[e-nir0]

Brand new Kia e-Niro MY21, left the dealer yesterday and made 61Km. So far, so good.

Today, I prepared for a drive, and I'm greeted with a message saying to refill the coolant (I think in English it says "Refill the inverter coolant").

Inspected under the hood, and not only it had enough liquid, but it's actually above the Max level by a huge margin.

So the message is totally wrong, but it won't go away.... Dealer's mechanic is closed today, so I have to wait until Monday to get them inspect it.
Has anyone had the same issue?

 

[prawlin]

I doubt the overfill would cause that alert (I wish you could syringe some out and send it to me! Mine is under the minimum line ).

I think the fluid warning is an indicator of no or bad flow of the coolant in the system as I can’t see any level sensor device inside the bottle. Could be an airlock from the factory process or maybe a bad coolant pump??

There is another thing to check (and this is just a total wild guess!). If you follow the pipe coming from the left side of the bottle, it goes via an in line tap or valve knob. Has someone forgotten to open this valve knob perhaps? That might well cause flow problems resulting in that warning message perhaps? Worth checking I think.
Peter

 

[b789pilot]

If they handed the car over to you with the language set to French then I'd be worried that they've done no proper pre-delivery checks and anything could be wrong.

 

[prawlin]

This picture (with the big cosmetic plastic inverter cover pulled away) shows the said valve knob quite clearly.
It was taken the day I got my car September last year. The Fluid level was good then. The day after it suddenly dropped. I’m certain it tge sudden drop was caused by an air bubble burping out. It has not dropped any further since then so it’s clearly not leaking.

I don’t know the purpose of this valve but I suspect it is used in the factory coolant filling procedure? Just maybe they forgot to open it in the factory filling sequence process ???
Again this is just a very wild guess. Peter

 

[prawlin]

If they handed the car over to you with the language set to French then I'd be worried that they've done no proper pre-delivery checks and anything could be wrong.

I think you’ll find he possibly is in Spain or a Spanish speaking country

 

[Billy the Kid]

Brand new Kia e-Niro MY21, left the dealer yesterday and made 61Km. So far, so good.

Today, I prepared for a drive, and I'm greeted with a message saying to refill the coolant (I think in English it says "Refill the inverter coolant").

View attachment 143567

Inspected under the hood, and not only it had enough liquid, but it's actually above the Max level by a huge margin.

View attachment 143568

So the message is totally wrong, but it won't go away.... Dealer's mechanic is closed today, so I have to wait until Monday to get them inspect it.
Has anyone had the same issue?

As it says refrigerant is it the air conditioning refrigerant, is the air con working?

 

[prawlin]

As it says refrigerant is it the air conditioning refrigerant, is the air con working?

Interesting thought, I hadn’t considered that, but according to Google the literal Spanish to English translation is “Refill the Coolant”. I doubt the car would advise the driver to regass the aircon. Presumably some other message or error would show in that condition.
Peter

 

[Billy the Kid]

Interesting thought, I hadn’t considered that, but according to Google the literal Spanish to English translation is “Refill the Coolant”. I doubt the car would advise the driver to regass the aircon. Presumably some other message or error would show in that condition.
Peter

The manual always refers to coolant and refrigerant that was the only reason for saying.
Coolant as in the Blue coolant for battery and refrigerant as in the air con.

 

[prawlin]

The manual always refers to coolant and refrigerant that was the only reason for saying.
Coolant as in the Blue coolant for battery and refrigerant as in the air con.

Hmmm. I see the Spanish word for refrigerant and for coolant are both the same Refrigerante.
So maybe it is worth testing the Aircon too
Peter

 

[Rei]

Broken sensor maybe?

 

[e-nir0]

Just tested AC and it's working, although at least with the hood opened, it was making a weird noise that I'm not sure that's ok.

It's Spanish by the way

I've been doing some tests, and the message is not always displayed. For example, maybe I power on and it's displayed, power off and back on, and it's not, power off and back on again a maybe it's displayed again, and so on...

Regarding removing the liquid to stay within boundaries, I can't open the deposit. It's very stuck, should I force it?

 

[Drewby80]

Most modern cars have a coolant fill procedure that is done with a vacuum unit to purge the system of any air I wonder if this has been done correctly in the factory.

It’s possible it’s air locked, this could potentially damage the inverter or battery if it overheats I’d have the dealer look over it ASAP as if it overheats the battery it could cause premature cell deterioration.

I also would definitely not rapid charge the car until this has been seen to.

 

[prawlin]

Just tested AC and it's working, although at least with the hood opened, it was making a weird noise that I'm not sure that's ok.

It's Spanish by the way

I've been doing some tests, and the message is not always displayed. For example, maybe I power on and it's displayed, power off and back on, and it's not, power off and back on again a maybe it's displayed again, and so on...

Regarding removing the liquid to stay within boundaries, I can't open the deposit. It's very stuck, should I force it?

I wouldn’t remove the excess, that’s not the issue (unless you’re gonna post it to me 😂).
The filler cap is reversed thread direction. You have to turn it the wrong way to remove it apparently.

If it was me, I would drive it a little to see if it clears. It could be air locked. but not too far or too fast. Nothing generates that much heat at steady speeds and relatively small distances. I'm pretty sure there will be temperature sensors all over the thing that would warn you or even shut down as needed. Avoiding rapid charging is probably good advice. Did you look at the valve knob? Is it open or closed?
Peter

 

[prawlin]

FWIW I just checked that valve knob on mine. It is set to closed (fully clockwise). Mine has no errors and everything works, so that must be the normal operation setting. Perhaps try opening it whilst car is powered on (pump running?) then closing it?? That might do something if there is an airlock? but I’m only guessing of course as I don’t know what the valve is for. Peter.

 

[e-nir0]

I want to remove the excess because there must be a reason to have a max limit.

guess I'm just going to wait till Monday so that the dealer has a look at it.

 

[e-nir0]

so today I got a call from the dealer (Kia official). She said her manager told her that these cars are delivered to the customers the same way they received them, i.e. they didn't add more refrigerant.

the manager said to drive anyway, and stop by tomorrow to inspect it.

 

[prawlin]

I wouldn’t be overly surprised if it is a big airlock in the massive coolant system, maybe causing the pump to be in cavitation. Driving it around a bit might just burp out the air and restore correct operation. If that happens, the tank level might also suddenly drop as the air comes out (As mine did last year). Maybe do some bursts of rapid acceleration and hard braking. The sloshing of the coolant mass through the long pipes and the battery unit might help the burping process??
Good luck. Peter.

 

[dk6780]

Most modern cars have a coolant fill procedure that is done with a vacuum unit to purge the system of any air I wonder if this has been done correctly in the factory.

That would surely result in the coolant being low when the air was burped out?

these cars are delivered to the customers the same way they received them, i.e. they didn't add more refrigerant.

Does that mean that they don't check them other than to wash them and fix the number plates?

 

[e-nir0]

Does that mean that they don't check them other than to wash them and fix the number plates?

that's certainly what it sounded like. Visual inspection and go ahead, if something fails, come back.

 

[idiotzoo]

That would surely result in the coolant being low when the air was burped out?


Does that mean that they don't check them other than to wash them and fix the number plates?

I'm quite sure that's literally all they do.