Engine malfunction warning: 3 times in 6 month old Kia Seltos diesel

Make no mistake, I have only positive things to say about this car apart from this one annoyance. The car has been a superb addition and has surpassed my expectations.

BHPian ttm_220d recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Engine Malfunction Warning came thrice in my New Kia Seltos Diesel

Prelude
I am writing this post as a follow up to my update to my new 2023 Kia Seltos Diesel GTX. As many of you know, I detailed my experiences in few of the posts before. I am writing this post to detail about an issue that has happened thrice now and want to know if other owners face the same.
For a quick upto speed- the car is a 2023 Seltos GTX Plus Diesel Automatic, purchased in end February 2024. It does an equal split of highway and city driving with fuel being filled from Shell or Indian Oil in Bengaluru. Car has now almost 7,500 KM on the odo.
Make no mistake, I have only positive things to say about this car apart from this one annoyance. The car has been a superb addition and has surpassed my expectations.

The issue
Around 5,000 KM on the ODO, the engine management warning had popped up on the dashboard. Immediately we took it to the dealership where they said it was due to carbon build up and after 30 or so minutes of ‘cleaning’ the carbon, the car was good to go.
It was all smooth sailing for another month or so, when this warning popped up again. We were a little perplexed at first because this is a car that does substantial amount of highway driving and fuel is filled from only reputable gas stations. The driver took the car to the service centre where they took almost two hours to clean the carbon and do a software update.
It seemed like everything was fine but this time, within two weeks of the visit, the warning popped up again. I had written an email to Kia India and Advaith Kia about this issue that is now a cause for worry. I took the car in on a Saturday where they took some time to diagnose this but basically performed the same ‘carbon clean up’ as well as software update. The service manager (who was very helpful, in fact all the Kia team were quite polite and helpful) told me that this issue is due to carbon build up. But to me, this warning is not the DPF warning but the engine warning light. From what I understood he has told me that if this issue persists, they will have to replace the catalytic converter. He also says the car is fine even with this warning on or the warning will disappear if you drive it for a long time.
There is also a tiny issue that has happened twice now where the one touch sunroof stops working and I have to reset the sunroof after watching online tutorials. Not sure if these are connected but its definitely another software bug.

My worries-
See as mentioned here and in my review, the car is absolutely superb, I really have no compplaints apart from this. Because the car is still new, and the team is supportive. But what happens when the warranty runs out? My other Diesel cars which are all 5 plus years old now still work rock solid. I am not sure if this is a Kia issue or a Diesel DPF issue that plagues all new cars. This is issue is something that doesn’t give me full peace of mind. It’s the one tiny obstacle prevcenting me from loving this car fully.
If anyone else has faced this issue or is facing this issue, please do let me know how you proceeded with this and how it was solved for you. So far I have full faith Kia will solve this issue (or maybe it has) and this issue won’t recur again but let’s see. Will update on the thread.

Here's what BHPian tp_dominator had to say in this matter:

I have a Seltos X-line Diesel purchased in Oct - 2023 and manufactured in Sep-2023. I too have got this engine management system warning twice while on roadtrips. My car is used for highways a lot and typical running involves 80% highway runs.

The first time it ocurred, the car was parked overnight and this was the warning that came up at first startup. I was perplexed as the car had run close to 8k kms till then with majority running on the highway. The previous day I had driven it close to 400 kms on the highway. I was in another city and was unable to take it to a dealer as I had about 750 kms to reach home. However, I stopped for breakfast some 2-3 kms later and the warning went away after the restart at the stop. Second time also stopping and restarting made the error go away.

Both times I wasn't in a position to take the car to the workshop and the warning went away anyway. However, seeing your post, god forbid if it happens again, I will definitely visit the workshop this time around. The car has currently run 18k kms. From what I got to know at the Kia workshop, the catalytic converter is actually problematic on the Seltos and replacing it solves such issues. However, the part is never readily available and wait times are closer to 4 months from the factory. Do update if they do a root cause analysis and you get to know what was causing this.

Meanwhile, here's BHPian maverickgenius's reply: 

I have had this twice in my Sonet GTX+ DCT. But mine is a petrol car so it can't be related to DPF or CatCon.

Here is BHPian wadewilson's reply in the matter:

Hello, the same issue also occurs in our New Kia Seltos as well. I think I've had the issue pop up about 4-5 times as of now, but the CEL goes away on its own after a restart. The Service Centre also told me that Kia had issued a critical software update regarding the same and asked me to get it to the service centre to get the required update. I haven't had the time to drive 300kms (back and forth) to the nearest Kia service centre though.

I'm guessing that maybe there is an issue with the software's code in our cars which mistakenly reads the sensor's output as an engine malfunction (whether there is a malfunction or not) and perhaps the software update might help resolve the error in the code. Will update once I find the time to go the 300kms to the nearest KIA service centre.

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