[BORN2DV8]

I currently own a 2010 Soul+ and I love the design, utility, and value of this car. I can live with the "scratchable" interior materials, but there is no excuse for the rattles coming from the dash/glovebox area (a common problem listed in this forum).

I have rented two 2011 Soul+'s over the past three months and they both had the EXACT SAME RATTLE!

Fortunately some people on this excellent forum determined the cause to be a loose plastic fender liner near the door hinge. This liner is fastened with plastic pins that are a joke. If you replace the pins with screws and double-back tape you are rewarded with heavenly silence!

Initially I took my car to three different KIA Service Department in my area, and none of them knew about this fix. They ended up taking my whole dashboard apart and caused even more rattles - I was furious!

How is it possible that KIA Service Departments are not aware of how to repair these rattles?

How is it that 2011 Soul's still have this problem? This seems like such an easy issue to resolve with almost no cost associated with it. Also the warranty cost to KIA would decrease considerably. The whole issue just doesn't make sense. KIA - ARE YOU LISTENING?

Sorry - I just had to vent...

 

[Marc]

I have a 2010 Soul, will be one year on April 22nd.
I have no rattles (that I can hear of).
I usually play my music loud enough though and if the music isn't loud, that's because my wife and daughter are in the Soul with me. With those two yapping away, I can't hear anything else

 

[RETIREDOLDSOUL]

Hey Marc, my soul is three days older than yours. I have a grand total of 2538 miles racked up, no rattles either.

 

[ZiggyManSaad]

I've had mine since January 1st and have 2300 miles on it and I hear no rattles. Hmmm

 

[Marc]

ROS... mine has 6215 miles on it.
You don't use yours too often.
Summer is coming. I'm sure you'll be driving it more often then.

 

[Straitjacket_Jimmy]

I surpassed 3232 miles today. Bought mine on January 17. I have been driving quite a bit more than usual. Interesting thing is I live less than 3 miles from work. Ha!

 

[alkydrinker]

@BORN2DV8 -

I am one of the many on this forum who DID have this problem that you speak of and I totally agree with you. This is most definitely an issue of poor build quality that Kia needs to become keenly aware of and fix.

I am sorry to hear of your unfortunate experience with the Service Dept creating more problems trying to fix this. Lucky for me, my experience had a much better outcome. When I took my car to the dealership for this issue they thought it was the glove box assembly, which they replaced. The nice thing was that the new glove box door has a much nicer looking texture than the old one (resembles pebbled leather). While of course that didn't fix my rattle, by doing some research on this forum, I quickly and cheaply fixed the rattle problem myself just a little while later.

I do totally understand your frustration, but little weird stuff like this does tend to occur in inexpensive cars. To look on the bright side, we can be happy that this issue is very easy/cheap to fix yourself. If the car is going to have a widespread quality issue, it is better to be on something little like this as opposed to something with more serious consequences.

So far this is the only thing I've found about the car that is just flat out poor quality, which ain't too bad if this as bad as it gets. I am guessing your Service Dept experience is what really has you steamed, which I agree sucks. Kia needs to send a bulletin to the Dealerships and the service managers need to make sure their techs are aware of it.

I recently got an email from Kia asking about my satisfaction with the quality of my car and any issues I'd experienced. I provided a detailed complaint/explanation of this fender liner rattle.

 

[tempest]

Hey Marc, my soul is three days older than yours. I have a grand total of 2538 miles racked up, no rattles either.

18,700 miles in 15 months and i been using another car too and put 8000 miles on that....lol. No wonder your cars always clean.

 

[RETIREDOLDSOUL]

It has a heavy layer of dust on it now from being unmoved for close to 5 months. Better than road salt. When I was still working I would always put on 12 / 14K per year in my commute.

 

[klas]

lol i wish i only had one rattle and stopped keeping track of the new ones... initially noticed a creek around back hatch that has become a full blown rattle and i wonder how loud she is gonna get - driver's window likes to rock and roll, and sometimes the right plastic around tail light likes to add its beat to the rattle symphony that is forming too etc.... BUT don't have the one in the glove box YET - yippee!!

adding for alkydrinker - do not agree with "little weird stuff like this does tend to occur in inexpensive cars".. the soul costs more than some others out here and it is most definitely kia's cheaper building materials....

