2018 Stinger GT2 - Battery Dying

[DesirableChris]

Hoping someone may have an answer or experienced something similar. I’ve had my stinger since August 2018 and have enjoyed the car. Come May 2020 and I noticed my car wouldn’t start and the battery was dead. Which since I often times drive it a few times a week though short distances and only have 18k miles on it, found a bit odd, but maybe there was just an issue. So I bring it to the dealership and they said they saw something with a cell acting up, and they fixed the problem, and they send me on my way after 2 hours. Then 2 weeks go by, I go out to my car and it’s dead again. Jump start it, go back to dealership and they replace the battery. After a few more weeks the same thing happens so I go back to the dealership and they say it could be a faulty battery they gave me. So a couple of weeks go by and my car is dead again, this time I caught what I chalk up the car battery to be in a dying stage though. The doors wouldn’t unlock from key fob and the car wouldn’t notice a fob and start but the lights were on but dim and the infotainment was flickering. So jump start it again and bring it back to the dealership, this time they have the car 5 weeks and are working with a regional tech and corporate and say they’re trying to diagnose the problem and have replaced the ICU (IPM) Junction Box and I should be go. I received my car back around the beginning of December and this has happened twice since then.

I haven’t been driving as much because of the pandemic and because I work from home, but I still drive it 1-2 times per week minimum even though sometimes they’re short trips. I didn’t use the car for about a month or so near the beginning of the pandemic and it started up fine when I got back.

Any ideas what the issue could be that myself or my dealership can’t think of? I’d love to keep the vehicle, but although this isn’t the end of the world, it’s definitely annoying.

 

[MerlintheMad]

Howdy, Chris. That is the worst saga of dying battery I've read on here!? Something has gone south and is constantly draining the battery; but FIVE WEEKS?? and it still does it? Horror story stuff. The single thing about these complex 'puterized cars that scares me is the vast array of possibilities that can go wrong, and no tech is guaranteed to know what to look for. I do hope that your story has a good ending real soon; that's insanely annoying and disappointing.

 

[DesirableChris]

Howdy, Chris. That is the worst saga of dying battery I've read on here!? Something has gone south and is constantly draining the battery; but FIVE WEEKS?? and it still does it? Horror story stuff. The single thing about these complex 'puterized cars that scares me is the vast array of possibilities that can go wrong, and no tech is guaranteed to know what to look for. I do hope that your story has a good ending real soon; that's insanely annoying and disappointing.

Yeah it’s been no fun to say the least. Have a ticket in with corporate going on for a month that was supposed to have a response in two weeks so we’ll see what if anything comes of that. Fingers crossed a good ending is soon to come and the car gods bless me!

 

[MerlintheMad]

Optimistic response icon is the closest to a prayer icon I can offer.

 

[RedCal]

Hoping someone may have an answer or experienced something similar. I’ve had my stinger since August 2018 and have enjoyed the car. Come May 2020 and I noticed my car wouldn’t start and the battery was dead. Which since I often times drive it a few times a week though short distances and only have 18k miles on it, found a bit odd, but maybe there was just an issue. So I bring it to the dealership and they said they saw something with a cell acting up, and they fixed the problem, and they send me on my way after 2 hours. Then 2 weeks go by, I go out to my car and it’s dead again. Jump start it, go back to dealership and they replace the battery. After a few more weeks the same thing happens so I go back to the dealership and they say it could be a faulty battery they gave me. So a couple of weeks go by and my car is dead again, this time I caught what I chalk up the car battery to be in a dying stage though. The doors wouldn’t unlock from key fob and the car wouldn’t notice a fob and start but the lights were on but dim and the infotainment was flickering. So jump start it again and bring it back to the dealership, this time they have the car 5 weeks and are working with a regional tech and corporate and say they’re trying to diagnose the problem and have replaced the ICU (IPM) Junction Box and I should be go. I received my car back around the beginning of December and this has happened twice since then.

I haven’t been driving as much because of the pandemic and because I work from home, but I still drive it 1-2 times per week minimum even though sometimes they’re short trips. I didn’t use the car for about a month or so near the beginning of the pandemic and it started up fine when I got back.

Any ideas what the issue could be that myself or my dealership can’t think of? I’d love to keep the vehicle, but although this isn’t the end of the world, it’s definitely annoying.

Do you keep the keys close to the car? They will "wake" the car up, if they close. Can the dealership replicate the problem?

