If you drive a low-to-the-ground sedan, you may want to rethink barreling through a large puddle of water. A mechanic explains that’s what happened to a 2020 Kia that came in with an unexpected engine problem after driving over water.
That’s according to some folks in the comments section of viral TikTok posted by Royalty Auto Service (@royaltyautoservice). A tech in the video explains how the owner of a 2020 Kia Forte drove through a puddle and ended up stalling.
While diagnosing the car’s issue, however, he encountered an issue he’s never seen before. Somehow, all four of the engine coils shorted simultaneously. The tech was able to ultimately discover what needed to be fixed in the car. However, he still doesn’t know how the bizarre malfunction occurred in the first place.
An unexpected Kia engine problem
“This Kia went through water and it wouldn’t start back up…what’s wrong with it?!” a text overlay in the video reads. The beginning of the clip first starts with the Royalty Auto Service tech standing at the Kia’s open hood. He then describes what happened with the 2020 Forte.
As it turns out, the driver plowed through a mass of water. Initially, there wasn’t anything wrong with the car. However, as the Kia owner kept chugging along, the check engine light lit up on their dash. Next, they shut the car off and tried turning it back on, but the engine wouldn’t fire up.
He describes his repair process as a “rabbit hole” that begins with an issue with the car’s coil control. The tech says he then went to look at various sensors as to why there’s no “spark on anything” in the engine.
After further investigation, he learned that sparks were being delivered to the coil control modules, ruling out the coils being the issue. If that was the problem, then a quick swap of the coils would solve the problem. And it seems like it does. Because after trading out the coils for four new ones and cranking the engine, it starts right up. After leaving the car’s interior, however, he heads out to the open engine bay to point to a problem.
Misfiring cylinders?
And the problem is that the cylinder furthest to his left isn’t firing. What’s so frustrating about this, the tech points out, is how he discovered this issue. A spark tester hooked up to the coil control on the car would inform techs that even new coils are broken. That’s because a spark wouldn’t emit from the coil.
However, as he points out, the issue isn’t with the coil or spark plugs themselves, but rather, the coil control wiring. And while he says he “cannot tell” viewers why this particular problem occurred as a result of the water damage, he did suss it out. “The engine control module over drove the coils…it burned up the coils.”
The tech says that for whatever reason the engine control module burned up the coils. So instead of just having to replace the four coils, the car also needs a new engine control module as well. “Here’s the real kicker, you can’t get an engine control module for it. They say it’s on intergalatic back order.”
He says that Kia told the shop they’ll have to wait a bit for the part. That’s because there aren’t any engine control modules ready to ship from Korea. In spite of this, he seems confident he’ll be able to get the car working regardless.
Not relying on tools when diagnosing a vehicle
He says that while he enjoys using the spark tester and that it’s a good tool, it isn’t fool proof. Additionally, the TikToker mentions that if they can’t get the engine module, they can source it from a used car/rebuild it. The same person recording the video also commented on people’s perceptions regarding coils. “I think too a lot of people don’t think about coils not causing a car to start. They think about it making it run bad.”
The tech adds to that comment. “The thing is, who’s gonna ever think that basically four coils failed at one moment? Which they did but they failed because of something else and not just die on their own. They failed because that computer…overdrove them. Why it overdrove them? I don’t know.”
Then, the TikToker speculates as to what could’ve caused the malfunction. “Probably water because computers don’t typically die on their own.”
The tech goes on to concede that something “had to happen.” Although he does mention that he can’t understand how water managed to reach the engine module.
TikTokers guess what damaged the Kia’s engine module
The video has amassed more than 87,000 views as of Monday afternoon. In the comments, users offered their own theories as to what happened.
One person writes that they’ve seen this type of damage as an auto tech themselves. “Kia and Hyundai are known for this, seen this quite a bit as a Kia tech,” they wrote.
Someone else believes that somehow, water ended up getting inside of the alternator and due to this issue, the engine control module shorted. “Water got in the alternator and sent to much voltage to the ecm,” they wrote.
There were various theories on how water ultimately caused the Forte’s engine failure. Like this person who also speculated how it fried the ECM. “Sounds like the water created a ground and just kept the coils energized, which burned them up and thus burned up the ECM,” guessed another user.
Apparently, this Kia owner isn’t the only one with engine problems recently. “This troubling saga began in the early 2010s when reports surfaced of engines in certain models experiencing problems such as stalling, loss of power, and even fires. The affected vehicles included popular models like the Hyundai Sonata and Santa Fe, as well as the Kia Optima and Sportage, among others,” the article states.
This is a sentiment echoed by TikTok users, including one who went viral after explaining why so many of the vehicles put out by those two companies fail.
@royaltyautoservice This is definitely a new one! #kia #mechanicsoftiktok #mechaniclife #cartok #automotive #autorepair #tools #fyp #foryou #viral #fix ♬ Pop beat BGM / long version(1283324) – nightbird_bgm
The Daily Dot has reached out to Royalty Auto Service and Kia via email for further comment.
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