2020 Kia Telluride complaints

The highbeams quit working Causing poor visibility

The motor was empty of oil after driving 2400 miles since the last oil change. The oil was changed on [XXX] at 102,220 miles. When the check engine light came on, I checked the oil and there was none on the dipstick on [XXX] at 104,884 miles. I had an oil consumption test run at the Kia dealership in Hickory, NC they stated I was only 1 quart low at 1,000 miles. This test was completed in September 2023. The dealership stated since I passed the first round of the oil consumption test that there was no issue with my Telluride. When the car is running, one can smell the oil burning from the exhaust. The dealership in Hickory refused to further investigate the issue. When I returned to the dealership on [XXX], they stated they would not do another oil consumption test because my 100,000 mile warranty was over. I told them I have an extended warranty and they told me most extended warranties do not cover oil consumption. In September, this dealership also failed to replace the housing for the oil filter properly, causing the oil to leak out tremendously after changing the oil. I had to take it to a different mechanic to figure out why there was an excessive leak. There is an oil consumption issue with my Telluride and the dealership in Hickory, NC is refusing to aid me in identifying the issue. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Body paint defect causing large sections of paint chipping off. This is a common enough issue amongst the owners community and Kia fails to acknowledge the latent defect and take action.

2020 KIA TELLURIDE 41,000 miles: Engine overheated and ceased while on the freeway. Head Gasket blew, coolant hose had a hole the size of my fist on one side and the other clean split, along with cylinder 3 and 5 misfiring. I lost power and was able to go 25 mph on the freeway and lots of white smoke coming from the hood of the car. Semi trucks were slamming on their brakes to avoid hitting me as it was a dark foggy evening. The engine failure on the freeway could have easily caused multi vehicle collisions involving semi trucks resulting in casualties and loss of life. After 2 months in the shop the dealership has approved a new engine, however they don't know when they can get it in and no time frame when I will have my vehicle back. There was no warning and dealership confirmed there would not have been a warning until after the engine failed. I have maintained all maintenance schedules. There is a Facebook group with many similar stories of engine failures

The 2020 KIA Telluride was purchased with the "tow package" which included "self-leveling" rear shocks. The self-leveling rear shocks failed early and has created a safety concern with braking/handling/steering in addition to comfort in ride. Concern with the shocks began around 60,000 miles (roughly Jan 2023), but there was no indication of shock failure or leakage. Our independent service center/mechanic told us the shocks looked fine and that typically shocks should never fail this early. We just assumed the ride was rough and even after replacing tires, the ride never improved. As it progressively worsened, the local certified KIA dealership has now inspected and verified that both rear shocks have failed (leaking and rusting) and that the ride is unbearable (the vehicle is over 77,000 miles now). I believe the vehicle is unsafe to drive in its current condition and though it is out of warranty for this repair, we are having the dealership replace both rear shocks. Over the course of the past 17,000 miles, braking, steering, and cornering have certainly been compromised due to this early shock failure, putting me and my family as well as other motorists at risk. There were not any warning lamps or other obvious signs of wear other than riding in the vehicle. The ride left most passengers feeling ill, with headaches from a very rough ride even on smoot concrete.

Projector high beams not working. Tested the fuse and relay and both tested fine. Replaced headlights. No remedy other than replacing entire headlight assembly. This is a safety issue and should be recalled and repaired by dealer.

The high beams do not work. Neither one. Bulb replacement did not fix either.

Passenger front CV axle boot leaking grease causing damage estimated $1000. Seems to be a huge issue for a lot of Kia owners (as parts seem to be on back order now). No rough terrain driving. So if this is an issue driving on Minnesota roads, bad parts by Kia. I lived on a farm where you drove on uneven terrain all the time… never had a vehicle (Ford, Buick) never had this issue

The high beams of the vehicle are no longer operational. Changing the light bulb does not solve the problem. As per the dealer, the entire unit must be replaced. The failure occurred while driving in the night.

The hi-beam function in the headlights are inoperable. I recently purchased this vehicle and the service department at the dealership of purchase confirmed afterwards that the hi beam function does not work. I do not understand how this is not a safety recall on all 2020 Tellurides as there are many forums from individuals who have experienced the same issue. Simply replacing the faulty system kicks the bucket down the road. Unable to utilize the high beams in remote areas reduces safety.

High beams no longer work on the front lights.

