[ptaneja]

Update - First Servicing + Repair

First reaction is , "what" ...1 month old car, and repair ?

Well, not too alarming - but there was an ongoing discussion in various groups and issue reported by many people ( particularly South India/Coastal parts) about roof getting condensation on top and water droplets being formed.
This is possible, when AC is set to Low and Air vents on third row are open. The exact spot of condensation is just above the third row AC vents. (more on right side, and less on left)

Sample Condensation Image -



Being driven in NCR plains, for me, it was difficult to see water droplets, but on 10 mins of AC usage, the roof did became very cold to touch. Up to a point where I was sure that any moisture in atmosphere, and droplets will form. I could have let it be, and decide later - but the thought of moisture inside the compartment/roof lining or long term side effect of corrosion on metallic sheet , maybe ?

Opened up a service request with Kia directly via their Twitter - as this was a new issue, did not wanted to deal with service center directly.
Within a day, a case/complaint was logged with my choice of service center. In next couple of hours, got a call from Service Center - Servicing Section Head and he took video/photo's for reference and understood the issue.
He asked me to wait for a week, in the interim he would coordinate with Kia Tech Team and get a solution. In about a week, he called me up for first servicing + fix for this issue.

The main culprit in this case was absolutely no space/insulation foam between third row AC vent and metallic roof.
( Mind you, there is no additional compressor or AC unit for rear side, it's just a single unit - and there is NO vent on third row left side/passenger side - vent is there on right side only, and via roof lining ducts its carried to left side vent)

Fix advised by Kia to Dealership was to open roof lining and install an additional layer of foam/insulation between Vent and Sheet Metal.
SA at dealership showed me his WhatsApp chat with Kia Tech Team, where they instructed what to do, and in the end shared with him the video on how to do it.

Here is a sample insulation which was to be used -



As you can see, the roof do not have any damping in place. Probably true for all vehicles ?




Here is the black colored sheet with adhesive on it's back, was inserted between the sheet metal and black AC duct.





Post installation, the roof lining is installed back in, no visible damage done !




Apart from above, it was the routine first servicing, with just a checkup and washing.

Charges paid = 0
Total Time Taken for both ; servicing + repair = 3 hours

With a comparison to Maruti service, this was waaaay more organized, sorted out, cool, composed and process oriented.
~ App was updated with service status within seconds of completion.
~ SMS's were received promptly and on time - both at the time of booking, and at the end.
~ Whatsapp group with all SA's + Management was initiated, with continues updates via car photos and what is being done.
~ Service bookings are done online, so when they knew that my car will be there, and with roof lining to be removed, it would take time.
Accordingly based on available staff, they just didn't take any slot for servicing post lunch.
Because of this, the staff which was doing it on my car, were not called to check the second car, and lend a hand to third car and so on. He dedicatedly worked on just one vehicle.

After witnessing the haphazard and overloaded servicing bays of Maruti, particularly Arena, this was indeed a very pleasant change.

[vigsom]

Originally Posted by ptaneja

- roof getting condensation on top and water droplets being formed.
- on 10 mins of AC usage, the roof did became very cold to touch
- absolutely no space/insulation foam between third row AC vent and metallic roof

Thank You for this interesting observation, ptaneja. I would say in this case that the dew on the roof is due to one or more of the following:

1. the duct joint not sealing and thus cold air is leaking via the duct joint directly on the bottom side of the roof
2. improper design - the duct joint should not be at the edge of the rear - it should be in a place that is a straight run.

Do you have a pic of your car's AC duct when the roof liner was removed?

While your issue has been "fixed", it should not have occured in the first place. Here are some images of joints on an Innova, in which the roof liner was removed for damping for In-Car entertainment. (By design there is no damping between the AC duct and the top metal). You will notice here that the joints are placed at straight runs of the duct, and not at edges.

Innova Rear AC Duct joint arrow - marked


Joint on the vertical end is also on the straight run - not at a bend or at an edge


Your Carens' image for comparison


Innova Rear AC Duct - View from Rear

[ptaneja]

Originally Posted by vigsom

1. the duct joint not sealing and thus cold air is leaking via the duct joint directly on the bottom side of the roof
2. improper design - the duct joint should not be at the edge of the rear - it should be in a place that is a straight run.

Do you have a pic of your car's AC duct when the roof liner was removed ?

Thanks for sharing the pics.
Well, there is no straight duct coming from front to back on roof in Carens. It's piping/duct most likely runs on the floor or something, but comes up vertically from right side last pillar, takes a 80/90 degree turn and ends there.

Here is the complete roof section image - nothing on the roof resembling duct/pipe.



And here is the image from left side section, no vent or piping here too.



