Oil and hot gas leaks result in two Hyundai / Kia recalls

After escaping the recession with renewed offers and sharply rising sales, Hyundai and its sister brand Kia are now facing a seemingly endless series of recalls. The latest ones involve a trio of popular crossovers, the automaker signaling that the engine could be damaged in case of problems.

Both recalls involve 534,000 US vehicles. The models concerned are the Kia Soul 2012-2016, 2011-2013 Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage 2011-2012, bringing the number of vehicles recalled for fire engine risk since 2015 to more than 2.3 million. Reuters reports. It's easy to lose the account.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the recalled Souls are all equipped with a 1.6-liter four-cylinder direct injection. "High exhaust temperatures can damage the catalytic converter, cause abnormal engine combustion, damage to one or more engine pistons, and possibly piston rod failure," says the recall.

At a minimum, dealers will upgrade the engine control unit logic for catalytic protection against overheating of the vehicle, although replacement of the catalytic converter may be necessary. If the technicians find any damage to the engine, Kia will replace a new engine free of charge.

As for the Tucson and Sportage, their problem concerns oil, which should ideally stay close enough to the internal elements of the engine to lubricate the moving parts. A porous oil sump seal is the cause of the loss of certain fluids from certain vehicles. As everyone knows, engines are not happy when they are dry.

NHTSA describes the issue as a "engine oil leak from the seal between the oil
pot and engine block which, if not repaired and used over time, could
possibly damage the engine. "

After numerous reminders, the federal agency asked the federal agency to return "an analysis of parts and other sources of data to identify a trend in high-speed stalls and collision-free claims in certain 2011 Hyundai Tucson vehicles. -2013, "says the recall report. "Hyundai has also identified a trend related to leaks in the engine oil sump of the same vehicle population. Hyundai has not identified any accidents or injuries related to these claims. "

Currently, the builder "evaluates a cure" for oil leakage. Whatever the cure, the work will be done for free.

Investigations continue on both sides of the Pacific, with the US and South Korean governments hoping to set a timetable for the company's Theta II engine problems.

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