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2013 Dash went out momentarily, dealer refusing to honor warranty

2K views 10 replies 11 participants last post by  SoNic67 
#1 ·
I recently brought my 2013 Kia Soul base model to the dealer with a rod knock. They diagnosed the rod knock quite quickly, then informed me a week and a half later that during a test drive the mechanic claims the dashboard flicked out. They have absolutely no evidence that this happened, but are now claiming that my vehicle has no warranty even though I'm within my hundred thousand miles and they do not have to replace the engine. their current stance is that they will honor my warranty if I can prove how many miles are on the vehicle but they're refusing to accept any of my usage statistics or any kind of sign affidavits regarding my utilization.

They are claiming that the only way they will honor my warranty is if they can get a odometer reading off of the engines ECU, they have said in the same breath that this is not possible as it is not stored in the ECU but only in the dash cluster.

They went on to say that if the car had three miles on it in the dash cluster without the warranty would be void in the same fashion I'm having a hard time believing this! Any recommendations on next steps?
 
#2 · (Edited)
Check your fuses (YouTube how) in the fusebox on the inside panel between the dash and driver-side door, as well as the fusebox in the engine compartment. It could just be a blown fuse, or even a bad relay, causing the dashboard to no longer illuminate.

I'm not sure if this issue has come up before, but definitely search the forums and see if anyone else has reported it and a potential fix.

As far as odometer readings go, some cars do have the miles stored in the cluster. Cluster swaps for instance may have improper odometer readings from the donor vehicle. Not sure about the Soul.


On the note of the engine, my 2013 1.6L (same as yours), auto, is getting the whole short block replaced after I noticed an oil leak between the engine and transmission.

Backstory: https://www.kiasoulforums.com/10-so...-rear-main-seal-going-bad-under-warranty.html
Resolution: https://www.kiasoulforums.com/10-soul-problems-gen-1/113925-kia-giving-me-new-short-block.html

If you're looking for another excuse to bring your car in, see if your car has a similar issue as mine.
 
#3 ·
Call KMA and bitch to them. This is bogus as you never had the dash go out on yours before. They could be making it up to avoid the warranty issue. Things like this are so full of holes that they anger me no end when dealers think their clientelle is that friggin' stupid.
 
#4 ·
Do you have any service receipts on the car, oil changes etc? They usually document the mileage on the car. That can be used to establish the approximate mileage on the vehicle.

Other ways?

Any inspections that listed odometer?

Did you ever provide an odometer reading to your insurance company?

You could ask someone smarter than me if your vehicles black box might be holding that data too.

Keep us posted.
 
#7 ·
Sounds like the mechanic pulled a quick wire disconnect or a fuse in an attempt to avoid warranty fix, maybe signup at carfax I think they have a site where you can see what was done to your vehicle and you can see your shop records and miles records may even have current miles on it >>https://www.mycarfax.com/?s_id=int_free_001 even places you had work done at will often update through carfax noting mileage what was done and what needs done. good luck hope all works out for you
 
#11 ·
Sounds like the mechanic pulled a quick wire disconnect or a fuse in an attempt to avoid warranty fix
That's not possible. We all replace batteries in our cars, leaving the whole car un-powered, and the mileage doesn't get "erased". If you power a dash that sit in a junkyard without a battery for months, it will still show the mileage.

Mileage is stored in a non-volatile memory and it can be also retrieved by their programmer tool, even if the dash is not illuminated.
 
#8 ·
That sounds like a pack of lies. First thing a service writer does is take down the mileage.

The entire cluster committed suicide in my 2002 Regal, the dealer tried the same BS. I keep gas tickets so I had mileage within 100 or so, they were crooks and pricks and I wish I'd known about GM Case Management at the time but they did fix it. From my experience, it pays to escalate this up the chain of command as soon as possible. The dealer will not change his spots.

Dealers are often just criminals who don't have the balls to rob banks and inconvenience stores.
 
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#9 ·
Wow, that's crazy. I've had crap like that done to me though with another make and a Shyster of a dealer. Can you go to another local dealer instead? Maybe it's just that dealer aka stealer.
 
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