[@ppy.tbhp]

Attention KIA Seltos Owners and Prospective Buyers

I am sharing my prolonged ongoing struggle with a serious manufacturing defect in my Kia Seltos 2023, purchased in February 2024. Despite being a new vehicle, all front LED lighting assemblies—headlights, DRLs, and fog lights— suffer from excessive and severe moisture condensation, which not only damages these lights assemblies over time but also compromises road safety due to dangerously low visibility caused by malfunctioning headlights DRL's and Fog lights.















The same issue has been checked and verified in other Kia Seltos vehicles as well. It’s a design and manufacturing defect in all Kia Seltos models, including earlier versions. Moisture condensation is reduced and light lenses become visibly clear when the car engine and lights are switched off and the car is parked. The car and light assemblies cool down while parked for an hour hence the moisture condensation is reduced when car is not in use. Moisture desiccant inside light assemblies absorbs some moisture back when it's cooled down when the car is parked and not in use. On dry days moisture condensation is not visible in parked car. On humid and rainy days moisture condensation is visible in a cool parked car at all times. This has been visually checked and confirmed on rainy day in other Kia Seltos parked at the dealership. It's a recurring issue with most Kia vehicles and not just Kia Seltos.

Here’s an explanation of what happens :

• The headlight and fog light output in the Kia Seltos 2023 is unsatisfactory, with low intensity white light and poor light beam pattern on Road, especially for a vehicle of this class. Combined with the severe moisture condensation defect, the performance of the headlights and fog lights and DRL’s becomes highly unreliable, compromising safety and visibility.
• Severe and unacceptable levels moisture condensation forms on the inside of the light lenses in the assemblies during regular normal day and night driving conditions, particularly when the lights are switched ON for about two hours while driving in normal conditions. The faulty design and manufacturing of these light assemblies is primarily causing this recurring issue resulting in Consequential damages to sensitive electronics in light assemblies.
• The manufacturer is blatantly compromising on safety by designing headlight assemblies that trap moisture, a critical defect they've ignored from earlier variants of Kia Seltos. Even when the lights are switched ON, the moisture doesn’t dissipate, highlighting a fundamental design flaw that endangers visibility and disregards basic safety standards.
• This severe condensation reduces light output, severely affecting visibility on road — especially dangerous during rainy or foggy driving conditions. It's a recurring issue.
• As a temporary and utterly foolish solution, the manufacturer introduced desiccant pads, which fail to permanently control the relative humidity inside the light assemblies of this design. Instead of removing the moisture out of the light assembly, these pads absorb it trapping it inside light assemblies and, when the headlights are switched ON, the heat from the LED lights coupled with heat from the engine desaturates these desiccant pads, causing them to release excessive moisture back into the assemblies.
• This not only adds to the existing humidity and moisture causing severe condensation and fogging up entire light Lenses from inside, but also accelerates the damage to sensitive electronic components, making the problem even worse over time.
• Desiccant pads lose their absorption capacity over time due to saturation, physical degradation, or improper storage, requiring regeneration or replacement to restore effectiveness. These pads are never available at the dealerships when needed, it took months for the replacement pads to arrive and get replaced in my car, in the meanwhile I was compelled to drive my car with severe moisture condensation and completely saturated and hardened pads which stopped absorbing moisture and humidity completely. This caused irreversible damage to LED's inside light assemblies and they started turning yellow with reduced light output. All inspected Kia Seltos, Sonet, Carens have this problem in six to seven months of ownership or 15K-20K Kms on the ODO. Undoubtedly, there's no long term reliability for these Sealed LED light unit designs. These Sealed LED light assembly designs have very high cost of replacement post warranty period.
• The headlight and fog light output in the Kia Seltos 2023 is unsatisfactory, with low intensity and poor light beam patterns, especially for a vehicle of this class. Over time, the trapped moisture in light assemblies leads to corrosion and degradation of the internal components, permanently damaging these assemblies with LED chipsets. Light starts turning yellow which reduces light intensity on road, it worsens over time. The consequential damage due to this defect causes the headlights to stop working completely, making the vehicle highly unreliable.
• The lights turning yellow from white lights is a visible evidence of sensitive electronics and LED's getting damaged from being operated in Higher moisture and humidity levels than they were designed to work in, this irreversible damage is causes further reduction in light intensity making road visibility dangerously low in all weather conditions.
• Kia has moved away from the traditional bulb and assembly design for these crown jewel Led lights, Fog lights and DRL's. They are available as sealed units only making repairs by replacing bulbs impossible. The cost of replacement is very high for this flawed design and manufactured headlights requiring to change complete light assemblies if something goes wrong with LED light housed inside ight assemblies.
• Many car owners have already reported failed lights in three or four months of newly purchased cars that have stopped working and won’t switch on when needed. This defect has been reported to Kia by various users of Seltos, Sonet and Carens. Replacements of light assemblies is a temporary Solution since the defect exists in Replaced lights as well.

