No signal on Seltos infotainment system: Dealer recommends modem change

The ASC and Kia Connect mutually concluded that the modem has failed and it needs to be changed.

BHPian silvy_rider recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hi everyone,

I daily drive Kia Seltos 2020 GTX+ DCT and have been facing with "no signal" issue on the infotainment system. As seen in the below image, the signal bar has a red sign. The standard troubleshooting has not helped.

I took it to ASC, where I was asked to first connect with the Kia Connect team by sending an email. The ASC and Kia Connect mutually concluded that the modem has failed and it needs to be changed. Even though the ASC verbally agreed that this is a manufacturing defect, it is not covered under extended warranty - and have quoted a price of ~20k (just to replace the modem).

Modems are essentially chips with no movement and should not stop working this prematurely. Heck a 10 year old phone will receive signals if turned on.

I am not sure if they have even able to diagnose the problem correctly and are taking the safe approach to replace a related part. The sad part is that I had renewed UVO for 3 years a few months back before the issue started to occur.

Is there a way to escalate this?

Thanks!

Here' what BHPian DCTfanatic had to say on the matter:

Been dealing with UVO/Kia Connect issues for more than a year with my 2019 Seltos GTX+ D AT.

First off, ignore majority of what the ASC is saying. Most are untrained when it comes to the connected car tech and its workings. Their only solution is do a soft reset or call the helpline. The call center that the helpline routes to is of no help either.

The real culprit here is the corporate structuring. For some reason the Kia Connect department is just limited to the call center and the actual tech team can only be accessed by the Kia Connect representative by email. There is virtually no direct line of communication between the person handling customers and the person who has knowledge regarding the issues.

The issue is not with your modem. I faced a similar issue. All it needs is a factory reset of your infotainment unit. This can be done by accessing a secret engineering mode menu in the settings. Videos of how to do it can be found online.

Alternatively, the workshop guys at the ASC will be able to do so. This may take some persuading the SA on your side since they will have no idea what you are talking about and might be hesitant to do so. (Took me 2 hours of “the SA doing the usual, reset, login to the app, call helpline, helpline guy asking to go to nearest ASC, SA telling him that he is an SA at an ASC” for the SA to finally cave in and call an engineer from the back).

And whatever happens, do not pay a single dime prior to any resolution implemented by the company. I had an ongoing issue with Kia Connect about the “door left unlocked” alert not appearing for my car. After 3 months of back and forth on email, I was told that i would have to ship the infotainment unit to Bangalore (diagnosis cost alone was 35k Rs.). When I told them that I will be looking into legal actions, they promptly sent over a technician from Chennai. The technician took one look and turns out door unlocked alert was not a feature for the 2019 Kia Connect models. Thank god for not listening to “ship head unit for diagnosis”.

All of this when I had ran out of the company warranty. I am sure you will have a much easier time with your warranty still active.

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