LSD Service Bulletin - Oil Update

[D.J.]

Hey DJ, very low KM's approximately 14600. The issue has been there a wile, I chatted with the service manager just in passing about it and he almost repeated what you said verbatim. Just I dont see a lot of people saying anything about it. Or people just accept it as a part of a AWD LSD (Limited Slip Differential) fact of life, heavy sigh.

Mine is a Canadian 2018... So open diffs for me. Kinda wish I had the rear LSD, but no chatter with the open diff

With your super low KM's, if the chatter is repeatable, you should push for a warranty fluid swap. I doubt they will offer it without a fight

 

[AUStingerGT]

I had no noises or vibrations, my car felt like I was driving with the park brake on first thing in the morning & went away once it was “ warmed up”.
They changed the oil & this symptom went away & i have had no issue since.

This is exactly what mine is doing currently. Has 54,000km on it. Has been getting gradually worse for a while now. I dont get my car serviced at kia dealership but i do get logbook stamped. Have it booked in to get looked at in a few weeks time. I will relay what I have read here and elsewhere and tell them it probably just needs the newer fluid and hope they just fix it with no fuss and dont make up some other cock n bull excuse.
Pretty sure my brakes need replacing too as they shudder under heavy braking when coming down hills etc but confident both issues completely unrelated.

 

[Sybaritic]

Bumping this thread from a search. I have this problem, and changing the rear diff fluid did not help. The persons affected above are not from the North American market. Are there any American or Canadian guys having this issue as well?

 

[Stinger GT SS]

Bumping this thread from a search. I have this problem, and changing the rear diff fluid did not help. The persons affected above are not from the North American market. Are there any American or Canadian guys having this issue as well?

Did you change the diff oil with the upgraded type as detailed on the TSB that is posted on this thread.

 

[AUStingerGT]

This is exactly what mine is doing currently. Has 54,000km on it. Has been getting gradually worse for a while now. I dont get my car serviced at kia dealership but i do get logbook stamped. Have it booked in to get looked at in a few weeks time. I will relay what I have read here and elsewhere and tell them it probably just needs the newer fluid and hope they just fix it with no fuss and dont make up some other cock n bull excuse.
Pretty sure my brakes need replacing too as they shudder under heavy braking when coming down hills etc but confident both issues completely unrelated.

So to update anyone that cares. Went into Kia today. They rang this arvo and said it needs a new Diff . Obviously putting it through warranty but just have to wait until approved then will get it replaced. Thought it had felt/sounded weird for a while now but just downplayed it for a number of reasons.

 

[karu]

Bumping this thread from a search. I have this problem, and changing the rear diff fluid did not help. The persons affected above are not from the North American market. Are there any American or Canadian guys having this issue as well?

US owner here. Created an account just to say that I’m having this problem as well. I commute and take road trips often, so mostly highway miles on my ‘21 GT. I changed the diff oil myself just before 35k miles were on the clock about a week ago. I’ve heard 75w90 Valvoline with LSD Additive is good to use so I gave it a shot. Practically the same as 75w85 the Stinger requires, but it seems the LSD on these cars are more temperamental than you’d expect based on this thread. Thinking about draining and refilling with OEM fluid as it may remedy the problem, but it seems a dealer checkup may be in order despite the mixed experiences from this thread.

Side note: At some point between my last oil change (34k miles) and the diff oil change at 35k miles, the bottom panel you have to remove with 6 screws and a pop clip was stolen / fell off some how. Not sure if that has anything to do with the below noise, but here’s the problems I’m having.

I’m experiencing a moderate thunk noise and shudder when changing gears from park to reverse only (when cold, before and after diff oil change). In addition, only the first turn on a cold start makes a chattering sound from presumably the diff. The diff noise has only just started after I changed the fluid / when the bottom panel was taken.

