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(Another) ICCU repair journey

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12v ev6 iccu
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4.8K views 60 replies 22 participants last post by  Cheshirecat  
#1 ·
Hi everyone,
Having read the title, I know some of you are thinking "yet another one of these posts" but I figured I would keep a record of my experience with ICCU failure and repair here in case it helps someone. And I'm sure I will have questions along the way (I already do! see below...), so perhaps I could pose these here and get your views and experiences at the same time. I am in the UK, by the way, and I have seen lots of different experiences in the US on various forums. I have not seen as many detailed accounts of people's experiences in the UK (probably my bad Googling, to be honest) so if you know of some, please point me in the right direction.

My EV6 gave the usual error messages and lost power about 2 weeks ago. I called every dealer within reasonable distance. Noone could accept the car to their forecourt when this happened. Some said not before May. The earliest slot I could find is to drop the car off w/b March 17th, but it's unclear when they'll actually look at the car and diagnose the issue.

Until diagnosis is done, I obviously can't get a courtesy car from Kia. I am hoping, though, that after diagnosis, if the parts are backordered and will take a while to arrive, Kia will offer me a courtesy car free of charge. My understanding is that this is not guaranteed. The dealer has certainly said I need to pay a daily fee (£12 per day, I believe) for the courtesy car. What I don't yet know is what this daily fee covers. Is it for (comprehensive) insurance? What have your experiences been? Do I need to worry about arranging insurance on my own? My own insurance might cover me on a 3rd party basis but that makes me nervous if I'll be using the courtesy car for weeks.

More generally, what have your experience been (in the UK) with getting a free courtesy car while the car is in repair? Would it be unreasonable to ask for an equivalent car if there will be a multi-week wait? Does anyone have experiences with that side of things?

Thanks in advance!
 
#2 ·
@DrE Surely if a car under warranty loses power at the roadside, is considered an emergency, and you just call Kia roadside assistance and they arrange a tow to the nearest dealer and Kia roadside assistance arrange a courtesy car whilst your car is being repaired?

I'm curious, as a couple of times, I've had cars (not kia) under warranty that could not be driven, and under the manufacturer's scheme, a tow truck was arranged at the roadside and I was given a courtesy car within a few hours.
 
#4 ·
@DrE Surely if a car under warranty loses power at the roadside, is considered an emergency, and you just call Kia roadside assistance and they arrange a tow to the nearest dealer and Kia roadside assistance arrange a courtesy car whilst your car is being repaired?

I'm curious, as a couple of times, I've had cars (not kia) under warranty that could not be driven, and under the manufacturer's scheme, a tow truck was arranged at the roadside and I was given a courtesy car within a few hours.
This is what I (naively) thought. Kia say the only way is to get to a dealer first and get it diagnosed. Until that happens, they're not responsible for anything. They've also said that even after diagnosis, they don't guarantee a loan car for free. They said dealers sometimes offer this as a courtesy and that they might consider covering the cost if there is a long wait (but not guaranteed that they would cover it). It's encouraging that others have had some luck with the cost of the loan car being covered.
 
#3 ·
Had the same ICCU issue 3 weeks ago. Luckily my dealer has been much more accommodating and took the car in as soon as I could arrange the RAC to collect from me. They diagnosed quickly and then arranged warranty claim with Kia. Took a few days but then Kia rental arranged a petrol MG HS for loan, I kept pushing for an EV and the dealer eventually loaned me an EV Niro.
ICCU is on back order and I'm now 2 weeks in since initial failure.
There seems to be a delay in Kia getting back to the dealer with authorisations for warranty and loan cars etc but keep pushing. I'd try phoning around dealers and see who will take the car as until diagnoses they can't do much. Good luck.
 
