Three weeks after purchasing my '23 Stinger GT2 Tribute, I was met with the "Check ECS" failsafe. (code C2212:19 left front actuator) Coincidentally, this was the first time I drove in a rainstorm as well. This issue was fixed under warranty prior to me purchasing the car, but it involved replacing the front left strut, floor harness, and the ECS module, Kia corporate assigned a Kia field engineer to look at and diagnose the car as well and couldn't figure out the issue... and eventually he fixed the issue after putting the original module back in.
After the light came on under my ownership, I scheduled for service and they couldn't sort out the issue and needed a Kia Master Tech to look at the car (backed up 3 months). Called another dealer and reserved a master tech 1 month in advanced.
While I continued to drive the car, the issue would happen more often some days and less often on other days. I couldn't tell if the issue would happen. I was also washing the car and driving in the rain as well.
I got the car wrapped in PPF where they washed the car, and after picking it up the light was permanently on, I had to drive home in the stiff failsafe mode. Eventually, we had a dry 2 weeks of no rain, and the frustration of having this issue made me seriously lose interest in the upkeep of the car, so I hadn't washed it in 2 weeks.
For those two weeks, the car did not have the light appear once. Quite literally it was as if the issue was fixed... Until I drove in the rain again and the issue reappeared. I knew it had to be water related at this point.
When the car was dry and not having the issue, I went to wash the car but I purposely sprayed water at the left front wheel and soaked that area. The moment I stepped in the car and put it in reverse.. "Check ECS"
Eventually I took a water bottle and poured water on every connector and drove around the block 2 times for each one.. it wasn't until I poured water onto the actuator on the strut that the light finally appeared. I waited for the car to dry once more and the problem to go away to make sure this was the culprit... Drove around town and no light... Pulled over and poured water onto the actuator.. "Check ECS"
Somehow, this actuator is allowing water to leak and cause a short. It remains like this until the water has fully dried out. I genuinely don't know how this is possible, but it goes to service in 3 more days. Every Kia service center doesn't want to hear my diagnosis and my discovery and they still want to charge me $200 to diagnose the issue that I already found, and I know for sure they won't find it because they don't know it's water related. I just hope that when it finally goes into service, they will listen to what I discovered and fix it under warranty.
After the light came on under my ownership, I scheduled for service and they couldn't sort out the issue and needed a Kia Master Tech to look at the car (backed up 3 months). Called another dealer and reserved a master tech 1 month in advanced.
While I continued to drive the car, the issue would happen more often some days and less often on other days. I couldn't tell if the issue would happen. I was also washing the car and driving in the rain as well.
I got the car wrapped in PPF where they washed the car, and after picking it up the light was permanently on, I had to drive home in the stiff failsafe mode. Eventually, we had a dry 2 weeks of no rain, and the frustration of having this issue made me seriously lose interest in the upkeep of the car, so I hadn't washed it in 2 weeks.
For those two weeks, the car did not have the light appear once. Quite literally it was as if the issue was fixed... Until I drove in the rain again and the issue reappeared. I knew it had to be water related at this point.
When the car was dry and not having the issue, I went to wash the car but I purposely sprayed water at the left front wheel and soaked that area. The moment I stepped in the car and put it in reverse.. "Check ECS"
Eventually I took a water bottle and poured water on every connector and drove around the block 2 times for each one.. it wasn't until I poured water onto the actuator on the strut that the light finally appeared. I waited for the car to dry once more and the problem to go away to make sure this was the culprit... Drove around town and no light... Pulled over and poured water onto the actuator.. "Check ECS"
Somehow, this actuator is allowing water to leak and cause a short. It remains like this until the water has fully dried out. I genuinely don't know how this is possible, but it goes to service in 3 more days. Every Kia service center doesn't want to hear my diagnosis and my discovery and they still want to charge me $200 to diagnose the issue that I already found, and I know for sure they won't find it because they don't know it's water related. I just hope that when it finally goes into service, they will listen to what I discovered and fix it under warranty.