 

[DyerMaker]

Mine is a Canadian 2018... So open diffs for me. Kinda wish I had the rear LSD (Limited Slip Differential), but no chatter with the open diff

With your super low KM's, if the chatter is repeatable, you should push for a warranty fluid swap. I doubt they will offer it without a fight

So the continuing story is I finally got a Kia Mechanic in the car and he agreed there is a drive train issue. So as of right now my Stinger is in the Kia shop for testing to see if it is the Differantial or the Transfer case, they have given me a Forte wile mine is in the shop (heavy sigh). They said they would have to get "K Tech" involved, I guess thats the internal Kia Techs they have to refer to, not sure? They say they could have the car up to a week for diagnostics, they want to be sure because it is a $9000.00 repair. Then god knows once a decision is made.

 

[AUStingerGT]

So to update anyone that cares. Went into Kia today. They rang this arvo and said it needs a new Diff . Obviously putting it through warranty but just have to wait until approved then will get it replaced. Thought it had felt/sounded weird for a while now but just downplayed it for a number of reasons.

Car has since been fixed. New diff is in and feels amazing. Almost forgot what its meant to feel like with smooth gear changes.

 

[DyerMaker]

So the continuing story is I finally got a Kia Mechanic in the car and he agreed there is a drive train issue. So as of right now my Stinger is in the Kia shop for testing to see if it is the Differantial or the Transfer case, they have given me a Forte wile mine is in the shop (heavy sigh). They said they would have to get "K Tech" involved, I guess thats the internal Kia Techs they have to refer to, not sure? They say they could have the car up to a week for diagnostics, they want to be sure because it is a $9000.00 repair. Then god knows once a decision is made.

Update, after in the shop for two weeks, diagnostics, consultation and repair (and me with the Forte, apparently in the fine print of the Kia warranty they do NOT have to provide you with a replacement transportation if your car is in for warranty repair) I now have my Stinger back with a new Transfer case, and the dealer said it has not repaired the issue (they are leaving the new Transfer case in place). They gave me the car back and the issue is worse then ever. I had to return the car the next day because it feels like the rear end is just grinding whenever there is any torque on it at all, undrivable. Now the rear diff is on order, they provided me with a new Sorrento and hopefully in a week the issue will be resolved. Heres me crossing my fingers that this will be resolved with the diff.

 

[karu]

US owner here. Created an account just to say that I’m having this problem as well. I commute and take road trips often, so mostly highway miles on my ‘21 GT. I changed the diff oil myself just before 35k miles were on the clock about a week ago. I’ve heard 75w90 Valvoline with LSD (Limited Slip Differential) Additive is good to use so I gave it a shot. Practically the same as 75w85 the Stinger requires, but it seems the LSD (Limited Slip Differential) on these cars are more temperamental than you’d expect based on this thread. Thinking about draining and refilling with OEM fluid as it may remedy the problem, but it seems a dealer checkup may be in order despite the mixed experiences from this thread.

Side note: At some point between my last oil change (34k miles) and the diff oil change at 35k miles, the bottom panel you have to remove with 6 screws and a pop clip was stolen / fell off some how. Not sure if that has anything to do with the below noise, but here’s the problems I’m having.

I’m experiencing a moderate thunk noise and shudder when changing gears from park to reverse only (when cold, before and after diff oil change). In addition, only the first turn on a cold start makes a chattering sound from presumably the diff. The diff noise has only just started after I changed the fluid / when the bottom panel was taken.

Update --
Fixed this issue by draining out the diff oil and replacing it with some new fluid (same stuff). Oil looked nearly brand new when I drained it, and no metal shavings thankfully. Before filling it back up, I mixed in a tube of TransX Posi-Track in a large measuring cup, poured it back into the squeeze bottles, and filled it. Instant difference, but the (now quiet) chattering didn't completely go away until about 50 miles in. Did some figure-8s in an empty parking lot to get it all in there and it was good to go. Been nearly 2k miles since then, and no issues at all. These cars must need extra LSD additive, or Valvoline needs to put more in their oil.

Got the idea for adding the TransX Posi-Track from @josh2112 in this post below.

Well I'm not sure how knowing what you have in your Tundra is going to help me with my Stinger bud

UPDATE

I went with the path of least resistance, which was keeping the Valvoline already in there and adding a tube of the TransX Posi-Track. It did indeed fix the popping noises right away.

