Year 2017-19 Vehicles

Kia Motors America (Kia) is recalling ~411000 2017-2019 model Sedona, Soul, Soul EV, 2017-2018 Forte, and 2017 Forte Koup vehicles for defective airbags. The Air Bag Control Unit (ACU) cover can contact a memory chip on the printed circuit board and damage the electrical circuit. Circuit damage may result in deactivated air bags that will not deploy in a crash. Some owners will have no warning that there is a problem. Non-deployment of airbags where deployment is necessary increases the risk of injury or death, of course.

In the required filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Kia claimed that “variances in the manufacturing of the ACU” can cause contact between the ACU cover and the Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) chip on the ACU’s Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and cause damage to the EEPROM’s soldering joints resulting in an open circuit.

When this safety defect occurs with the Korean-manufactured part (Hyundai Mobis), the Airbag Warning Light can illuminate with diagnostic trouble code B1620 and the vehicle’s airbags will not deploy in crashes where deployment is necessary.

All owners of the potentially defective Kia models will be notified by first class mail with instructions to bring their vehicles to a Kia dealer. If the Airbag Warning Light (ABWL) is illuminated and the ABWL is due to existence of diagnostic trouble code B1620, the dealer will replace the Airbag Control Unit with an improved one. If the ABWL is not illuminated, a software update will be installed to the Airbag Control Unit to ensure deployment of the airbag(s) in the event of a crash that warrants such protection even if the recall condition related to DTC B1620 occurs in the future. This is a software workaround that leaves the bad component in place.

Kia will reimburse owners for repair expenses already incurred pursuant to Kia’s General Reimbursement Plan filed May 11, 2020 The remedy component contains a different PCB with a different EEPROM location thereby preventing contact between the ACU cover and EEPROM.ACU cover and the EEPROM.

Dealers will inspect the ACU, and either update the software or replace the unit. Repairs will be performed free of charge as required by US law. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed 21 March 2022. Owners may contact Kia customer service at 1-800-333-4542. Kia’s number for this recall is SC226. Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153) or go to www.nhtsa.gov.