This Isn’t The First Telluride Fire Risk
A smoking car usually indicates burning oil, an imbalanced air-fuel mixture, or nothing more than condensation during a cold start. But in the case of one Kia Telluride owner, smoke was coming from a much unlikelier source: The infotainment screen.
A West Virginia mom named Heather got the nasty surprise when she started her Kia Telluride, before posting the video on TikTok, where it has already amassed over 1.3 million views and thousands of comments. This particular issue applies to a pre-2023 Telluride which still had the standalone touchscreen, not the dual displays.
So, what caused this unusual and disturbing problem in this Telluride, one of America’s most popular three-row SUVs?
@aultheather But why 😫 #carproblems #kia #kiatelluride @Kia worldwide @Kia America
♬ original sound – Heather-IVF MOM-NURSE
Short Discovered Within Infotainment System
After getting her SUV towed to the dealership, someone from Kia confirmed that a short in the infotainment system resulted in the smoking experienced by Heather. However, this is not a detailed analysis, as the dealership needs to ship the relevant old components to Kia to run diagnostics and find out exactly what went wrong.
In the meantime, Kia is replacing Heather’s entire infotainment system. It’s just as well that Kia cars come with one of the best warranties in the industry, and based on Heather’s update, we assume the system will be replaced without any charge to her.
Obviously, a situation like this poses a fire risk, which Heather was all too aware of when she sternly asked her son to stay clear of the smoking Kia.
“At this point, I’m not in a hurry to get my car back,” said the mom.
Kia Recalls Certain Tellurides For Fire Risk
Almost exactly a year ago, Kia announced a recall for over 460,000 Tellurides manufactured for the 2020 to 2024 model years. This pertained to an urgent fire risk due to a power seat motor that could overheat. According to the recall, a fire could start whether the car was parked or driving.
Prior to this, in 2022, another recall for a tow hitch harness on some Tellurides also posed a fire risk. Neither of these recalls appear to be directly linked to the smoking infotainment screen, but they do point to a trend of electronic gremlins in the SUV.
We searched for other examples of Tellurides with smoking touchscreens, but could find none, indicating that Heather’s example may have been an isolated incident.
Touchscreen Bugs Not Uncommon
Replacing physical controls with a touchscreen interface increases the likelihood of things going wrong. The 2024 Vehicle Dependability Study by J.D. Power named infotainment as the single most trouble-prone category, with drivers having many issues with Android Auto/Apple CarPlay connectivity and voice recognition.
Worse still, a frozen touchscreen in some cars will stop the driver from accessing the majority of controls, as manufacturers embed more and more functions in ever-larger touchscreens.
Fortunately, nobody was injured in the case of this mom’s touchscreen starting to smoke, but the end result could have been a lot worse.
Kia