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On Tuesday, an Illinois federal judge issued an order directing the transfer of a class action lawsuit over alleged Hyundai and Kia engine defects to California federal court, where similar lawsuits are currently pending.
Plaintiff Andrea Smolek and defendants Hyundai Motor America and Kia Motors America Inc. jointly asked the court to transfer the engine defect class action lawsuit to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California so that it could be coordinated with three related cases.
“As the parties have stipulated to transfer to the Central District of California, and in light of the related proceedings already pending there, it appears a transfer would serve both the convenience of the parties and the interests of justice,” U.S. District Judge Marvin E. Aspen wrote in his order.
The Illinois class action lawsuit was filed by Smolek in April, just a few months after an $8.59 million class action settlement with Hyundai in California. Smolek seeks to represent a Class of Illinois residents who owned or leased Kia and/or Hyundai vehicles with Theta II engines that were not subject to recalls by the motor companies.
Smolek says she bought a new 2015 Kia Sorento LX in the Chicago area in 2014. Less than two years after the purchase, she says she heard loud noises coming from the engine which were “punctuated by a loud bang, the violent shaking of her vehicle, and the illumination of the check engine light on the instrument panel.”
When she took her vehicle to a Kia dealership, a technician checked the engine and told her the vehicle’s oil had turned to sludge, the Kia class action lawsuit says. The technician blamed the issue on Smolek never changing the vehicle’s oil even though she produced documentation to show the oil had been changed in accordance with Kia’s guidelines.
According to the Kia engine defect class action lawsuit, Kia denied Smolek’s warranty claim. Kia reportedly agreed to inspect the engine but would charge her $1,000 if the technicians could not find a defect. She was also reportedly told that the vehicle’s engine needed to be replaced before she left the dealership or her warranty would be voided.
Smolek says she felt that she had no other option and purchased a new engine from the Kia dealership for $6,000. To pay this cost, she says she took out two high-interest loans.
The Kia class action lawsuit claims that the engine defect arises from a design flaw in the Theta II engine, which allows contaminants to enter the engine’s fuel injection system. The contaminants cause the oil to thicken and the engine to fail.
Hyundai reportedly recalled vehicles with the Theta II engine in September 2015 and March 2017, claiming the issue was related to metal debris that was left in the engine during the manufacturing process, not an engine defect. Kia recalled vehicles with the Theta II engine in March.
Hyundai and Kia reportedly recalled about 1.66 million vehicles in North America. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration subsequently initiated an investigation into the Hyundai and Kia recall.
Smolek is represented by Stacy Bardo of Bardo Law PC.
The Hyundai, Kia Engine Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Andrea Smolek v. Hyundai Motor America (Corporation), et al., Case No. 1:18-cv-02716, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
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48 thoughts onHyundai, Kia Engine Defect Class Action Transferred to Calif. Court
How do I become included in this lawsuit?My 2013 Kia optima is burning oil and Kia will not replace engine unless it breaks.
My husband and I own a 2016 Kia Sorento. I would like information on the class action lawsuit and how to join. Thank you
I have a 2014 Kia Soul that has been to two Kia service centers for engine shaking and abrupt engine shut of while driving, the car only had a little over 14000 miles when I first took it in for service at a Kia service centers. Since then this car has been to Kia’s service centers at least 5 times for these same two problems and Kia has told me that the cleaned carbon from the engine valves, replaced fuel injectors and replaced the alternator drive pulley. None of these parts cause the problems that this car has because the shaking gets much worse when the brake pedal is applied. After being to Kia’s service centers 5 times, Kia now tells me that they had no knowledge of the car shutting off. The engine shut down problem has also not been addressed because as Kia told me in person and on an email (Kia is not going to investigate this problem due to the fact that they do not know what is causing it and they are not willing to put any more time and replace any more parts on this car to find what the problem is.
So now I have a car that shakes when running slow and shuts off at will. When I asked Kia what will happen if and when this car shuts off on the highway and causes an accident where people get injured or die from the accident, I got no reply back. Kia has just abandoned me.
Is there something that can be done about this situation, this car is unsafe to us and other drivers.
Please help.
Thank you.
I too have a Kia that shakes while driving. Our car is a 2012 Kia Soul. My husband and I are retired and do not drive much. We do not have a Kia Dealer in our town but there is one about 1 and 1/2 hour drive to Jacksonville Florida or about the same distance to Brunswick GA. Please let me know if there is a problem with your engine that may be what is happening to ours. Thank you for letting people know.
Margaret Bruns
My 2016 Kia Optima is still in the Kia dealer for 3 months now. They still can’t find out what the problem is. They say it is the engine. But not sure the car will not go pass 35 mph. Bought my car new in November 2016. It only has 48,000 miles on the engine.
I am in the same boat. My car did the same thing on the interstate to me on Christmas Day. It could have caused such a major accident.
I once loved my Kia but now the companies true colors are showing and I will never recommend them to anyone.
I still owe on the vehicle.
I don’t want to replace the engine because it could happen once again to the replacement engine. This is ridiculous. They know the engine is bad and faulty, to think my family or I could have all lost our lives on Christmas Day because of this infuriates me even more.
My parents had the very same thing happen rite to the tee ! Kia did the very same thing to them my sisters boy friend always did dad oil changes at home like we almost always have done with all our vehicles so when we couldn’t prove the oil had been changed regularly they refused to warranty the engine ! Dad let them just take the car back and he is still having to pay a hundred dollars a month until it’s paid for ! Not fair at all I wouldn’t own a Kia for nothing !
I have worked on cars for almost 30 years. Done all the servicing myself.KIA tried to say I lost my claim on warranty because of that. These pricks really love screwing us, hell even tried to bbq some. Yet how the hell are they still allowed near a tool let alone build and sell more death traps?
Please, please add me to this lawsuit. I have a 2014 Kia Optima.
Hello I have a 2014 Kia Optima that is been in the shop for a month with no date for the repair to be done due to delay of the new engine. Dealer is telling me that it could take up to 6 months to get it back. Am currently still making the car payments on time for a vehicle that am not driving, I contacted capitol one which is the finance company on the loan with no positive result, they offer no help . Can somebody contact me with a number were a can call? I need help ASAP. Am in TX and I heard about the class action lawsuits in California but nothing in TX
I would like to be included in this lawsuit. I live in Illinois and had a similar problem. I ended up selling the vehicle for $500 just to get rid of it; and it was only a few years old. Please contact me so that I can be included in this lawsuit.
My wife drove a 2012 Optima EX for 5 years. We sold it in Oct 2018. My company car was a new 2016 Sorento EX that I drove 95,000. My parents have a 2016 Sorento EX as well and still own it.
Do I and my family have any recourse in this lawsuit? If so, how do we become included?
Thanks,
Greg