#5 ·
Had the same ICCU issue 3 weeks ago. Luckily my dealer has been much more accommodating and took the car in as soon as I could arrange the RAC to collect from me. They diagnosed quickly and then arranged warranty claim with Kia. Took a few days but then Kia rental arranged a petrol MG HS for loan, I kept pushing for an EV and the dealer eventually loaned me an EV Niro.
ICCU is on back order and I'm now 2 weeks in since initial failure.
There seems to be a delay in Kia getting back to the dealer with authorisations for warranty and loan cars etc but keep pushing. I'd try phoning around dealers and see who will take the car as until diagnoses they can't do much. Good luck.
Sorry this happened to you as well, but good to hear things seem to have gone more smoothly for you than for me. I have called every dealer I felt I could get the car to. Others were just too far so it wouldn't be practical to recover the car to them, to be honest. The ones I called all said their diaries are completely full and they don't even have room for the car to be recovered to them. Some of them sounded genuine on the phone and tried to help by speaking to the service manager etc. but the answer was always the same: nothing before April/May (I called them at the end of February). This dealer said the absolutely earliest they could do was 3rd week of March which was the earliest by far...

Glad Kia are eventually authorising the loan cars. I would very much like to avoid driving an ICE but beggars can't be choosers obviously.

Perhaps this is a silly question and excuse my ignorance on this, but do the loan cars have comprehensive insurance by default? I assume so, but it could also be third party only and I can't get a straight answer from the dealer.
 
#6 ·
Disappointing to hear of yet another ICCU failure. If the car is under warranty then you should get a free courtesy car. I know I did with my Hyundai Ioniq 5. Lots of issues in-between and again they refused to supply me an EV by Thrifty Rental Cars who are their supplier of courtesy cars but they gave me a lovely BMW iX1 off their own backs as they just had a new fleet of them delivered and which Hyundai refused to pay for (as higher tier courtesy car then what they normally give).
Took about 2 weeks also for diagnosis and then THREE months for repair as parts on back order.
I have only just recently written to Hyundai Exectuive team who work under Mr. Ashley Andrew Hyundai UK MD, about ICCU failures, as disappointingly they are still happening and even on brand new cars and still taking weeks or months to get the parts. Mine was repaired Aug 2023. And that part is now coming up to 2 years old again and so I am concerned it will fail again.
Any why don't dealers have enough staff to deal with them? Are there many cars in for repair?? Or just a lack of EV specialised staff??
They (Executive Team) seemed to deny that ICCU failures were a major issue :"only a tiny number of cars affected" but I am starting to wonder. None of the major EV motoring websites seem to mention it. No point in glossing it over. May be better to stick with the cheaper 400v architecture EVs from Hyundai and Kia which do not have ICCU's , is my growing conclusion.
 
#8 · (Edited)
It's a known issue, so it's their problem to have enough parts in stock to do warranty repairs within reasonable time, even if they have to take them off the production lines to provide the necessary parts.
If they'd rather make you wait longer so that they can keep delivering new cars, surely you shouldn't pay the price for it by having to pay for your own loaner.

If it's not a lease, I would contact your car insurance.
If covered by motor legal protection, they could have a lawyer write to the dealership/OEM and get them to either repair the car quickly or pay for a loaner due to what is now clearly a design flaw.

Keep reporting so that people are made aware of this flaw and those considering buying these cars, you'd be playing Russian Roulette every time you switch the "ignition" on. Get a different car.

Also make sure that you have records of how long your car was out of service as your warranty period should be suspended during the time that you don't have access to the car.
 
#10 ·
In general, it falls within the warranty period of the car. Unless the car is out of warranty, then you'll get the standard warranty on repairs. Guess that is different per country.

I have heard that, since the ICCU has been subjected to a recall, you should get lifetime warranty on it. But I am not sure if I believe that.
 
#13 ·
Hi everyone,
Many thanks for your replies and contributions. I thought I should send a quick update.

My car was recovered to my dealer yesterday (March 18th). They gave me a courtesy car and asked me to pay a daily fee for it.

Earlier today, they've updated me to say that they've diagnosed the issue as being the ICCU (no surprise there). They seem to have asked for a pre-warranty approval given the cost of the part. They expect to hear back within 24-48 hours. If approved, they intend to ask for the replacement ICCU. They have another EV6 waiting for the part already and it's backordered so chances are I'll be in the same situation. They don't know timelines. Their view is that if the part is backordered, I need to return their courtesy car and they'll request one directly from Kia corporate. It's a bit of a shame because I am happy with the courtesy car they gave me, so it'd be better for me if Kia corporate covered the cost of this one and I got to keep it. I am hoping that whatever rental/replacement Kia offer is an equivalent vehicle to the EV6.