Both High Beam headlights failed. Turning on the High Beam illuminates the blue indicator light on the dash, but no change occurs in exterior illumination. The dangers of high speed highway driving (70 MPH) go way up. There is no backup in case the low beam also breaks. And the cost to repair is extremely expensive.

With 40k miles on the car driving on the freeway the coolant hose burst without any warning, it didn’t come off, it was weak and split. This caused head gasket damage and cylinder 3 and 5 to misfire with coolant getting in the cylinders. It was dark and foggy out and the car was over heating due to the failures. I lost power and could only go 25mph on the freeway. Semi trucks were honking flashing their lights, passing me and one slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting me due to how dark it was. Even though I was driving with my hazards on. I pulled over as soon as I could, but had a panic attack during the ordeal planning out the best way to die. Sounds dramatic but with all the smoke coming from the car I thought it could blow or get hit by a semi. Looking at online groups there are issues with the Telluride engines that are creating dangerous situations. It’s a matter of time before this problem causes a serious injury or death. I know others that have made complaints to Kia and NHSTA. When is this problem going to be taken care of?? My car has been at the dealership since Dec 19 2023. I am waiting to here back from Kia if they will cover the engine under warranty. The dealership said they had another Telluride with engine failure in Oct 2023 that Kia did not cover under warranty. The dealership has confirmed all these statements. There was no warning that there were any weak spots in the hose. No leaks or warning lights until it left me stranded on a dark foggy night on th

When starting the vehicle to warm up (in colder temps) it made a squealing noise and slowly faded. Returned to drive the vehicle and there was a puddle of oil underneath. Upon inspection, it appeared that the leak was coming from between the (plastic) oil filter housing and the engine (it's connected to. This causes a concern as it could cause my engine to seize while driving (especially on freeways). Causing a collision risk and destroying the cars engine at the same time. When researching I found that this is a common (cold temp) issue among Telluride's. I attempted to call Kia service at least four times with no answer/no call back. On my fifth call attempt I was routed to the parts department and found that the part is and has been on backorder for some months now. Was told that there are over 3000 on back order to the states, all accounted for. I researched the issue and found various Kia Telluride forums stating the same cold weather temp issue. This is obviously not an isolated case with no one (O'Reilly, Auto Zone, Advanced Auto & the dealership) having the part in stock and over 3,000 other cases awaiting their back-ordered part. Previous to this, I attempted to get an oil change at a local lube shop and was advised that they could not do an oil change on my vehicle because there was an issue with the oil drain plug and the oil pan seal circulating with the local live shops. They would be unable to do my oil change unless I sign a waiver stating they're not liable fo

The contact owns a 2020 Kia Telluride. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the high-beam headlights became inoperable. The contact stated while attempting to activate the high-beam headlights, the headlights were inoperable. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed with a failed headlight assembly. The contact was informed that the headlight assembly needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The parts were ordered for the repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 99,800. The contact stated the dealership is going to replace the headlights under the extended warranty.

The vehicle has been losing oil, the dealership checked with no issues along eleith a coolant leak in the rear of the vehicle.

The contact owns a 2020 Kia Telluride. The contact stated that while her husband was seated in the vehicle at below 5-degree Fahrenheit, he became aware that the heater and defogger was inoperable. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer and was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 85,000.

The pearl white paint on my car started chipping off about a year ago. This morning the roof started peeling heavily. This is ridiculous as the car is just now 4 years old. I’ve never had a car peel ever. The forward collision sensor randomly comes on and says it’s not working. Please fix these issues.

Oil leaking from the oil filter housing suddenly. Most of the leaking happens after a cold start. As engine warms the leaking is less noticable. Mechanic found the back of the housing covered in oil but not the drain plug or the oil pan. No prior leaks until [XXX]. Finding that the part is on backorder with no date. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

HEADLIGHTS: have DEPLORABLE visibility, particularly around corners making it nearly impossible to see at night. It is GROSSLY DANGEROUS, and unacceptable to equip a vehicle with such low quality headlights. However, On January 13th 2024 the hi beams ceased to function at all, which has left me unable to drive at night. As a single mother this is a huge hinderance for my young sons and their activities especially this time of year getting dark at 4:30pm. DRIVER SEATBELT MALFUNCTION: The seatbelt has all but completely failed to retract upon removal, leaving the entire thing loose causing to twist and get caught in the door. It will not retract upon collision which also is a PRIORITY SAFETY CONCERN. DRIVER SIDE MIRROR: Gets stuck in the folded position, and more times than not, I then have to manually unfold it. This causes the saved position for my optimal rear visibility to get comprised and I then have to adjust while driving which is ALSO dangerous. The dealer has addressed this and said the wiring was loose to the mirror inside the driver door and assured me they fixed it, however is STILL getting stuck 90 percent of the time.

