Probably not the noise you mention, but in warm weather the Kona makes a distinct whirring noise from the AirCon (which eventually subside).

I took it to the dealer in fact, but after inspecting it etc they said it was normal……

 

Have they got the same motor?

Yes. And there are Konas with the 'wheel of fortune' noise although anecdotal evidence seems to suggest e-Niros are affected more than Konas.

 

So it seems

I wanted to buy an eniro and I checked the motor number and it was the E710. It was a 2021 plate. The motor number on this vehicle despite having FSH with Kia dealership stopped me from buying that eniro.

 

Motor number is not really indicative. The main issues seems to be a misalignment between motor and reduction gear, possible paired with ball bearings that are not as tough as they should be. It's a lottery but good thing is Kia have a 7 year warranty. The procedure to get the issue repaired is long and tedious, but they will fix it if you're in warranty. Outside warranty they'll charge you an arm and a leg but repair kits should become available (they will be soon in Spain at least, from a 3rd party).

 

Your e niro might be out of use for possibly more than 1 month. Kia has to order the parts. Hopefully a replacement car will be provided.

 

.. Have they got the same motor?

Other than the label, I believe so. Even the 39 kWh versions have the same motor, derated to 100 kW.
Since these motors use greased sealed ball bearings they will have a finite life and that's becoming evident now in the early Ioniq. Complicating this is that there does seem to be some sort of design issue at the tail bearing end that may or may not have been fixed in the 1 or 2 later versions that both the Kona and Niro received. Anecdotally, there do seem to be less complaints as the later examples age. An EV specialist local to me here in NZ has been repairing Ioniq motors for $NZ1500, essentially just replacing the bearings.

The gear reducer (GRU) seems to be the more common failure in both cars (and the Ioniq) and I believe that's due primarily to the loose internal magnet as it rubs off any wear particles captured. That lack of retention is far more critical during break-in and steel particles ingested by precision bearings will reduce their expected lifetime. The only thing owners can do to help avoid a problem is to change the oil, particularly in the first few weeks. If you happen to get a replacement GRU change the oil after around 300-500 miles. If it's clean, they may have fixed the problem, but no one has reported that yet.

Some have had their GRUs repaired over the years and that has required only bearing replacements.

The gen-2 Niro (2023+ except the Niro 'Plus' model) and Kona (2024+) have a completely new design of both motor and GRU, now more in line with what other major manufacturers are doing. They're fully integrated and the motor runs 'wet'. Oil is drawn through a filter screen in the GRU and pumped to the motor for internal cooling and to lubricate the bearings. I very much doubt there will be any issues with this newer design.

 

I had that wheel of fortune story. I had that changed the bearings 1.5 months ago. My 2020 Kona 64 Kwh does not have warranty(long story...). The sound started to come at 59.000 km. It was hard to hear(only hear in reverse). Around 64000 km, you can heard easily every speed. Around 72000 km, noise become so loud. After 1000 km sound change to grinding. I took the car special EV car service to change the bearings.( I already knew the problem so I told them just change the bearings and fill the oil.) I was there when whole operation was happening. We remove the reduction gear and changed the bearings(only 4 of them, not the one connected to differantial). And the problem was solved. While the operation happening, we look everything because this was first operation in our country(Turkey). We want inspect really carefully. Stock bearings quality is acceptable but the main problem is reduction gear oil. When we drain the oil, it was like black water with small particles. It already lost purpose to lubricate the gear and bearings. So reduction work with no oil long time before we understand.

 

Hi,

I have a Kona EV 64Kw 2019 with the same whirling noise at every speed. It's not too bad at the moment, but I know I'll need the same bearing and oil change that you had. Can I ask which EV Specialist you went to? My local Hyundai dealer is useless! I keep mentioning it to them and they just ignore the problem. I also need a specialist in this problem. I'm based in North London, but could take my car anywhere.

Many thanks - just want it sorted! It grinds my gears every time I drive the car ;-)

 

Hı,
I suppose you wrote this message to me. Unfortunately, my EV specialist is local in Turkey so it is useless to you. To be honest that won't be a problem, whirling noise is mostly reduction gear problem. You don't have to do it at EV specialist. Any car service can do it. If I knew it was that easy, I would take to the normal service and repair it for less money. Maybe they say it has 400v so we don't know how to act but it is so easy deactivate 400v and 12v. After that it is just a 1 gear gearbox. The cost I paid was 700 euro(inc. AC Gas full refill). Normal service said it should cost max 400 500 euro... Hyundai dealer says it needs whole reduction unit(3500 euro only the part).

End of the July(after vocation), I will post some photo and parts info if you want.

 

Hello again,

Note:

• This operation takes 1.5 days if everything goes right. So you should buy bearing and gear oil before the operation.
• No need remove bumper and motor itself but AC pipes and OBC cover(yes only the cover) needs to be removed.
• İnside of the reduction gear, check your magnet if it is working or not.

