ECM update causes issue on my Carens; Kia India yet to rectify problem

A small number of Carens are also said to have been impacted by this issue.

BHPian jasonbourne recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

There seems to be some issue with the latest ECM Upgrade performed on Kia Carens Diesel. Mine went for its 10K service last month. As a part of the service, an ECM upgrade was performed. The Transmission Change Indicator no longer works post the upgrade; the upshift and downshift suggesting arrows were missing from the console. However, there were no other issues at all with respect to the performance or mileage of the vehicle. The current gear number is getting displayed as well.

Not sure how the service centre guys missed it, but I noticed the issue the moment I took the car for a test drive after it was delivered to my home.

I reported it immediately and the service advisor requested to bring the vehicle, when possible. I took it the very next day. Then started their diagnostics and test drives. I thought they were going to simply update it again and get rid of the issue. However, that was not the case since the update did not throw any errors in their diagnostic tools. I was there at the service centre for almost 2.5 hrs. At the end of it, the service manager came and apologised for the delay and confirmed that there was a bug in the ECM upgrade patch. The bug could not be found in any of their tools. After this, they worked with KIA factory engineers, uploading the logs and it was found by the factory that there was a bug wherein the guidance system (the upshift and downshift suggestion arrows) was not working.

At that time, only a small number of Kia Carens across India were impacted by this issue, as reported by the factory. I am still waiting for the updated patch to rectify this issue in my Carens. The last update from the service manager was that they are still waiting for the updated patch from the factory and more vehicles are getting affected.

A few days ago, my brother-in-law had the same ECM upgrade done on his Carens, but he did not encounter this issue. I suspect I am the lucky one

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