Looking at Innova, this looks more straightforward and less prone to long term issues. For now, this is a design flaw, or maybe a result of improper design by Kia.

Well, we can't do anything now, and just hope that this workaround/fix works.

[ptaneja]

Couple of updates !

1 month completed, with 1700kms on ODO.

First being, since Kia is a new player in the market, and I am not sure how it will age, to keep a piece of mind, opted for additional 2 years extended warranty - for 1,20,000 kms. Costed me 19101/-

Second is the mileage. Coming down from Shimla hills to NCR, managed to extract mileage figures in excess of 20+ !! This is via tank to tank refill, else during the journey MID was sometimes even around 30kmpl !
(60% AC ON + max speed at 85 + cruise control as much as possible )



Total mileage so far -

[AutoNoob]

Originally Posted by ptaneja

Curtains provided for rear windows. But are they even legal ? I had once got a challan in Chandigarh for pasting that road side black window blinds. And now getting them OEM ?!

Any fitment of curtains, sun-films etc. done aftermarket is illegal.

However, any equipment fitted by OEM and part of Type Approval certification is legal. These curtains are factory fitted and 100% legal.

[ptaneja]

Few updates ::

1. Roof Condensation workaround seems to be holding up. Took a 20/30 min drive with AC at lowest temp and rear vents open. The roof metal sheet was slightly cold, not too chilled and no condensation.
Looks like the workaround/fix is working and people should get this done irrespective of condensation issue.

2. Had heard about lot of complaints in Telegram group about start/stop on incline. Found a good inclined road, loose gravel and semi built. Stopped the car mid way on climb, hill hold took over ( clutch depressed, brake not applied ) and I was able to easily drive this thing up. A slight wheel spin on the second attempt.
After driving diesel, have learnt that I'll have to keep it one gear lower than I would on diesel, and try to keep the RPM around 1500.

3. Mileage is descent compared to what I read before purchasing. Consistently getting 15+ on highways, and between 13 to 15 on traffic city run.

4. Compared to Ciaz, hill descent was amazing. It kept the speed in control without me having to keep brakes pressed - thereby increasing their wear and tear.

5. Qubo Dashcam is recording just fine, not super rich in features as in speed measurement / location etc. But it gets the job done with decent image quality.

[ptaneja]

Update ::

Odometer stands at 2800kms approx.
Mileage within city traffic and in hilly areas in steep inclines varies from 11 to 13.
Highway mileage is still respectable 15+ with speeds less than 85.





Issue #1
I started noticing plastic black trims turning to grey !
This was supposed to happen when the car is old, or when exposed to direct sunlight for long time - but the car was parked in shade, and it was just 2 month old !




So, either its bad quality plastics being used now or some chemical/hard water was causing this.
Water was Ok, which prompted me to think about waterless car shampoo I had been using - ProKlear Waterless shampoo.
Had read lot of positive feedback both from Amazon as well as from within TeamBhp. I probably used it for 5 or 6 times in a span of 3 weeks.
So I am just guessing if is the culprit - but anyways have stopped using it for now.

To restore it, I had 3 options - 3M Dashboard Dresser , Turtle Wax Detailer or Sheeba All-In-One multipurpose polish. I already had 3M Dashboard dresser, but to test out, ordered the cheapest option - Sheeba Polish, only for about 120rs.
And boy, it did worked. Plastic Trims were back in dark black shade, and it's been 2 weeks, and the polish is holding up.




Issue #2
Pathetic bulbs and their throw. The lesser said about it, the better. Halogens are just crap. I will be updating the bulbs to Daps H19 130 Watts - plug and play, no warranty issues.
I am waiting for H19 bulbs to be available to known person who will install - for now they just use brackets, and use 2 cuts on H4. So rather than going for this approach, will install these H19 LED's and will share the feedback.

H4 incidentally is for around 6500/-
https://dapscare.com/shop/daps-130w-led/


Issue #3
In my model, I do NOT get downshift notification. I am regularly getting upshift notification, but downshift from higher gear to lower gear is missing. I will not call it an issue per se, but a stupid omit from feature list.
When Kia Dealer was contacted, they were clueless - dealer tested it out in 3 different vehicles, raised the issue with Kia Tech team, and the response was "option is not available in this engine option"
I have known people with Luxury variants and even diesel variants, who are seeing this notification.
But anyways, not a deal breaker - just a nuisance.


#Issue #4
Condensation issue - this seems to be OK after their last workaround/fix. On a continues travel for 3 hours, with AC running continuously at 22, there was neither condensation, nor any cold metal surface.