The Trans-X tube is 7 oz. I cracked open the rear diff drain plug and *very carefully* unscrewed it till fluid just started dribbling out. Once I had about a cupful out I re-tightened it, then squeezed the tube of additive into the fill hole, then topped it off with my leftover Valvoline 75W-90. The first 'test' at the stop sign below my house showed an immediate difference -- no more popping noise or feeling from the rear diff.

 

[SnowWhiteStingerGT2]

Hello fellow Stinger enthusiasts and owners.
I'd just like to report that I have also had issues with the Rear Diff in my stinger (Aus GT 3.3L RWD).

Today I took the car to the local dealership to have it looked at, and they agreed that the diff is the issue and they will need it for awhile. The dealer was also able to sort out a courtesy car, which was a great relief.

I doubt the oil change will fix my diff, as I'm suspecting that it's physically damaged internally (self destruction).

A bit of a detailed backstory:
At my apartment complex, to reverse the stinger out of the car space, I need to reverse under full wheel lock. I would do this 1-2 times a day. At least once a day when the car is stone cold in the morning. I've always heard a noise when doing this, but I thought it was just normal for an LSD (Limited Slip Differential). Just a 'whirring' sound similar to an old manual car reversing. This always seems most noticeable when the car is cold.

In the last month, the noise begun to get louder, and for the first time, mechanical symptoms started to appear. At some point when doing my usual full wheel lock reverse out of the car space, a small jolt (and jolt noise) could be felt about half way through the turning manoeuvre. Both myself and my partner noticed this when in the car, as it feels like the car fell into a pot hole or drove over a medium thickness branch (1 inch maybe). I thought this was just junk under the car, but it begun to get consistent every time we reversed out of the car space.

Simultaneously to the above, when driving on imperfect road conditions, I felt like the car was being pushed around left-right slightly at the back. Just an inch or so either way occasionally. I thought this was just one tyre grabbing and the other pulling, and put it down to wet weather at first, but I don't think the weather was actually the cause, as I noticed this later on when the diff was really playing up.

Within a week of the two above events happening, I was out driving, and accelerated hard out of a kerbside car park, and a few meters into the acceleration I heard and felt a massive bang from the rear of the car. It honestly felt like the rear of the car fell off. There was no debris on the road to hit etc, even though it sound like it had hit a cinder block or kerb etc. The car didn't seem to have any power loss afterwards, but did develop the next symptom, which caused me to take the car to the dealer today.

The major symptom, was that from the moment of the loud bang, the diff honestly felt like it was about to fall off. any change from stationary - acceleration - deceleration would result in small bangs coming from the rear of the car, like it was bolted on loosely and flopping around with accel and decelerations. As this was over the long weekend, I drove the car very gently over these few days. The noises were definitely worse when the car was cold. The diff seemed less broken as it heated up. The handling of the car was greatly affected, and any driving over 70kph had a loud whine from the diff.

If anyone has any questions, Let me know, particularly if it results in anyone potentially saving their diff from full replacement. Hopefully the replacement doesn't have any of these issues.

2018 gt2 RWD. I feel all the same symptoms except the loud bang. Exactly. Down to the drift while driving. It's my wife's car and I told her to sell it a long time ago. As cool as it is and as much as we like it, it has issues. It doesn't feel confident on the road. We've already replaced the transmission and the LSD/rear end but it's replaced with the same problematic parts so it's doing it again. I don't like the idea of having to replace the rear not under warranty down the line when the new diff oil doesn't work anymore.

 

[Sybaritic]

2018 gt2 RWD. I feel all the same symptoms except the loud bang. Exactly. Down to the drift while driving. It's my wife's car and I told her to sell it a long time ago. As cool as it is and as much as we like it, it has issues. It doesn't feel confident on the road. We've already replaced the transmission and the LSD (Limited Slip Differential)/rear end but it's replaced with the same problematic parts so it's doing it again. I don't like the idea of having to replace the rear not under warranty down the line when the new diff oil doesn't work anymore.