 

[RETIREDOLDSOUL]

In my years of experience, I find the price of a new vehicle has very little to do with build quality. If you want a real nightmare, own a Porsche, Audi, MB or BMW out of warranty.

 

[alkydrinker]

I definitely wasn't trying to sound like an apologist for problems with the Soul (paging kfergiez). But, I know for me and a few other Soul owners this fender liner rattle has been the only real issue so far and that really isn't too bad. One little loose plastic panel that you can secure yourself in 10min and is virtually invisible. I would think that most new cars by all manufacturers are brought to the dealership to fix/investigate at least one problem within the first few months of being sold. So, I've been satisfied with overall build quality so far...but then again I'm only at 6,000 miles.

Klas - if I was having all sorts of rattles all over the car I'd trade it in and wash my hands of it. I'm not trying to be a smart a$$, that is just honestly what I'd do. Same thing goes for if I couldn't get any higher than low 20s MPG like some are reporting. I just couldn't tolerate that. I'd take the financial hit and probably get into a 2011 Elantra.

 

[klas]

^^ you are right on and this car is gone before the end of this year b/c in addition to shifting problem and real low mpg, is losing much of its tightness really fast for an almost 2 year old car imo... just trying to figure out what i want and cannot make up my mind - have a couple trying to talk me into going for a used forester so we'll see....

 

[team haymaker]

do the forrester, you'll love replacing head gaskets instead of Soul rattles.

 

[SteveinMN]

No rattles in ours (about 8000 miles) and no rattles in the renter we had for a month before this one.

FWIW, I appreciate that Kia at least put in a plastic fender liner. It's regrettable that they attached it cheaply enough to cause a problem on some of the cars. But there are much more expensive cars out there with problems which don't show up for a long time and are really expensive to fix. I hope we all can avoid those kinds of problems.

 

[SteveinMN]

I would think that most new cars by all manufacturers are brought to the dealership to fix/investigate at least one problem within the first few months of being sold. So, I've been satisfied with overall build quality so far...but then again I'm only at 6,000 miles.

Mike Karesh's TrueDelta shows that 2010 Souls have, on average, 32 visits to the dealer for every 100 cars sold. That puts the Soul into pretty good territory. Much better than my VW diesel (though mine, thankfully, has been a better example than many and us diesel drivers tend to put on twice as many miles in a given period as non-diesel drivers).

 

[klas]

do the forrester, you'll love replacing head gaskets instead of Soul rattles.

friends never mentioned that one but know they were an issue with my 91 4runner but only needed one replacement somewhere around 20-25k miles which carried me all the way to the soul....besides - warranty will cover that one and unlike the soul's intermittent disappearing first gear that can't be duplicated/fixed for who knows how long - that will at least blow lol

adding - thanks for the reminder to check out known issues with the company and will go to nhtsa site to dig more into year by year but just did a quick search on web and looks like 1999-2002 were the head gasket years - 16k suburu cars including the forester were recalled....

 

[ksp11]

Bought mine almost 4 months ago.

My rattle started with less than 2500 miles.

EDIT: I am most definitely still happy with this car.

 

[team haymaker]

adding - thanks for the reminder to check out known issues with the company and will go to nhtsa site to dig more into year by year but just did a quick search on web and looks like 1999-2002 were the head gasket years - 16k suburu cars including the forester were recalled....

you are right they had that recall, but they still have head gasket issues in the new models. Its just not widespread liek the recall years.
also more costly to maintain.
I personally love Subaru more than any other cars, but theres no denying the fact they are costly to own compared to some others. really fun to drive too

 

[klas]

^^ most that i know that have em are very loyal and have never owned anything but and they are also real good sales people too b/c never thought i would ever be interested in one - seems more like a yuppy family car to me lol... definitely need awd or 4wd and after this one, am not gonna even bother looking at a suzuki which is the perfect size so that means a larger one grrrr....and is true in that it will cost more to maintain but i see older ones on the road all the time and have yet to see an older you know what lol....so imo - would rather pay a little more maintaining then a lot more buying a cheaper one sooner rather than later.... and if i get one with a bad head then so be it and not worried b/c warranty will cover it and lt least it will blow and will be fixed sooner rather than later... just wanna car that doesn't have me at the dealer as much as this one has....