In my case, all front lights fitted from the factory were removed from car at the dealership , all lights were thoroughly checked for cracks or leaks that could allow moisture or water to enter into light assemblies, No cracks or leaks were found in Headlights, fog lights and Drl assemblies. The bumper tabs broke while removing the bumper at the dealership reflecting on poor quality manufacturing of Kia vehicles. All light assemblies Were replaced under warranty after months of delays and hassle, causing me to waste a significant amount of time and effort. Yet, within just two days, the new replacement fog lights started showing the same issue again! Other light assemblies will show this in three to four months of use again. This proves that simply replacing defective parts with the same faulty design and manufacturing defect doesn’t fix the root cause ever.

Let’s be clear:-
• This is a fundamental design and manufacturing flaw
• There has been no rainfall or excessive humidity in my city for the past two months, and my car has been used normally with only 15,000 km driven in 8 months now
• The dealership washed the car and checked the formation of moisture condensation after replacing all front lights, yet the issue persists and can't be fixed—highlighting poor quality control and quality assurance by Kia India

This isn’t just about aesthetics or inconvenience. It’s about safety:-
• Poor visibility due to fogged headlights endangers not just the driver but also others on the road
• This condensation reduces light output, severely affecting visibility on the road—especially during rainy or foggy conditions when clear lighting is most critical. Ironically, the lights perform their worst precisely when they are required to function at their best, making this a recurring and dangerous issue. Since Kia India has failed to timely resolve this defect, I am now forced to drive a vehicle with a severe safety hazard, compromising both my safety and that of other road users
• Severe condensation only occurs when the engine reaches its optimum working temperature and the lights are switched on for about two hours on a normal dry day driving condition. In rainy driving conditions, this happens at a much faster rate and is even more severe. This negligence raises serious concerns about Kia's commitment to safety and quality
• A car in this segment and price must inspire confidence, not constant frustration with unresolved safety hazards on a daily basis

I expected better from KIA a global brand, but the inability to provide a timely and permanent solution is highly disappointing. The lack of quality control and quality assurance in these critical components is unacceptable. What's worse, Kia continues to sell defective vehicles despite multiple users reporting the same severe issues. The same defect is reported in Kia Sonet and Kia Carens as well. In some cases, the headlights have completely failed, creating a dangerous situation and making the vehicle unreliable and absolutely unsafe to drive. This negligence raises serious concerns about Kia's commitment to safety and quality of vehicles being manufactured and sold to the masses.

I urge Kia India to:
1) Acknowledge this as a design and manufacturing flaw at the earliest in Kia Seltos and take responsibility
2) Provide a permanent fix for all affected vehicles at the earliest
3) Extend the maximum warranty (life time) for vehicles suffering from these persistent issues until a permeant solution is provided since It's a design and manufacturing defect which cannot be resolved by band-aid fixes which is going on now

This situation highlights a broader issue in the automobile industry: manufacturing defects that put profits above safety and customer satisfaction. If unresolved, I’ll escalate this matter to regulatory authorities to ensure no other customers face similar problems. A global brand like Kia has failed to provide reliable and safe lights for almost all vehicle models in India. Good reliable headlights and fog lights are basic requirements for any vehicle on road, Kia has overlooked this basic safety feature in all vehicle models in India as of today.

