Kia Seltos gearbox starts leaking in 2.5 years: Dealership replaces it for free [Video]

Kia might be one of the newest entrants in the Indian car market, though it has left no stone unturned in winning the hearts of Indian car buyers. Apart from offering world-class products, it is also creating new standards of customer satisfaction by addressing the issues of its customers promptly. Here’s an example of Kia’s promptness in listening to the plight of one of its customers, in which it changed a faulty component under warranty by taking a self-initiative.

The entire incident has been shared by the popular YouTuber Arun Panwar in one of his videos, in which he explains how Kia swapped the faulty transmission unit in his Kia Seltos. The presenter starts his explanation by saying that he once noticed an oil leakage from the bottom of the engine bay. However, he concluded that it was neither the engine oil nor the engine coolant, which was leaking.

He raised this concern to Kia’s customer service department, who promptly took an action and visited the customer’s residence to check the fault. After a thorough inspection, the service team of Kia India concluded that the transmission unit of the Seltos was leaking oil, due to a possible hole at the bottom of the unit. The actual cause of the hole formed, however, is not explained in the video.

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Issues in shifts after transmission change

The presenter explains that while there was no issue in making shifts while driving, the leakage of transmission oil bothered him. Here, the gearbox in question is the 6-speed manual gearbox, which is mated to the 1.5-litre diesel engine in this particular Seltos. The service team of Kia demanded 20 days from the customer, during which it swapped the faulty transmission unit with an entirely new unit.

According to the presenter, the new transmission unit was costing him around Rs 1.5-2 lakh, but it was changed for free as his SUV was under the warranty scheme. After 20 days, the Seltos with the new transmission unit was given back to the customer. While carmakers are sometimes reluctant in swapping such an expensive faulty component for free, the promptness of Kia in resolving such an issue is an appreciable move.

The 1.5-litre diesel engine of the Kia Seltos, which is offered with the choices of a 6-speed manual and a 6-speed torque converter, claims 115 PS of power and 250 Nm of torque. The Seltos is also offered with two petrol engine options – a 1.5-litre 115 PS petrol engine with the choices of 6-speed manual, 6-speed iMT and CVT and a 1.4-litre 140 PS turbocharged petrol engine with the options of 6-speed manual and 7-speed dual-clutch automatic.

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