#Issue #5
Steep incline and pickup - coming from diesel, I really miss the low end torque. The car struggles when stopped at good incline, and I have to pick it up from 1st gear. No way we can switch to 2nd gear with RPM at 1200 - it will stall. Things are better post 1500RPM, and this is one hell of a disadvantage of turbo engine. I will have to get used to it, I guess.

Here are some highway running RPM numbers, a reason for cool highway mileage -







And some misc snaps from the last month -

[noopster1008]

Originally Posted by ptaneja

Update ::

Steep incline and pickup - coming from diesel, I really miss the low end torque. The car struggles when stopped at good incline, and I have to pick it up from 1st gear. No way we can switch to 2nd gear with RPM at 1200 - it will stall. Things are better post 1500RPM, and this is one hell of a disadvantage of turbo engine. I will have to get used to it, I guess.

Excellent review and observation,

IIRC, Carens has Hill Hold function along with Hill Descent (in Manual Box too). Could you please confirm and give us the feedback / performance of this Hill Hold function.

Regards,

Noopster

[ptaneja]

Originally Posted by noopster1008

Excellent review and observation,

IIRC, Carens has Hill Hold function along with Hill Descent (in Manual Box too). Could you please confirm and give us the feedback / performance of this Hill Hold function.

Regards,

Noopster

Yes, both work as expected.

Hill Hold - take the car on an incline, stop the car mid way, and engage 1st gear with clutch + brake depressed. (This works both ways - car going up the slope or you reversing the car up the ramp)
As soon as you remove feet from brake, hill hold is engaged, you will not get any MID notification etc , it's just that the car will not roll back for 2/3 seconds.
This again takes time to get used to, as we have a habit and situation of moving straight away from reverse to first and so on. But this system takes 2 seconds for brake to disengage. Just have to be patient.
Ofcourse, I would have loved a physical button to disable/enable as we have with hill descent, as sometimes it becomes a headache in tight parking space and quick forward-reverse movements.

Hill Descent - driving first car with this feature and it works like a charm. Enable it from physical button, it's indication will show up on MID. But it's just enabled, not active ( when active, the green indication will keep blinking). When you go down the slope, the car needs to be in gear ( 2nd or 1st ) and there will be an automatic braking , and the car will stay in the same km range. I do out of apprehension keep one foot on brake if need be - but the feature keeps the car speed in control without the fear of overheating of disk pads.

[noopster1008]

Thanks for the reply.

Regarding the Hill Descent, isn't the Engine Braking good enough ?

In my Skoda Rapid, engine braking (when in 1st or 2nd gear) is quite strong.

I haven't felt need of a separate Hill Descent function while travelling in hills.

Am I missing something ?

Please pardon me for my ignorance.

Noopster

[ptaneja]

Originally Posted by noopster1008

Thanks for the reply.
Regarding the Hill Descent, isn't the Engine Braking good enough ?
I haven't felt need of a separate Hill Descent function while travelling in hills.

True, I was using engine braking all along before this came. In this I can feel intermittent braking being applied. With comparison to engine braking, I was able to go down the slope using 2nd gear @10/15 km/hr using no braking at all.
With engine braking, probably my speed on 2nd gear would have crossed 20km/hr.
Not sure what's best - but just use both if available and go less on foot brakes !

[ptaneja]

Headlights Upgraded

Original Halogens by OSRAM replaced with LED's - Blaupunkt.

LED's are 100 watts total, 50 watts each.
Makes such a big difference !
I was about to spend close to 20K on fog lights, but I'll defer them for now.
Don't have a night time photo at present, but will do so when I get time.

MRP is 9500/-
Local authorized dealer took 6500/- for this.
Installation is easy, just took him 5 mins for installation.
No post installation levelling, adjustments etc needed.

[achilles101]

Is there any roof rack option for Carens which can be removed and fit easily?

[ptaneja]

Originally Posted by achilles101

Is there any roof rack option for Carens which can be removed and fit easily?

Roof Rails preinstalled in Carens are not load bearing - so roof racks on rails is not recommended. (even though manual says max 50kg)

But you can install the normal roof racks which has removable mounts directly to the roof - on all 4 sides via clamps. The one I used to do when my SX4 had CNG cylinder - just used to get the rack installed before trip, and remove it when I was back.

[achilles101]

Originally Posted by ptaneja

Roof Rails preinstalled in Carens are not load bearing - so roof racks on rails is not recommended. (even though manual says max 50kg)

But you can install the normal roof racks which has removable mounts directly to the roof - on all 4 sides via clamps. The one I used to do when my SX4 had CNG cylinder - just used to get the rack installed before trip, and remove it when I was back.

Do you have any pictures of the one you used with SX4 for reference?