Other Kia owners are reporting this issue for a long time now in Kia Seltos, Kia Carens and Kia Sonet. All these have manufacturing defects which is causing this issue, The desiccant pads provided as solution by Kia are doing more harm than good in every vehicle. I have attached video links of other user facing same issues in all kia vehicles being sold for reference of fellow BHP-ians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFT_Tz4jnAc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN6v7ZMGzUk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky4q-thr4wI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNz3b_do3I

For those considering the Kia Seltos or other Kia vehicles, think twice. A vehicle with persistent safety defects must not be on the roads. Customer Safety Matters and must be top priority in design and manufacturing of all cars. Kia India must resolve this serious manufacturing defect with these cars at the earliest. Let’s demand accountability from automakers. I am looking forward for possible solutions from fellow BHP-ians to find fixes to this defect since I am compelled to drive my Seltos with safety issues until Kia has a permanent solution to this severe defect. Share this post to spread awareness and caution other users to drive safe on Indian roads.

[CentreOfGravity]

Thanks for this timely thread. In fact, I had noticed the issue of Kia cars' lights turning yellow and I too wanted to make a detailed thread about it. Finally someone has raised their voice against this problem.

I was honestly shocked when I saw those yellow / non-functional DRLs in the Sonet, Seltos, and Carens, since these are rather new cars! This issue is not only limited to Kia cars, but also other vehicles like the Verna, Virtus, Kushaq, City, Vitara Brezza, Audi cars, and many more. All manufacturers need to look into this issue and make something as basic as a headlight more effective and reliable.

We are moving from a time when electronic gadgetry was prone to quality issues, to a time where the reliability / functionality of a basic safety instrument such as a damn headlight is compromised! Cost-cutting cannot be avoided, but OEMs need to reconsider where these costs need to be saved. Give us functionally sorted cars!

[@ppy.tbhp]

LUMAX is a major supplier of defective lighting assemblies. What disappointed me the most is that recently manufactured replacement light assemblies were provided after a lot of hassle and almost three months with the same defect in them, What's the point of vehicle warranty if recently manufactured defective parts have the same defect leading to same issues again?? In just two days of driving the replacement lights are entirely covered with severe moisture condensation on the inner side of light lenses reducing visibility and creating safety hazard again. The LED's will get damaged in these after using these lights for three to four months. This has proved that it's a preliminary manufacturing defect that the dealership can't fix alone, the dealership has said to me that they have done everything in their scope and are helpless now, they can't fix it for now. I am compelled to drive a vehicle with serious safety hazard of low visibility. OEM Manufacturers are making products that fail right after the warranty ends. They focus on profits over safety and reliability completely disregarding customer satisfaction and safety. Recently launched TATA curve and Mahindra THAR roxx users have already reported failed lights and moisture in light assemblies of PDI vehicles. I am attaching screenshot of LUMAX India's website which show various automobile manufacturers as it's customers.

[Behemoth]

I have seen this issue also in my Seltos Xline too which is just 11 months old.

The output from the headlights as well as fog lights is absolutely pathetic and barely lights up the road 50m in front of the car.
Kia seriously needs to accept this issue and offer improved replacement headlights to Seltos buyers.

[@ppy.tbhp]

You have to visit dealership, they have an SOP where if the lights and DRL's have turned yellow they can go ahead with a warranty replacement. In my case I requested service manager to take my car to headlight alignment facility at the dealership along with a new unsold vehicle of same make and model. Both vehicles were compared for light intensity color and light beam pattern. It was clearly visible that the light output brightness and beam pattern had worsened in just 6 months and 15K kms of normal driving in my car clearly indicating a problem with my cars front lights. Even on visual inspection and comparison with naked eyes the difference in light brightness, color and weak patchy beam pattern was clearly visible. This makes these light assemblies highly unreliable and results in dangerously low visibility in rainy night driving conditions.