• İn this repair, we change 4 of the 6 bearings. We did not change the conic bearing beacuse

1. that part is hard to find(in quailty-wise)
2. the orijinal one is really good condition and no need to replace it.
3. that bearing is part the differential so the installation part will so hard for us.

What you need ?

1. İn our case, we need only 2 different bearing instead of 3.(2 for each) You can see part number from the photos.
2. Full Synthetic Gear Oil (70w) (70W-75) (75W-80)(I use "Mobil 75W-80")
3. 1000g 1234yf AC Gas in case if you can't save the gas that inside of the car.
4. Maybe new magnet for reduction gear.
5. İf you lose some coolent, you need refill.

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• Green ones are normal bearings which you are going to change. Both side has the same bearings.
• Red one is the conic one. İf you want the change it, be careful.
• You can turn with you hand the check them.
• Check the gears and magnet.

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Hello again,

Note:

• This operation takes 1.5 days if everything goes right. So you should buy bearing and gear oil before the operation.
• No need remove bumper and motor itself but AC pipes and OBC cover(yes only the cover) needs to be removed.
• İnside of the reduction gear, check your magnet if it is working or not.

• İn this repair, we change 4 of the 6 bearings. We did not change the conic bearing beacuse

1. that part is hard to find(in quailty-wise)
2. the orijinal one is really good condition and no need to replace it.
3. that bearing is part the differential so the installation part will so hard for us.

What you need ?

1. İn our case, we need only 2 different bearing instead of 3.(2 for each) You can see part number from the photos.
2. Full Synthetic Gear Oil 75W-80(I use "Mobil")
3. 1000g 1234yf AC Gas in case if you can't save the gas that inside of the car.
4. Maybe new magnet for reduction gear.
5. İf you lose some coolent, you need refill.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

View attachment 195850​

• Green ones are normal bearings which you are going to change. Both side has the same bearings.
• Red one is the conic one. İf you want the change it, be careful.
• You can turn with you hand the check them.
• Check the gears and magnet.

View attachment 195847​

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View attachment 195851 View attachment 195846​

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View attachment 195849 View attachment 195848​

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Wow that's a very detailed response! Thank you so much. I can live with the noise at the moment and it hasn't massively affected the range. I'll contact a local EV specialist and see if that's something they can take on. Again thank you!

 

Thanks for documenting the bearing part numbers. I'll just add my own advice and that is to delete the factory magnet while you have the opportunity and substitute magnetic plugs instead. Those two steps will make the gear reducer nearly as reliable as they are in other EVs. Had the factory done this 6 years ago this thread and a dozen others wouldn't exist.

I'll also note that although the oil grade you've used is nearly twice more viscous than what's called out, I've coincidentally been testing that same grade since early this year. My Kona does run noticeably quieter as I had hoped, but I'm also tracking efficiency till around December to determine if there's any measurable loss.

 

Perfect - thank you also! I feel much better about getting the noise fixed in the future. It's not unpleasant but I suspect I'll need to have this done in the next few years. Very disappointed that Hyundai won't do this under warranty or as a recall. I've tried, mentioned it at every service and at the five year warranty review - just got "it's not a problem". Warranty is awful with Hyundai.

 

Since you're in the unique position of having a rebuilt rather than a new GRU you only need to carry out oil changes at a convenient km or time schedule ongoing. Given your high use I think you've picked a reasonable interval at 30k km. The old oil will always come out with an opaque black tint but that's not a concern. I'd strongly suggest replacing both plugs with magnetic versions at your next oil change. Possibly the easiest to find locally is the Toyota part number in the image below. If you want to use something else best ask here before purchasing as any unexpected disassembly while in-situ will be catastrophic. The other option that many of us use is the Votex DP-007 which is generally only available from Amazon.

Your climate is much like my own but because of your higher-speed driving I'd suggest reverting to the 70W or 70W-75. That is the correct viscosity by industrial standards which is determined by the Kona's top speed.

 

I've just had my Gear Reduction Mechanism and traction motor replaced under warranty on my 2020 Kona 64kW which has done 27000 miles. Noise started about 9 months ago. They replaced the bearings 1st but this did nothing to help the noise. I have the car back and it's now noise free and like new. It helped that I had a recording of the noise as when I 1st took it in they couldn't reproduce the noise.

 

Pretty sure they didn't change the bearings first but rather the motor mounts.

Glad it's fixed though. How long have you been without a car for?

 

Just found out that ours is getting a motor and whole final drive unit. waiting on parts news. from this route its a job I'm going to be doing once the warranty runs out and changing the oil in the first month it's back just to be on the safe side.

 

проблема в підшипниках. Було таке. Сабке місце - підшипники редуктора.

 

Вітаю.
Після заміни двигуна Кона 64 кВт присутня вібрація. Підшипники замінено, шуму немає.
В чому причина?

 

Perhaps ask the company that makes these videos.