I'm posting this to help the Community as this was such an unnecessarily expensive and time-consuming (1.5 months) issue involving a Kia dealership getting the diagnosis wrong 3 times (the third time after I had towed the car to them) and ultimately towing the car a 2nd time but this time to a local trusted repair shop that we have used for 10+ years who diagnosed the issue in 30 minutes and repaired the car in 15 minutes.
I purchased a used Kia Stinger 2020 GT2 with 48k miles on it. In my 30 years of owning cars I have never taken a car to a dealership Service Center (SC) but I decided to take the car in for an oil change and thorough inspection assuming that they would be the most technically competent to assess the vehicle since they represent the company that designed and built it. Unfortunately, my assumption proved to not be correct. The car drove perfectly for almost a month but as soon as the SC started touching the car it had issues. After the oil change and inspection the car started to have issues where I would press the start button, the panel would light up, but the engine would not start and would not even try to start. After several days it permanently would not start. I then spent 1.5 months doing the following, individually and with the Service Center based upon other posts in this forum and what the "expert" diagnosis was from the SC:
1) Replaced the battery (I replaced) - DID NOT FIX
2) Replaced alternator (Service Center charged $3,400) - DID NOT FIX
3) Replaced starter relay (I replaced) - DID NOT FIX
Although the first two times I took it back to the dealership they said nothing was wrong with the alternator and had tested it for power draws, etc., the third time they said an error code popped up and said I needed to replace the alternator to fix this issue. This made no sense to me as the issue was present even when their testing of the alternator showed it was working fine but I trusted the SC as the experts. Throughout this entire process they also performed two warranty repairs which involved the coolant system and left me with a rushing behind the glove box (didn't bleed the system properly), and every time they touched the car they discovered something else that needed to be repaired such as the Water Pump ($1k) and Drive Belt Tensioner ($700) but none of those problems were detected when I paid for the original thorough inspection of the vehicle, they only appeared after the SC started taking apart the engine to perform the warranty repairs. Note again that none of these repairs fixed the actual issue for which I brought the car in which was that the car would not start.
After 3 visits to the dealership and paying to tow the car there the third time because they misdiagnosed the issue twice when they said it was fixed, I finally had the car towed to a trusted local repair shop who diagnosed the issue in 30 minutes, repaired it in 15 minutes, and charged me only $117 for the diagnosis and repair.
SOLUTION: The local repair shop traced the issue to the neutral safety switch on the transmission. The switch had a bolt loose and a bolt that was missing which was preventing the car from starting depending upon the position of the unit. They tightened the bolt and replaced the other bolt on the switch and ever since then the car has started with no issues. I recognize that there are several reasons why you may have the same issue (full electrical power but no engine start/turnover) in addition to all the aforementioned items including the starter motor and the sensor that doesn't signal that the brake is being depressed but I wanted to add one more to the list of things you should ask your repair shop to check FIRST before they initiate expensive repairs such as the alternator, starter, etc.
I purchased a used Kia Stinger 2020 GT2 with 48k miles on it. In my 30 years of owning cars I have never taken a car to a dealership Service Center (SC) but I decided to take the car in for an oil change and thorough inspection assuming that they would be the most technically competent to assess the vehicle since they represent the company that designed and built it. Unfortunately, my assumption proved to not be correct. The car drove perfectly for almost a month but as soon as the SC started touching the car it had issues. After the oil change and inspection the car started to have issues where I would press the start button, the panel would light up, but the engine would not start and would not even try to start. After several days it permanently would not start. I then spent 1.5 months doing the following, individually and with the Service Center based upon other posts in this forum and what the "expert" diagnosis was from the SC:
1) Replaced the battery (I replaced) - DID NOT FIX
2) Replaced alternator (Service Center charged $3,400) - DID NOT FIX
3) Replaced starter relay (I replaced) - DID NOT FIX
Although the first two times I took it back to the dealership they said nothing was wrong with the alternator and had tested it for power draws, etc., the third time they said an error code popped up and said I needed to replace the alternator to fix this issue. This made no sense to me as the issue was present even when their testing of the alternator showed it was working fine but I trusted the SC as the experts. Throughout this entire process they also performed two warranty repairs which involved the coolant system and left me with a rushing behind the glove box (didn't bleed the system properly), and every time they touched the car they discovered something else that needed to be repaired such as the Water Pump ($1k) and Drive Belt Tensioner ($700) but none of those problems were detected when I paid for the original thorough inspection of the vehicle, they only appeared after the SC started taking apart the engine to perform the warranty repairs. Note again that none of these repairs fixed the actual issue for which I brought the car in which was that the car would not start.
After 3 visits to the dealership and paying to tow the car there the third time because they misdiagnosed the issue twice when they said it was fixed, I finally had the car towed to a trusted local repair shop who diagnosed the issue in 30 minutes, repaired it in 15 minutes, and charged me only $117 for the diagnosis and repair.
SOLUTION: The local repair shop traced the issue to the neutral safety switch on the transmission. The switch had a bolt loose and a bolt that was missing which was preventing the car from starting depending upon the position of the unit. They tightened the bolt and replaced the other bolt on the switch and ever since then the car has started with no issues. I recognize that there are several reasons why you may have the same issue (full electrical power but no engine start/turnover) in addition to all the aforementioned items including the starter motor and the sensor that doesn't signal that the brake is being depressed but I wanted to add one more to the list of things you should ask your repair shop to check FIRST before they initiate expensive repairs such as the alternator, starter, etc.
