Quick update from RDU area in NC. Just took my 19 GT2 AWD for it's first service and the wire junction box recall. Actually very happy with my treatment so far.
Pretty cool actually, my particular service rep was very honest and said he himself owned a 2018 and traded it in after 22k miles because of the brakes and Kia's inability to fix his shaking after tons of visits and turned/replaced rotors. His problems persisted and he was so frustrated with his own company he just got rid of it.
(I'd assume they never ever properly bedded the brakes or anything and his problems were probably exacerbated by just having the rotors turned over and over and never replacing the pads so their uneven wear issues just made deposit issues happen quicker and quicker....)
BUT he was glad to say that now KIA can actually fix the issue and would do anything I need if I had problems but did say the process is still a pain but at least there's a solution at the end if the problem persists.
1) They will first turn the rotors and resurface (he said "Scrub") the OEM pads.
2) If pulsing returns you'd have to come back and they'd re-turn the rotors and scrub the OEM pads AGAIN,
3) If you still have issues after the 2nd visit THEN they will replace the pads with the upgraded 2020.2/2021 pads and try to re-surface the stock rotors again. ONLY if the front rotors had lost too much material will they ever replace rotors anymore.
Also, they will not warranty rear brakes at all anymore, they'll turn them but won't upgrade the pads or replace the rotors for standard pulsing issues.
(edited - this part is important)
I'll just point out that the process outlined above will actually make pulsing issues that originate from tacky pads prone to uneven deposits WORSE. You'll have smooth operation for a while but unless there was pretty elaborate aggressive bedding, the tendency for uneven deposits from the pad to re-form gets worse as the pad wears. You can't re-surface a pad back to factory spec because heat has so much to do with how the pad material reacts. So even assuming they are truly re-machining the pads back to perfectly flat, some parts of the pad will be harder, other will be softer and the only way to avoid uneven deposits is to do a bedding procedure that gets the system up to temp and under high pressure where the two surfaces are forced together and all pits and valleys get even contact with the rotor.....and even THEN, you're only extending the amount of time before pulsing returns because now the pads are even more worn and heat-cycled which wouldn't matter if they weren't already so tacky and prone to excessive deposits. And frankly we all know that you can't really machine a pad, you rub them on sandpaper on a flat surface unless you're a race shop.
In short, I'd avoid this warranty process like the plague and still buy new pads, at most I'd go through step 1, drive home slowly and just get a free resurfacing out of the deal.
Not sure if this is just this dealer or KIA as a whole. But at minimum I feel this is a good step to confirming the consensus that the stock rotors are perfectly fine and everyone should just get rid of the stock pads ASAP and be happy with it.
<3 everyone.