[d.w.w.]

I observed the same issue on my sister's less than a year old Sonet; so this is not something exclusive to Seltos, they have an issue across models. Hope they address this issue soon and provide replacements for all those who are affected.

[@ppy.tbhp]

I completely agree - this problem seems to affect multiple Kia models, not just the Seltos. In my case, I got the headlight assemblies replaced under warranty. The replacements were newly manufactured and shipped directly from the OEM to the dealership. I even made it a point to check the manufacturing date on the boxes before giving the go-ahead for the installation. After they were fitted, I thoroughly checked everything, including washing the car at the dealership to see if any moisture or condensation would appear. At first, everything seemed fine - no signs of condensation. But just two days later, with normal city driving in dry weather, the condensation has started showing up again. This really seems like a serious design or manufacturing issue that Kia needs to address properly at the earliest. The OEMs have started reducing size and making these compact light assemblies to reduce cost and look good for design, but these assemblies fail to control excessive humidity, moisture and heat inside them due to faulty designs leading to consequential damages to LED reducing light output on road and creating safety hazard for road users.

[shikh_oberoi]

It's not a manufacturing problem. This is normal and happens with most cars.


Halogen bulbs clear the condensation fast because of the heat generated by them.

[@ppy.tbhp]

Originally Posted by shikh_oberoi

It's not a manufacturing problem. This is normal and happens with most cars.

It's considered normal when the condensation is not severe and it goes away which is not the case with KIN vehicles. The information you have posted is same for every vehicle if the moisture levels and humidity are within acceptable levels at all times and they don't damage or corrode sensitive electronics and electrical components housed inside them. By design and manufacturing flaws KIN vehicles trap excessive moisture and humidity inside light assemblies which is damaging sensitive electronics and LED chipsets housed inside them overtime. THE MOISTURE THAT IS CONDENSING REPEATEDLY IS NOT REMOVED AFTER DRIVING WITH LIGHTS ON IN KIN VEHICLES.

KIN dealership and KIN thoroughly checked for leaks or other problems in all Front lights of my vehicle but their were no leaks or cracks found. All lights were replaced under warranty in my car and same defect of excessive moisture condensation has repeated in newly manufactured and replaced light assemblies under warranty confirming this design and manufacturing defect in KIN vehicles.

Kindly refer to the images I am attaching of my Seltos and other Kia vehicle owners and see how entire light lenses are covered from inside which is not normal, This make the fog lights, headlights and DRLs useless while driving as the condensation only goes away when the vehicle is switched off and parked with all lights switched off for about an hour, car and the light assemblies cool down gradually and the condensation goes away making the lenses visibly clear. while driving the condensation and fogging is severe that cannot be cleaned from outside, light output on road is blocked by these fogged up lenses reducing visibility on road and creating safety hazard of road users.

[NomadSK]

These days modern day car headlight and tail light assemblies aren’t fully sealed. Infact breathing ventilation passages are built into the assembly to let the heat and humidity in and out of the housing. Also to allow pressure difference and prevent moisture buildup. Can you please check the details of your car headlight assembly for these breathing vents, either yourself or with the car maker. Purpose of which is to maintain the differential pressure and temperature.

Also if you are interested, It’s a very simple DIY to kill this issue (recommended only for old cars out of warranty or at your own risk), install the bolt-on breather vent. These are a great solution to condensation. They have silicone gasket and contain a permeable membrane just like OEM vents. Many times people think that completely sealing headlights is what they need to do, but in many cases the headlamp assembly need to "breathe" and to allow interior moisture levels and temp to match exterior levels and temperature. Buy this and head to your nearest FNG and get it installed. You won’t get a cheaper and reliable fix than this and a very little headache than to deal with non-informed service centre guys.

Note that these are not a fix if the headlight is cracked or has a bad seals. Sometimes for bigger problems there are very minor fixes which needs to be implemented.

Check out the link below and find out where you can buy this.

Bolt-on Breather Vent

Ps - Bashing the car manufacturer for design flaw or manufacturing defect can continue though.

