[hastetday]

Hi all! I started having an issue about a year ago where my 2013 Kia Soul (!) would stutter at the lower end of a gear when accelerating or cruise control. Example, the 6th gear engages around 40mph; if I slowly accelerated at around 41-42mph, then the car would stutter and RPMs would dip for about 2-3 seconds before the car would either shift down to 5th gear or raise the RPMs in 6th to get power. I had the battery and alternator both replaced about a month ago, which helped the issue, but did not fix it. Additionally, I started the car up yesterday and it took about 10 seconds to actually crank up, and once it did, the tachometer (RPM gauge) stayed at zero after ignition; driving it around the parking lot revealed that the car wouldn't downshift at all and only shift up into 4th gear. I had to put it in neutral to get the gear to go back down. At no point has a check engine light or battery light turned on.

Any advice or ideas would be helpful as I've already spent a ton in diagnostics and repairs.

 

[Fishteach]

Check the recall at https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/kia/soul/2012/reliability.

 

[hastetday]

Check the recall at https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/kia/soul/2012/reliability.

I wish that applied to my model, but unfortunately the recall only applies to 1.6L engines, and the exclaim is a 2.0L.

 

[Buzz]

Howdy and welcome to the forums!
It's also good to check the grounding location of your negative battery cable to the chassis. Mine had paint under it so I removed it to make a good connection.

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[Black Sheep]

My 2012 ! would sputter at idle. It ended up being a coil pack but it never threw up the check engine light. I did a throttle body clean up with seafoam and changed the plugs too. Runs like new.