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A Kia engine recall has caused a lawsuit that alleges the vehicles are worthless and owners have overpaid for their vehicles that have lost their values.
The Kia engine replacement recall class action lawsuit involves 2021-2023 Kia Soul and 2021-2023 Kia Seltos vehicles that were recalled nearly three weeks before the lawsuit was filed.
An automotive “recall lawsuit” occurs when an automaker issues a recall to repair the vehicles for free and reimburse owners for out-of-pocket expenses. This is followed by a class action lawsuit, and in this case the automaker is Kia and its engine replacement recall.
The Kia Engine Replacement Recall
On February 17, Kia announced the engine recall for about 137,000 Seltos and Soul vehicles equipped with 2.0L Nu MPI engines supplied by Kia Autoland Hwaseong. The supplier of the piston oil rings made mistakes during manufacturing.
According to documents relating to the engine recall:
“Due to a quality deviation by the piston oil ring supplier, the piston ring may, over time, damage the surface of the cylinder wall. This may lead to increased oil consumption which will eventually result in abnormal noise from the engine and/or illumination of the oil pressure warning light. If the vehicle is continually operated in this condition, engine damage and/or seizure can occur, resulting in loss of motive power.”
The primary problem is engine stall, with customers reporting more than 800 incidents of stalled engines in the recalled Kia Soul and Seltos vehicles. Between March 2021 and February 2025, Kia was aware of four engine fires but no reports of crashes or injuries.
Kia dealers were told about the engine replacement recall on February 17, and owner engine recall letters are expected to be mailed April 4, 2025.
Dealers will inspect the engine and replace it if necessary. Dealers will also install piston ring noise sensing system software to provide an early warning light to the driver of potential damage to the engine. The 2.0L Nu MPI engine will be replaced if the software sets a diagnostic trouble code (DTC).
The replacement Kia engine will contain piston rings from a different supplier.
Kia Soul and Seltos owners who paid out-of-pocket for engine repairs can be reimbursed by Kia.
The Kia Engine Recall Lawsuit
The Kia engine recall lawsuit was filed by Florida plaintiff Eric Jasinski who owns a 2021 Kia Soul. Although he filed the class action lawsuit for more than $5 million and it cost $405 just for the filing fee, he doesn’t allege his vehicle stalled or suffered other engine problems.
According to the plaintiff, he “has only taken the vehicle to the dealership for its routine maintenance” but “he has never been told of any recalls or defects related to his vehicle’s oil ring system.”
This makes sense considering owners have not been contacted yet regarding the engine recall.
The engine recall lawsuit alleges “there is no foreseeable reason for any of the individual parts to fail” in the recalled 2021-2023 Kia Soul and 2021-2023 Kia Seltos.
The plaintiff says the recall repairs will cost him “hours of his time” and he is concerned about the Kia engine recall “because it does not offer any foreseeable guarantee that the Oil Ring Defect will go away permanently.”
The Kia engine recall lawsuit says “there is a cognizable risk inherent within” the recall because unless Kia “has fixed the manufacturing issue with the Oil Ring Defect, it is foreseeable, and should be expected, that the Class Vehicles’ engine will fail once again. Defendant’s Recall is no more than a repeatedly ineffective waste of time.”
The class action alleges the Kia engine recall leaves more questions than answers regarding the safety of the vehicles and “results in a diminution in value for the vehicles in question.”
“Transitioning back to the repair itself, at a bare minimum, this 10 to 12 hour repair time means that it will take Defendant at a minimum of 1,300,000 hours to repair the Class Vehicles. In a more comprehensible term, 1,300,000 hours amounts to a little more than 148 years.” — Kia engine replacement lawsuit
According to the plaintiff, he complains about having to spend time and money to take his Kia Soul to the dealership, “an eight-mile, 15-minute” trip.
And although the Kia engine recall doesn’t require owners to tow their vehicles to dealers, the class action lawsuit says the plaintiff “is faced with another difficult expense, the price of towing his vehicle.”
“The average cost of towing, per mile, is $4.75 per mile. Given Plaintiff’s roughly 8-mile commute, this cost amounts to $38 taken from Plaintiff for his own Class Vehicle to be safely repaired. Given the additional time it takes for a tow truck to arrive, roughly thirty minutes, Plaintiff’s total time spent on his vehicle amounts to eleven to thirteen hours, unless of course one is to assume that Plaintiff drives his potentially unstoppable Class Vehicle to the dealership.” — Kia engine recall lawsuit
The plaintiff argues he has suffered an injury because he purchased a vehicle that is “worthless.”
The Kia engine recall lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Pennsylvania: Eric Jasinski v. Kia America, Inc.
The plaintiff is represented by Carpey Law, P.C.