[Sensible_Speed]

Condensation is not supposed to occur in a headlamp assembly. Saying it is normal and providing guidelines to remedy it is just lazy and dangerous. Headlamps need to be sealed completely. I guess it's up to Kia to decide how big their liability pool is currently, before initiating a recall to fix it. But ideally, a recall is the way to go. These are essential systems in a car and the OEM needs to work with the supplier to rectify any issues that might hinder the safe operation of a vehicle.

[Axe77]

Thanks for that extremely detailed outline. I’m curious if this is a problem in corresponding Hyundai sister models too. If not, surely they can move asap to the Hyundai approach to these lights as opposed to let this issue carry on.

Agree that Kia should cover the consequential replacements beyond the warranty period as well under a goodwill gesture if this is indeed a design flaw.

[@ppy.tbhp]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

These days modern day car headlight and tail light assemblies aren’t fully sealed. Infact breathing ventilation passages are built into the assembly to let the heat and humidity in and out of the housing. Also to allow pressure difference and prevent moisture buildup. Can you please check the details of your car headlight assembly for these breathing vents, either yourself or with the car maker. Purpose of which is to maintain the differential pressure and temperature.

Also if you are interested, It’s a very simple DIY to kill this issue (recommended only for old cars out of warranty or at your own risk), install the bolt-on breather vent. These are a great solution to condensation. They have silicone gasket and contain a permeable membrane just like OEM vents. Many times people think that completely sealing headlights is what they need to do, but in many cases the headlamp assembly need to "breathe" and to allow interior moisture levels and temp to match exterior levels and temperature. Buy this and head to your nearest FNG and get it installed. You won’t get a cheaper and reliable fix than this and a very little headache than to deal with non-informed service center guys.

Note that these are not a fix if the headlight is cracked or has a bad seals. Sometimes for bigger problems there are very minor fixes which needs to be implemented.

Check out the link below and find out where you can buy this.

Bolt-on Breather Vent

Ps - Bashing the car manufacturer for design flaw or manufacturing defect can continue though.

As I mentioned earlier, the factory-fitted front lights of my car were removed and thoroughly inspected for cracks and leaks at the KIN dealership. All the assemblies are equipped with built-in vents as part of their design and manufacturing, and these vents were visually checked for any blockages caused by foreign objects, dust, or debris. No abnormalities were found in the breather vents of any of the factory-fitted front light assemblies. The design and manufacturing flaw lies in cramming too many LED components—high beam, low beam, DRLs, and turn signal lamps—into a single, compact housing without any form of mechanical ventilation built in(cost cutting). This setup generates excessive heat and traps high levels of moisture and humidity inside.

By design and shape of the front light lenses which are smaller, while driving air cools them down quickly as they have a small size leading to excessively severe condensation and fogging, blocking visible light output on road. If the LED lights were equipped with built-in fans for mechanical ventilation, the issue of severe moisture condensation could have been significantly mitigated.What’s surprising is that this issue becomes worse by the placement of the dust cap with the moisture desiccant, which sits near the engine at the back. This means it’s constantly exposed to the heat from the powerful 1.5L T-GDI engine. Because of this, the desiccant pad ends up releasing the moisture it has absorbed back into the light assemblies, leading to even more condensation and fogging. What’s surprising is that this is recurring issue even when driving in dry weather, which should ideally prevent fogging but instead causes severe moisture buildup inside the lights assemblies, if all lights are switched ON while normally driving for about two hours.

The tail lights don’t have any such issues because they don’t have too many LEDs crammed into a compact unit. As a result, there’s no excessive heat buildup. Unlike the front lights, the tail lights don’t need the same level of brightness, and most importantly, they’re not exposed to constant engine heat at the back side of their assemblies. Additionally, since the tail lights aren’t directly cooled by airflow while driving, their design avoids the severe condensation problems seen in all front lights.

It’s clear that the critical issues stem from a flawed design and manufacturing process, which is causing these critical and persistent problems. KIN had owners reporting problems of low visibility since Kia Seltos was launched in India, the light assemblies were changed in Kia Seltos 2023 still both current version and earlier version of Seltos have moisture condensation and visibility issues in them till date. KIN must address these critical issues for all owners as a priority if they truly value customer safety and satisfaction.