High beam lights stopped working. Regular lights work. Seems like this is happening to other owners of same make and model year.

Started to notice the high beams where not working. The dash light shows the high beams were on but the lights never changed. I purchased 2 new low/high beams bulbs. That did not fix the issue. My telluride has over 60k miles on it. Doing teacher everyone who has a 2020 kia telluride has this issue just after vehicle hits just over 60k miles. Never noticed before as we never drove at night time before november.

The contact owns a 2020 Kia Telluride. The contact stated that while depressing the brake pedal, the brake pedal extended to the floorboard and the vehicle failed to immediately stop. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who replaced the brake pads. After retrieving the vehicle, the failure reoccurred. During the failure, the ABS warning light illuminated. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 73,000.

Rear self leveling suspension has gotten stiff and creates a severely rough and uncomfortable ride, especially when in the middle or third row. It can be jolting. I had the TSB 113 repair completed and ride is moderately better, but still very stiff. TSB 113 eliminated the clunking in the rear end but the ride is so stiff it creates discomfort for the occupants.

I have a fairly brand new 2020 Kia Telluride with only about 50,000 miles on it and one day out of no where the car won't start and now I'm getting a check ESC message. Since it's fairly new I had it jump started and the car quickly turned on and ran fine for the rest of the day. The following day the car hesitated when turning on but it started. I was driving and when I got to a light and when the light turned green and went to take off the car wouldn't go. It turned off again and would start back up. I went into the KIA forum and noticed that a lot of Kia Telluride owners are experiencing this same issue but all seem to have different resolutions from needing a new battery, or a new starter or that the IBU system is blown. This is very frustrating because I don't necessarily know where I need to begin and I don't want to have waste my money with trying to figure out exactly what is going on with my car.

My high beam headlights are not working. There is no change whether the high beams are on or off.

This vehicle only has 77,000 miles and it is burning oil like crazy. I have already had a Hyundai engine replaced on a Sonata and it was showing the same signs as this Telluride. When the Hyundai engine blew we were on the freeway and it just slowed down to a crawl as cars where flying past. Clearly if the same thing happens again it is yet another safety issue that could be avoided.

The high beam on my headlights are not working. As I switch back and forth you can't see a brightness. There is no notification of false beam or anything. Have not used the high beam often. Just notice this issue.

High beams quit working. I have replaced the relay, fuse, and bulbs. Low beams work but the high beam functionality is 100% lost. My trim utilizes the single bulb with electronic curtain to toggle between low and high beams. Seems to be a deeper issue within the headlight assembly.

Motor was completely empty of oil 2000 miles before oil change was due. There were no warning lights. The engine continues to have oil consumption issues, requiring 2-4 quarts per week to be added. The Kia dealership in Hickory NC ran an oil consumption test and said there was nothing wrong with the vehicle and refused further investigation into the issue. They also failed to replace the housing for the oil filter properly, causing the oil to leak out. One can smell the oil burning from the exhaust when the car is running.

Brights stopped working. They do not turn on, even though you pull the lever, and the dash light comes on

Right high beam stopped working. Low beams work, no indicators, bulb has been changed. Jist stopped working.

Bright head light stopped working without any cause.

High beams failure. Yes it is available for inspection. I live/travel in rural area with large sized wildlife. I require the ability to have high beams. I haven’t taken it to a service center, nor has any inspection been conducted. No warning lights, to the contrary, the interior instrumentation shows high beams are on even though they aren’t. This has been since I purchased the vehicle 2 months ago.

My vehicle is 3 years old and the frame of my sunroof snapped. The warranty only covers the motor and the frame is what is damaged. When I called the warranty, they said this is a very common problem among Kia Tellurides. Why is this not a recall? It would cost me $4,000 to repair. This is not right.

