[precrack]

When I got my car to around 400 miles I noticed my rear lights were not working correctly like the top half was not on. I took it back and they replaced both complete tail light assemblies. Well the problem is back so I took my forte back to the dealership and they said they have 3 more sx koups in the back with the exact problem. They said they have to do extensive harness testing and gave me a rental. They have no idea how long it will take either. Such a bummer! As you see from the pics its totally random each time.

 

[honhon]

i would proabably say its probably a ground or voltage issue in the harness... sense the taillights are LED they are alittle more picky about those....

perfect example of a "parts replacer" vs a real tech.....

also for a helpful hint with the service place, i also make sure to tell and make sure the service advisor writes it on the paper work that the tech is not to put the car on a lift. Ive noticed dumb fuckers putting cars on lifts for no reason anymore just to make it easier for them to work on a car.

mean while your car is getting marked up underneath from the lift because they dont give a shit.

i rotate my own tires, my friend let the local dealership do his, now he has a pretty badly bent pinch weld.

 

[precrack]

Yeah you're pretty spot on. The kia techs in my area are not the brightest bunch. I work in a shop myself and so I know my way around things probably more than some of those guys working on my car. I have caught them feeding me bs once but I let it go since I was not paying for it. These guys took a video of my lights failing and sent it off to some engineers. It's safe to say they have no idea what is causing the failure. Also they stated mine is the 4th one there for that problem the others have not been resolved since it's so intermittent. I'll let you guys know what they find out though so maybe we can fix it ourselves if it comes up

 

[honhon]

shoot... something like that if they cant fix, I would bet my wife would start pushing for a new car. lol

because its not just an issue, its a safety issue that could possibly get you in trouble with law enforcement for taillights not working... im sure the KIA attorneys wouldn't like to hear that one. lol

 

[Dmo1]

There are some here at the shop as well. I haven't had any issues yet. One of the techs said so far no resolution but we have had a Rep from Kia come out and said that it may be a ground issue.. One thing noticed is it is only on the Koups so far....

 

[precrack]

Well good news.. I got my car back tonight.. bad news they just replaced the entire assembly ...again... this will be the 3rd set on this car! but as of now it's working. I really wish they would of just diagnosed it properly so I could post the results here but oh well. :/

 

[mr_sippi_forte]

So, this actually happened to me, too. My back left tail light LED bar was off like yours. Noticed it on the way home from the dealer, so I brought it in the first business day after that. They had to replace the whole assembly, but it's holding up well - 1.5k miles later and still going strong.

 

[rick021808]

Well my 2 day old car has the same problem, I seen this thread so I checked mine out and last night the right upper part was out then went home and was going to take a picture and everything was working. Now today, the left bottom one is out and still out. I just don't want to have to bring it into the dealer just to find out that there is still problems. Wonder if there is going to be an actual fix for this.

 

[precrack]

Could try adding a jumper to the frame to add another ground. For some reason changing them out fixes them for a while. Could be so many things but the engineers say just replace it for now.

 

[honhon]

lol... I checked mine this morning when getting ready to leave for work, and my driver side taillight bottom LED is out, like your picture number 1

guess ill be off to kia this week also, which I dread, because I always get anxious when I have to lend my keys off to someone.. gonna have to remind the service writer to say 'NO LIFTS' on the paperwork... good thing is I have a dashcam and it starts recording as soon as the ignition goes on

maybe they are aware of a bad batch of taillights or something

 

[precrack]

Dude that sucks.. Maybe you could try re-installing the unit to see if it gets more life out of it. For some reason a new unit will fix the issue but in my case it has came back. I'm on my third set of tail lights. I have access to kgis which is what kia uses to search for problems and solutions and there is still no solution to this issue. Except replace it and hope it lasts :/

 

[rick021808]

Do you know if there is a solution in the works?

