Introduction

After doing rounds of half the country, our Kia Carens long-termer is still up for more adventures. But clocking more than 10,000 kilometres since it joined the CarWale garage in March, the Carens was due for its second service. So, we found it to be a good opportunity to take a look at Kia Carens’ aftersales experience and tell you all that goes into its periodic servicing.

Carens at CarWale and Problems it faced

Before we reach the service centre, let’s take a little rundown of Carens’ time with us. When it arrived in March this year, its odometer reading was in three digits. Getting down to business promptly, the Carens undertook an over 3,000km road trip. This journey started from Mumbai to Goa then down south to Coimbatore and back to covering the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. It navigated nicely paved roads of NH48 and also traffic-infested dual-carriageways on NH66. Soon thereafter, the Carens embarked on another 1,000-kilometre journey.

Now, we had the following complaints with the Carens that required attention during the service:

- The TPMS error prompt popped up and disappeared on its own, even when the tyre pressure was optimum.

- The tailgate had started to squeak, especially when plodding over bad road surfaces.

- The brakes had begun to deteriorate.

- The gearshifts and throttle response were jerky under cold starts.

Second Periodic Service

As the service advisor informed me, the second periodic service of any Kia car is at 10,000kilometres or one year, whichever is the earliest. The first service includes a checkup at 1,000kilometres. In the second service, the major work involves oil change and brake service. Apart from that, if need be, the air filter and AC filter are also changed. Then, wheel alignment and balancing are checked as well.

Meanwhile, the labour works included in the second service are – brake inspection and cleaning, suspension check-up, software scanning, washing, and internal vacuuming. This being a free service, no labour charges were part of this service. The consumables for the Carens turbo-petrol DCT were engine oil and oil filter, which cost Rs 2,250. If the air filter and AC filter were to be replaced, it would have cost us Rs 450 and Rs 550, respectively. The wheel alignment and balancing would have set us back by Rs 1,350, plus balancing weights (depending on how many were required).

Since our Carens didn’t require anything more than an oil change, the total bill after the second service was Rs 2,250 only.

Issues addressed?

Now, the four issues that we had with our long-termer were addressed in the following manner:

The brake deterioration was taken care of by thoroughly checking all four discs and their pads. According to the mechanic, they didn’t need a replacement yet, so they were serviced and reinstalled.

For the TPMS error, the OBD port was wirelessly connected, and we saw all the data of the vehicle’s ECU on the digital pad. The mechanic explained the error history and the TPMS sensors had none. Nonetheless, he ran a diagnosis and told me that there was nothing wrong with the TPMS sensors. The error pop-up had not registered in the ECU unit, so that was likely a minor problem. But I like how advanced yet simple the OBD connection and ECU analysis has become in modern cars these days.

The tailgate hinges were checked, realigned, and greased to get rid of the squeaks. Did that work? We’ll have to take the Carens over very bad roads to examine that.

Lastly, the jerky nature of the gearshifts and throttle response on the cold start was an issue that the mechanics could not address. Their only suggestion was to let the engine warm up before driving off.

What’s next?

Now that the Carens is back well-greased and serviced, we plan to take it with us on more adventures in the coming months. It would be part of many shoots as a support car and would see many commutes both in and around the city as well as inter-city ones. So, stay tuned for more.