Originally Posted by Sensible_Speed

Condensation is not supposed to occur in a headlamp assembly. Saying it is normal and providing guidelines to remedy it is just lazy and dangerous. Headlamps need to be sealed completely. I guess it's up to Kia to decide how big their liability pool is currently, before initiating a recall to fix it. But ideally, a recall is the way to go. These are essential systems in a car and the OEM needs to work with the supplier to rectify any issues that might hinder the safe operation of a vehicle.

This is absolutely true, and it’s incredibly frustrating for myself and other owners to deal with such critical manufacturing defects on daily driving. Unacceptable levels of moisture condensation and fogging which damages lights and reduces visibility has no place in a headlamp assembly—it’s a safety issue, plain and simple. Calling it “normal” and providing vague guidelines to deal with it feels careless and dismissive. These critical issues must not be fixed by some band-aid solutions which KIN did now by the using desiccant pads making it even worse. Headlamps are essential safety systems, and they need to function reliably and consistently at all times in all weather conditions. KIN must take responsibility, work with their suppliers to fix these defects permanently at once at the earliest , and initiate a recall. Ignoring this and selling more vehicles with this critical defect only puts more owners and other road users at risk and undermines trust in the brand.

[NomadSK]

Originally Posted by Sensible_Speed

Condensation is not supposed to occur in a headlamp assembly.

Unfortunately that’s incorrect, you are actually defying the laws of thermodynamics. It’s a normal ambient air inside the assembly which will have moisture depending on the temperature. Higher the temperature higher the capacity to hold moisture. That’s why you use hair dryer (warm) to dry yourself, it sucks the moisture from your skin.

But if I would be a designer, I would put pure nitrogen or any inert gas (that’s why you have halogen) in the assembly because they are huge heat sinks and don’t expand or absorb moisture, but I’m sure automotive engineers would have thought about this and would have challenges to implement this, which I don’t know of.

Saying it is normal and providing guidelines to remedy it is just lazy and dangerous.

It’s not if you know what you are suggesting.

Headlamps need to be sealed completely.

Sealed to what, air or water ? For water, dust, particles ingress, yes they are sealed. But if you seal for air/moisture ingress/egress, you will explode/implode the assembly while heating/cooling cycles. Pls don’t mix water with moisture.

OEM needs to work with the supplier to rectify any issues that might hinder the safe operation of a vehicle.

Yes true, that’s what engineers do.

No abnormalities were found in the breather vents of any of the factory-fitted front light assemblies. The design and manufacturing flaw lies in cramming too many LED components—high beam, low beam, DRLs, and turn signal lamps—into a single, compact housing without any form of mechanical ventilation built in(cost cutting). This setup generates excessive heat and traps high levels of moisture and humidity inside.

I’m not denying that it would be a design flaw. I’m just giving the explanation behind the WHY’s. To me it looks like the breather vents aren’t designed properly or are not capable for the heat generated by all the components installed or crammed in a small space. That’s why in my earlier post I wrote about installation of a breather vent.

Anyway nothing more to add.

[electric_eel]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

These days modern day car headlight and tail light assemblies aren’t fully sealed. Infact breathing ventilation passages are built into the assembly to let the heat and humidity in and out of the housing

Originally Posted by @ppy.tbhp

As I mentioned earlier, the factory-fitted front lights of my car were removed and thoroughly inspected for cracks and leaks at the KIN dealership. All the assemblies are equipped with built-in vents as part of their design and manufacturing

Just curious How do these ventilation vents look like ? Are they (in general) visible from outside ?. I have been driving in Kerala for the last 7 years and during monsoon humidity is generally high here. Even when there is heavy rains I have rarely seen this level of condensation both in my old Maruti zen or in my Nexon EV. Granted they are both fitted with Halogen lamps and not leds but still it suggests something seriously wrong with the headlight assembly.