 

[honhon]

i was thinking about this on the way home from work... reminds of a an SVT focus i almost bought years ago...

the focus was really cheap, because it was deemed a lemon because allegedly the lady that bought it didnt know how to drive a stick, and burnt the clutch out like 3 times within like 20k miles or something...

im assuming she insisted that it was the car's fault...

makes me think of this taillight issue though... if i were you though precrack... i would start documenting and then maybe getting the copies of the service records from when the car was there...

i believe if 3 times the same issue isnt fixed, it can be deemed a lemon by federal law and kia would have to buy the car back from you. may want to check on texas lemon laws also...

if i were in your shoes though... i would probably start leaning towards lemoning the car.... i can tell you this right now, if my car starts having this issue multiple times im going to be going the lemon route and getting kia to buy my car back

 

[precrack]

Do you know if there is a solution in the works?

I honestly have no idea..I'm really thinking it's a ground related issue though..

honhon I did think of that but I really like this car even with it's kinks. Also now that I work for kia it will give me an excuse to pull my own car in if you know what I mean

 

[rick021808]

Hmmm where do you think it needs a ground? Like add a ground to the tail lights?

 

[honhon]

well to add to my situation from my observations, i went out to the garage just now... and i turned my lights on ( one of my LED taglights was out also i noticed this morning, i know it was just a prong bent wrong) so I was actually going out to fix the taglight and when i came around to the rear of my car, i noticed the taillight was working again.

im actually wondering now on this... LED's need a real direct connection... a regular filament bulb can work with a bad ground or bad power, slightly... but an LED needs both good to work properly...

im wondering, if they havent changed any of your wiring or havent really found anything, if the issue is in the plug thats going to the LED taillight?

i mean if it wiggles just slightly, spreads the prongs, breaks slight contact, an LED is not going to want to work... wheres a regular filament bulb will inadvertently look for a ground...

im hoping in your instance that the tech had your lights on and checked for power and did some harness tugging while checking for any loss in power...

which is why im considering my idea as the issue... basically a spread prong...

a good check for "preventative" measure would be to get some dielectric grease, un plug the taillight, and then use a small flat blade screw driver or something that you can kinda make the prongs tighter, then fill the plug with dielectric grease, which will help improve the connection.

if you think about it, it does honestly make sense... if your harness is "testing" good or they havent found any obvious issues with the harness or any grounds... they changed the taillights, so the only thing left really is the plug between the harness and the taillight.

on my ranger previously... all the taillights were acting like they had a bad ground, come to find out, every single glass portion of the bulb was actually separated from the metal base... in this situation, i dont believe an LED would have worked...

you also live in texas, im sure there isnt much of a temp change such as like 50 degrees... but a 10 to 20 degree change can certaintly make the prongs expand or contract enough to break alittle connection and cause issues with the LED.

for example, im in Florida. it was low 70's this morning, this afternoon with my car sitting in the sun it was in the high 80's, easy enough for there to be some expansion and contraction in a copper type connection between the harness and the taillight.

sorry if i babled on, but these were just thoughts flowing as i was typing

 

[rick021808]

Have many wires are on the connector? I am wondering if it is something more internal with them because if there was a bad connection, I would think everything on that connector would not be working. I am assuming that one wire powers and one wire grounds top and bottom strips? They don't have separate connection?

 

[honhon]

ill take a gander at it today, im gonna pick up some dielectric grease and try to remember to post some pictures.

i would assume sense its obvious the top and bottom strips go out independently that they each have their own power and ground probably connected to the maintailight plug.

its funny all this "new" stuff is in the sake of speeding up production. for instance, older cars had the marker plug, turn signal plug then taillight plug. now the wires are in the backside of the taillight with one plug and then it seperates inside. just like the headlights.

im only assuming this at the moment for the koup taillights, but im just saying what ive seen recently

 

[rick021808]

I had a look last night, it's a 5 wire plug to a 4 wire tail light plug. Not sure if maybe the 5th wire is for non led lights? But I played with plug a little, wiggled around and that and the top strip would not come on. I never tested the wires yet but maybe each strip does have its own power, theres 2 tail light strips, a signal and a ground so 4 wires would make sense. They were all working again this morning.

 

[honhon]

I noticed the light was back off this morning. Which would go with the theory of temperature expansion / contraction plus with the initial startup vibration.

I tapped the light and it came on though. I'll try to get pictures tonight