Wow, so you got a new LSD and it still didn’t solve your issues? If this is the case, I should probably get rid of mine too if they’re just replacing with the same faulty parts.

A lot of manufacturers like Ford do this like they did with Ford Focus dual clutch trannies because they don’t know a solution yet, so they keep installing the same parts until a solution is found or a modified part is created.

 

[SnowWhiteStingerGT2]

Unfortunately the exact same thing happened to me, and is unfortunately happening again even after differential replacement. I had these issues begin several months into ownership so I began studying these threads. I brought my car in to service as soon as I realized the sounds from my LSD (Limited Slip Differential) weren’t normal.

At that time(8/2018) this was a brand new issue in the USA so Kia wasn’t even aware of the special oil and jumped directly to a full differential replacement due to metal shavings already in the oil. They had a new differential shipped in from Korea and after a week I got my car back and all was well, for a little while at least.

Shortly after I started noticing the same type of whinnying noise & shuttering in the rear end so I explored these threads again. At that time I saw forum members start posting about a TSB for special differential gear oil so I took the car back to Kia(10/2018) and explained this solution to my service advisor. They claimed they never heard of such a thing so I showed them the Australian TSB about the special differential gear oil repair. Unfortunately that didn’t matter and they sent me home without a resolution. They even stated on my service invoice “No TSB on KGIS for this concern at this time so the tech will not perform the TSB that was referred by the customer. No work performed at this time and waiting on tech line for further instructions on the repair.”

Over the next few weeks all the symptoms continued to get worse so I kept calling in for updates. They repeatedly said they were still working on it and finally a whole month later got approval from the Kia tech line and ordered the new proper gear oil. So they let me drive around on a new differential without the proper oil while the issues continued to get worse for months until they finally added the proper differential oil on 11/2018.

At that point I hoped it was finally resolved, but sure enough the same disheartening symptoms have come back again for the third time. I brought my car back to Kia(1/2019) but this time they started playing games and saying everything was operating normally. They documented “Could not replicate the concern at this time. No problem” and released the car back to me without fixing it. I argued with the service manager because I knew this was nonsense, but instead of trying to help she just accused me of driving the car too aggressively and any issues I had was my fault. This was the worst customer service I ever experienced so I asked if I could file a complaint with the GM. They said he wasn’t available and gave me some toll free number to call which just brought me to some automated Kia help line. I left furious and swore I would never return to that dealership ever again.

Unfortunately the noise, shuttering & all the symptoms you explained above just kept getting worse so I got a referral from a fellow Stinger buddy and made an appointment(4/2019) to see his dealership even though it was an hour away. To my amazement the service advisor explained to me that my previous dealership reported to Kia corporate that I abused my car so they declined warranty work on a separate ongoing warped rotor issue. They made me pay for a rotor resurfacing myself and then reported “vehicle is operating normal. differential was replaced at an other dealership before and no repair done at this time”.

I love my Stinger but have had such a bad experience with multiple service centers I may have to proceed with a lemon law on the reoccurring differential issues, or try to file official complaints against Kia for defamation, etc. I honestly don’t know what to do and hope you or anyone else never has to go through this type of BS yourselves.

Wow, so you got a new LSD (Limited Slip Differential) and it still didn’t solve your issues? If this is the case, I should probably get rid of mine too if they’re just replacing with the same faulty parts.

A lot of manufacturers like Ford do this like they did with Ford Focus dual clutch trannies because they don’t know a solution yet, so they keep installing the same parts until a solution is found or a modified part is created.

They replaced the transmission and diff and it ran fine for a little while but then it started doing the same old symptoms even started feeling like the transmission was slipping/shifting hard in lower gears. I wonder if the hard shifts are attributed from the LSD. I didn't go under the car and mark the diff myself so I have no way of knowing if the actually replaced it. Or if they replaced it then put the wrong fluid in after. I don't trust the dealer. They put regular oil in my car once and I had to quickly change it. I also have an ongoing case against them with the bureau of automotive repair because they were supposed to change my engine harness due to damage but instead just put electrical tape and two wires together so now they're in trouble for charging $10,000 for claiming the engine harness when it wasn't actually changed. They also didn't put all the bolts back when they did the transmission diff swap and didn't tighten down any of the screws on the under shielding. It sounds like the new fluid will fix the problem but who knows for how long

 

[SnowWhiteStingerGT2]

Bumping this thread from a search. I have this problem, and changing the rear diff fluid did not help. The persons affected above are not from the North American market. Are there any American or Canadian guys having this issue as well?

