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inhibitor or neutral safety switch??

35K views 27 replies 7 participants last post by  nickoutking 
#1 ·
Hey everyone.. I have 2013 Kia Rio (automatic) and I am having issues starting my car. Not always but about 30-40% of the time I have to start it by going into drive for a second then back to park and then it ignites.

Been going on about a month now. Been using the D to P trick with success.

I have heard its an inhibitor switch issue since I am in an auto trans.

Kia wants 100 bucks for the part I believe. Just need to know if this sounds like a bad switch or just loose wiring/bolt in that area?

Thanks and good day

Chris
 
#3 ·
oh yes sorry. I have roughly 150-160K's. Bought it Sept 2012. I drive a lot lol

I also should mention today was the first day the D to P trick did not work. I had to do it about 10 times before it finally 'caught' ignition.

But later on today it worked again first time doing the D to P.

Kia dealer told me they want 50 bucks just to diagnose it and they said it could be as simple as a loose bolt etc
 
#7 ·
Looking at the auto trans on Kiatechinfo, it does show an inhibitor on the trans. This incident sounds like a couple we had where I used to work with a couple of Aveos. Their problem was the shift interlock switch. I don't know if they are both the same thing and Kia just calls it an inhibitor or what. I can't post the picture from Kiatechinfo right now as I'm on my phone due to my home Internet being down at the moment.
 
#12 ·
I havent been on here in a while. My 2013 KIa rio Has 71K and will cut off on the freeway and then restart itself sometimes. when it doesnt the only thing in the car that works is the radio,Map lights, and auto dim mirror. None of the gauges do the flip its like the keys not in the ignition. Going from D to P a few times will get it to start.

The check engine light came on the other day and it was a noc sensor and a neutral safety switch code. could these be related

Ive got videos of it cutting off and restarting while on the freeway
 
#14 ·
thats crazy.. Im not at that level yet lol

I did get the check engine light looked at and it was the nock sensor.. he took it off and it came back on 2 days later.

I think its the inhibitor switch but I am not 100% sure so I dont want to go buy the part if its not. The part is 100 bucks from KIA. Be another 60ish to get them to diagnose and install it
 
#16 ·
so the other day it cuts off while traffic is merging and im forced to slam on the brakes and the back wheels lock up and the car does a 180 on me but i didn't hit anyone thank god. I took my car straight to kia and ive been driving around a loaner 2014 soul for the past few days and i gotta say its a nice car.

KIA calls me and says its a faulty ignition switch and its under my extended warranty so im good and only have to pay my $50 deductible. Hope this fixes the problem until i trade it in for an optima

What do you guys think is a good trade in price
 

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#17 ·
You've got a Ranger and a Rio just like us! Trade in price? Not thinking about that with ours yet but the Rio must depreciate rapidly. Just for the heck of it, about a month ago I put our 2014 LX through the Kelley Blue Book "what's my car worth" routine and it gave me a trade in price of 11K..w/4500 miles.
 
#18 ·
If you wanted a Kia that retains value for trade in, you should have bought a Soul. Co-workers niece received a phone call from the dealer she bought hers at begging her to trade her 2012 Soul with low miles in on a 2014. Sad thing is she sold the 2012 back, took a 2014 on a lease, and the engine in the 2014 has already had to be replaced ( dropped a valve). Now the long block replacement engine has timing chain noise.
 
#19 ·
Like I said, I'm not thinking about resale value. This is a disposable car to us. Number 4 amongst the 4 vehicles we own. We just bought it to soak up miles and get as much use out of it as we can. If it lasts long enough, it won't be worth much of anything when we decide to sell it anyway. My brother in law has a 2012 Soul. He and his wife love it. Do we love the Rio....not so much....just an all purpose vehicle.
 
#20 ·
I didn't really mean to call you out, shouldn't have quoted you. The funny thing about KBB and NADA is they base the price on your region. You might get a price of $11k there but $13k here. There are two Rio LX sedans on the local Ford dealers lot, the white one has 40k miles and they're asking $13,200. The red one has 30k and they're asking $14,900.
 
#21 ·
No problem on the quote. Didn't feel that I was being 'called out'. What a dealership will ask vs. what they give in trade are two different things.
 
#24 ·
Ha this is golden. So I went to my usual mechanic down the street for an oil change and asked him about this issue. Asked me to keep an eye on it and if it wont start, put it right away into neutral and if it starts every time from neutral, then its for sure a faulty NSS

But today he calls meback and says he talked to KIA (because you cant get it aftermarket) and they said my car doesnt have one on it.. HAHA.. Even though when I went into kia they tried to sell me the switch. And I had a body repair shop call the same KIA dealership and he talked to the head mechanic from kia who said it sounds like a bad inhibitor switch. But KIA wont admit they talked to the body repair shop when in fact they did. Either I am in a dream or KIA is royally screwing me around
 
#25 ·
Unless your mechanic called KIA to buy a part instead of the dealership, It's not really KIA screwing you around, it's the dealership. I notice most complaints about KIA wind up being at the dealership level. Did they tell him it didn't have a Neutral safety switch or an inhibitor switch?
 
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