If there is interest, I'll keep posting updates as I make progress on this. Perhaps I'll put together a timeline to keep track of start to finish timings.
 
#15 ·
Keep the updates coming as its interesting to understand the lead-times for the part and the service you receive.

I had to push really hard for an EV, Kia Rental couldn't supply one, or even a car for that matter, and they had to pass me to thrifty. Luckily the dealer stepped forward and gave me an EV Niro. I'm 4 weeks in now and all they can tell me is units are on there way but nothing more.....
 
#18 ·
Hi everyone, I thought I would given an update on my situation.

My car is still at the dealer. We are at the 7-week mark at the moment. They were updating me regularly just after the car was dropped off but the updates stopped a couple of weeks in.

Given what Red_EV6_2022 said above, I also pushed for an EV but none of their suppliers in the area had one available. I then asked for a plug-in hybrid which they were able to provide. Credit to them on the rental, though, because that has been good.

Having said that, I miss my EV6. I'll be chasing much more actively given how long I've been waiting and see what happens.

What's the status on your end, Red_EV6, 2022?
(Apologies, not sure how to "@" someone without quoting their message)
 
#20 · (Edited)
Two weeks ago I couldn't AC charge my EV6 at home either on the Zappi charger or on the granny charger. No problems DC charging and the 12v battery has held its charge for 300 miles since. No error messages and the OBD scan I did was clear of any trouble codes. August 2022 model with 11,000 miles. The dealer has had the car for two days and has just phoned to say that Kia Technical have advised against driving the car as it looks like an ICCU failure and although I've had no problems with the 12v battery not charging they say that could fail any time. The car is staying with the dealer.

Luckily I'm retired and my wife has an EV3 so not too much of an inconvenience. Interestingly the dealer's service department say they hope to have 'spares' by the end of next week, ie by May 30th. I'll update here on what happens as I'll be surprised if they will receive an ICCU in a week's time!
 
#24 ·
Very encouraging to hear 12-day turnaround times. Here's my timeline just for the record:
Feb 24th - ICCU bit the dust
Mar 18th - earliest any dealer could accept the car to their forecourt (I called every dealer in a 150-mile radius)
May 9th - picked up repaired car
Overall, this was 2 months and 2 weeks. The particularly painful period was between breakdown and the car getting to the dealer. Once the car was diagnosed, I got a hire car which kept us going.

I did listen to previous posts and others' suggestions and emailed Kia about extending the car's warranty by the period that I did not have access to the vehicle but they have refused. I didn't have high hopes for that, of course, but writing here to let others know my experience.

I am curious about your experiences with the 12V light on the dash. I've had my car for nearly 3 years now and driven it over 20k miles. I have never once seen the orange 12V light on the dash that's supposed to come on when the HV battery is charging the 12V. Does your light come on regularly? After having spent this long driving my car, I would have expected to see the light come on at least once -- especially since other people seem to see it multiple times a day.
 
#25 ·
DrE are you talking about a warning light within the instrument panel? If you are looking for a light on the top of the dash then I believe European spec cars dont get it. The thumbnail size dome on top of dash is a light sensor. This info from my dealer though they have been known to be ill informed.
 
#27 ·
Hello

seems that it is my turn to enjoy the ICCU fun

mine manifested as a popping home charger ; I live in Somerset, nearest Kia dealer in Bath.

Phoned them - “we can see you at the end of September “ flipping heck - I’m in early June ! Kia Bristol offered first some time in July then found yesterday 20 June for me

nobody seemed to be aware of the ICCU issue as a “thing” and were casting aspersions at my home power supply - took quite a bit to get the garage booking person to accept that a failure in home charging is something for the garage to even look at (“if it charges at DC place then then it is definitely a problem with your home power supply and not our problem “)

at end of yesterday, Kia tell me they need to keep car “probably for two weeks” as they have raised a tech case with Kia They don’t do loan cars. They only have two loan cars and they are both in long term loans. I was very polite and left;

lady came running out of Kia to say they just had one of their three loan cars (that they don’t loan out ) and I can have it for the weekend . “We normally charge £25 per day but I won’t charge you that) … which was a nice gesture although a little confusing with them not doing loan cars.

I am another one on the journey

Martin J