While driving at highway speeds (above 50mph,) the Telluride’s front windows (driver and passenger) will not roll up. It seems that the The pressure that builds up in the cabin is pulling the glass out too far and when the window tries to make the seal, it’s out of place and rolls back down. There is a temporary fix to either roll down the back seat window or the sunroof to equalize the pressure, then the front window will go up - but that took a lot of trial and error. I figured it must be a safety issue since when it happens, I am talking my concentration off of driving and trying to figure out how to get the window back up. I’ve since been on forums and Kia owner pages where I’ve read of many people running into the same issues.

The Wind deflector broke on one side. My sunroof won’t close. It is causing water damage and the amount to fix it over 1k. After research this problem has been reported numerous times but no recall yet. Please recall this safety feature in the telluride.

1st winter of owning vehicle. The engine started to Rev with high rmps about 8000, and no power / speed incrase would happen. This was looked at by dealer within first year. This then happened again, dealer looked at it. Third time, the dealer had a code to look at, and the transmission was upgraded with software. We are now a 4th time at the dealer, and the observed reving is happening again, and shifting is not smooth.

Light always appears on dashboard

Large area of roof has paint peeling off exposing metal. Several paint chips on roof and sides as well. Hazard: Polyisocyanates such as toluene and 4,4'-diphenylmethane are found in paints and other automotive coatings. These are toxic to the nervous system and are also skin and eye irritants.

Hi Beams on the headlights both stopped working at the same time without warning. I understand this is a known problem with the 2020 Telluride so I am just logging this one in as another instance

My mother noticed a fluid stain on the driveway and said it looked like oil. We didn't notice it at first because we parked over it. I had my husband take a look; it was oil, and our oil was low but not low enough that the check engine light came on. It started after our first freeze in Dallas, Texas, on October 31st. My husband took it up to a local guy because he thought maybe the dealership people did something when I took it up to get an estimate for the headlight high beam issue and frozen spare tire hoist. Both were covered under warranty BTW. The guy said it was the gasket to the oil pan. I took it to the dealership when the parts came in to fix the other issues, and they said the oil filter housing was cracked. It is made of plastic, which is really dumb. I went online and discovered this happens quite a bit right after a freeze, and it is often blamed on the customer or whoever did the last oil change. Our last oil change was on 9/21/23, over a month before the first freeze, and we had no oil leak before that. From what I have read, this usually occurs with less mileage the farther north you are. We bought our Telluride in Houston which is why I believe it has not occurred yet. I feel KIA should do a recall for Tellurides that are having this issue.

RH high beam light inoperable. Does not go high beam when selected. LH ok. LH drivers mirror does not extend or retract most times when locking or unlocking the car.

Sunroof malfunction while opening. Loud snap sound then wouldn’t shut.

High beam headlights will not turn on

I was driving during the night, tried to turn my high beams on and they did not work. This caused a severe driving hazard as we were driving winding roads filled with wild life and I had very limited visablilty.There was no warning indicators shown. Replaced both headlamps and the high beams still do not work.

We were on a back country road in the dark, tried to use our high beam lights, but they would not come on. The blue light illuminated as if they were turning on, but nothing happened. We had no warning lights or indication that the system had failed.

My high beams aren't working. All I have access to are my low beams.

This started in July/August. I went in to get into my car and noticed that although my car was making the sound of unlocking, it wasn’t unlocking. Neither the key fob or pressing the button on the door handle would unlock my car. I manually used the key to get in. Once I got in, I had a rear collision warning on my dash and was unable to shift from park. I overrode the shift mechanism and took it to a mechanic. They hooked it up to a reader and was tracking down the error when all of sudden the error code disappeared, and they were unable to progress. I left there and drove to work without issues. Two days later (Saturday) it happened again. I disconnected the negative battery cable and waited a few minutes before I hooked it back up. It was fine for about a month and then it started happening again. This time I tried the battery cable again and it worked for a while, but it started to happen more regularly. I took it to a Kia dealer but they were unable to replicate it. They said if it happens again record it and send a the video. Two days later it happened, and I sent them a video. I took my car back to the dealer and it has been there 11/9. In between visits, it happened, and I overrode the shift mechanism and I noticed my dash lights were almost out as well as the other issues. I believe I know what the issue is. I noticed this only happens when it’s cool in the early morning and then, when the sun comes up, there is an abundance of moisture on the inside windshield. I be

High beam headlights stopped working without warning