Valve springs are to blame
Kia has announced a recall that will repair 2,872 flagship Telluride SUVs manufactured between October 1, 2023 and December 6, 2023 in the United States.
It turned out that the valve springs in the car’s V-shaped 3.8-liter 6-cylinder engine are susceptible to fatigue failure. This can lead to loss of power at best. At worst — the spring may get into the combustion chamber, which will lead to an explosion and a hole in the cylinder block.
The first case of an engine explosion was recorded in November last year: one of the Telluride 2024 owners heard a bang while driving and saw smoke from the engine compartment. The dealer's diagnostics revealed a hole in the engine block. Later, other similar cases occurred. Kia began collecting and researching destroyed engines and did so until the root cause of the problem was identified.