 

[Blueangel]

This is so deja vu to me. I went through this for 5 years with my Acura ILX and feel your pain before I traded to the Stinger. I travel for work so it was extremely annoying. The only thing that saved my life was the fact that I can reschedule patients throughout the week so it didn’t affect work too much. I can’t tell you the amount of times I had to call AAA. They would jumpstart my car, tow it to the dealership for the dealership to tell me there was nothing wrong with the battery. It was always the same story. They eventually changed the sparks and supplied a new battery but it happened again. Finally, I decided to buy a new battery from Goodyear instead of the dealership and it never happened again. So strange

 

[RGStinger]

Do you keep any cell phone chargers or anything in the CLA ports? I had a truck that would die because the power brick I charged would back feed enough voltage to wake up other car electronics.

 

[DesirableChris]

Do you keep the keys close to the car? They will "wake" the car up, if they close. Can the dealership replicate the problem?

How my apartment is setup my car is far from my unit, so the key being close isn’t an issue, but also something I thought about. They were able to “replicate it” after what was like 3-4 weeks of the car’s 5 week stay with them. But I say replicate in quotes because all they say was the battery dying they weren’t able to really identify what was causing it, or they thought they had and replaced it the following week. But now that I’ve had it for almost 2 months and it’s happened twice, obviously they may have been incorrect.

 

[DesirableChris]

This is so deja vu to me. I went through this for 5 years with my Acura ILX and feel your pain before I traded to the Stinger. I travel for work so it was extremely annoying. The only thing that saved my life was the fact that I can reschedule patients throughout the week so it didn’t affect work too much. I can’t tell you the amount of times I had to call AAA. They would jumpstart my car, tow it to the dealership for the dealership to tell me there was nothing wrong with the battery. It was always the same story. They eventually changed the sparks and supplied a new battery but it happened again. Finally, I decided to buy a new battery from Goodyear instead of the dealership and it never happened again. So strange

Yeah I invested in a little jump start battery kit that helps take care of the problem rather quickly, rather than waiting for a jump, so that’s been helpful. Yeah I may go to another dealership to try to identify the issue or replace the battery myself possibly. Looking to see what my ticket from corporate comes back with if anything, then go from there.

 

[DesirableChris]

Do you keep any cell phone chargers or anything in the CLA ports? I had a truck that would die because the power brick I charged would back feed enough voltage to wake up other car electronics.

The only thing I keep plugged in is a USB to iPhone charger cable, that while I’m not using the car doesn’t have an iPhone plugged into it. But I use it virtually every time I drive so I keep it plugged in. That wouldn’t be causing this you think? I didn’t really think about that since I figured little to no power would be pulled from that.

 

[RGStinger]

The only thing I keep plugged in is a USB to iPhone charger cable, that while I’m not using the car doesn’t have an iPhone plugged into it. But I use it virtually every time I drive so I keep it plugged in. That wouldn’t be causing this you think? I didn’t really think about that since I figured little to no power would be pulled from that.

Doubt that would do it.

 

[RedCal]

Yeah I invested in a little jump start battery kit that helps take care of the problem rather quickly, rather than waiting for a jump, so that’s been helpful. Yeah I may go to another dealership to try to identify the issue or replace the battery myself possibly. Looking to see what my ticket from corporate comes back with if anything, then go from there.

I wouldn't take it to another dealer at this point, they are likely to duplicate all the work, and take months more. If it has only happened twice in 5 months it is going to be very difficult to find. (Because if it was a simple short in the wiring draining it it would happen often) If Kia corporate is involved they would have sent one of their techs in to investigate. While it is zero comfort to you, an intermittent problem (which is what this sounds like ) can be incredibly difficult to find.

 

[DesirableChris]

I wouldn't take it to another dealer at this point, they are likely to duplicate all the work, and take months more. If it has only happened twice in 5 months it is going to be very difficult to find. (Because if it was a simple short in the wiring draining it it would happen often) If Kia corporate is involved they would have sent one of their techs in to investigate. While it is zero comfort to you, an intermittent problem (which is what this sounds like ) can be incredibly difficult to find.

Yeah that’s probably true and good advice. To clarify though its only happened twice since I got it back in December from the 5 weeks they had it my most recent visits with the dealership. Since it first started happening in about May it’s happened like 10+ times.

 

[RedCal]

Keep on the dealer, and corporate as well, document every time it happens with an email to both, and while tempting to get upset, keep the email polite and factual only. (How long it sat unused, temperatures, etc) Build your case for more drastic action if it comes to that.