Los Angeles California here. Same issues

 

[vipeboy2000]

Hopping on this train. No noise or any chatter from the diff ever other than the first full lock turn after cold where i could hear a tiny noise from the diff which occurred since new, I did feel like the diff wasn't engaging as aggressively as it was when it was newer so I decided to follow the recommended maintenance schedule for the lsd diff, and get the fluid changed since i am at 37k miles and the manual calls for the lsd fluid to be replaced at 36k miles anyway.
The dealer had to special order the new LSD fluid so it took them a week to get the fluid. about 50 miles after the new fluid replaced the old, I had grinding/chatter noises and vibration on any tight turns while on any amount of throttle. Took the car back in and the service tech pretty much immediately told me after listening to the diff they'll be ordering me a new differential...

Theories? even though my car was a 2020, could the diff have been filled with the pre-tsb fluid which caused more wear on the clutch material which was suspended in the fluid allowing the clutches to still operate at a minimal level, and since I am d-awd(indigo edition), it was not as noticeable since under normal driving conditions there is less stress on the diff vs a 2wd model? Then when the fluid was replaced with fresh fluid without any of the old material within 50 miles or so, it was pretty much metal on metal?

 

[djerickd]

which fluid was it?? the new or old PN?

 

[vipeboy2000]

which fluid was it?? the new or old PN?

for the new fluid? I need to find out.. i asked when i was there but the person couldn't see which was weird.. i think it is on my receipt.. will have to take a look and see if it was on there. I just find it hard to believe that even the old part number for the fluid would cause that much degradation of the diff in a hundred miles or so since it still has some friction modifiers as I've seen people accidentally put non lsd fluid in an lsd and find out a thousand miles later without much issues.. but those were toyota truck lsds though so not the same tolerances perhaps..

 

[keebz]

2020 Indigo edition owner here: I noticed a slight noise 20% of the time during a full lock turn when cold a few thousand miles ago but it was hard to get it to reproduce. Now at 24k miles and took it to the dealer to let them see if they can recreate. I sent the Service Bulletin from this thread to them (thanks for that) and the model description saying its AWD + LSD which the other AWD (non-indigo) version seem to not have an LSD.

Service advisor called back saying the tech was able to recreate and agrees its the service bulletin issue, but based on my VIN there is no service advisory for it in the system so I'd have to pay out of pocket to get this fixed (LSD oil change).

1. Is this something I can get covered by Kia corporate?
2. Lots of people in this thread seem to have the oil change done but still have the issue remaining. Hoping the successful changes just aren't posting updates...

 

[vipeboy2000]

2020 Indigo edition owner here: I noticed a slight noise 20% of the time during a full lock turn when cold a few thousand miles ago but it was hard to get it to reproduce. Now at 24k miles and took it to the dealer to let them see if they can recreate. I sent the Service Bulletin from this thread to them (thanks for that) and the model description saying its AWD + LSD (Limited Slip Differential) which the other AWD (non-indigo) version seem to not have an LSD (Limited Slip Differential).

Service advisor called back saying the tech was able to recreate and agrees its the service bulletin issue, but based on my VIN there is no service advisory for it in the system so I'd have to pay out of pocket to get this fixed (LSD (Limited Slip Differential) oil change).

1. Is this something I can get covered by Kia corporate?
2. Lots of people in this thread seem to have the oil change done but still have the issue remaining. Hoping the successful changes just aren't posting updates...

I did my 36k mile lsd fluid change at the dealer and after their change the differential failed so I got a new differential under warranty. I made sure they used the correct fluid before as well.

 

[djerickd]

WOW