2024 Kia Telluride1st gen facelift (2023–2025)

Updated 2026-08-28NHTSA counts read on this date — 214 complaints. They rise over time.

The 2024 Kia Telluride Has a Recall That Replaces the Engine

The 2024 Telluride is a 2023 with amber running lights and blacker trim. Same engine, same body, same everything that matters mechanically. It took another Top Safety Pick+ and sold better than any Telluride before it.

It also carries a recall that no other Telluride does. Campaign 24V077000 covers 2024 cars whose engine valve springs can break while driving. Kia’s stated consequence is a loss of drive power and possibly a hole in the engine block, and Kia’s remedy is to replace the engine sub-assembly.

That recall is the heaviest thing on this car, not the most common one — no owner has yet filed a complaint saying a valve spring actually broke. Meanwhile the complaint record went the wrong way: 214 filings against 202 on the 2023, despite being a year newer.

Oil consumption: one. Headlights: zero. What people file about instead is the glass, the screens, and a driver-assist system that brakes at nothing.

The basics

A carryover year in the middle of the facelift generation. What changed:

• Amber LED daytime running lights returned
• X-Line and X-Pro swapped dark chrome trim for gloss black on the bumpers, lower door garnish, grille surround, and headlight bezels
• Prices up about $100 across the board, starting at $37,355 including a $1,365 destination charge
• AWD $2,000 on every trim except SX Prestige, where it’s standard

That’s the model year. Kia sold 115,504 Tellurides in calendar 2024, the best result the nameplate has posted.

Powertrain unchanged: 3.8L V6, 291 hp, 262 lb-ft, eight-speed automatic, 5,000 lbs of towing.

How it was received

IIHS Top Safety Pick+ again, NHTSA five stars overall again. It also carries the 2023 refresh’s Good rating on the updated side-impact test, where the 2020 through 2022 cars score Marginal.

Part of what earns a modern TSP+ is a vehicle’s crash-avoidance systems — automatic emergency braking, the forward collision warning, the pedestrian detection. The 2024 Telluride scores well on those tests.

Twenty-eight filings describe the same systems activating when nothing is there.

Both statements are accurate. IIHS tests whether the system stops the car when it should. No published rating covers how often it brakes when it shouldn’t.

What owners filed

NHTSA collects complaints only — nobody files to say the car works. Most 2024 Tellurides aren’t here.

By count, largest first:

Windshields — 36 complaints

The largest story on this car, and it reads differently from the earlier ones — counted here as filings that name the windshield and describe it cracking, chipping, spidering, or shattering. On the 2020 and 2022 the theme was glass cracking with nothing hitting it. Here, 17 of the 36 name a rock, gravel or debris as the cause. From ODI 11667179:

“while driving 45 MPH, a small rock struck the front windshield, creating a bullet-sized hole in the windshield”

The rest mostly describe a crack without saying where it came from. One of them cracked while parked in a garage for three days. The 2022’s filings named road debris too, so this isn’t a clean before-and-after; what changed is the ratio.

Either way the cost is the same: a windshield on a car with camera-based driver assistance needs recalibration after replacement.

Driver assistance braking for nothing — 28 complaints

NHTSA files 28 under forward collision avoidance, the largest that group has been on any Telluride model year. The system activates with nothing in front of the car. From ODI 11693915:

“the emergency collision warning system in my Kia activated suddenly and without cause. There were no vehicles in front, beside, or near me at the time. The system automatically engaged the brakes, causing the rear of my vehicle to jackknife.”

And ODI 11633368, describing it as routine:

“When driving with my speed control set at 35 to 45 mph, I will sporadically and without warning get a forward collision warning, and the car brakes. When this occurs, there is absolutely nothing around that should cause this warning.”

That second owner did something most can’t: recorded it. Kia accepted the videos as evidence, sent instructions to the dealer, and the owner reports the problem appears to have been fixed. It is the only complaint in this year’s record with an ending like that.

Structure — 23 complaints

Up from 12 on the 2023, and most of it is one part. The door belt molding — the trim strip along the base of each window — comes off the car. From ODI 11736938:

“Multiple door belt molding trims from two doors on my 2024 Kia Telluride detached from the vehicle, which is the subject of safety recall SC347 (NHTSA 25V494).”

A recall exists (25V494000, covering 2023–2025), which is likely why this category is large: owners file when a recalled part fails on them, and file again when the parts aren’t available. The rest of the category is rattles and squeaks from the liftgate.

Screens and electrical — 23 complaints

NHTSA files 23 under the electrical system, spanning the instrument cluster and the center display. One owner (ODI 11757468) lost the cluster entirely:

“The cluster screen on my 2024 Telluride is BLACK when I turned it on today. No issues prior and turning the car off and on does not help. I cannot see my fuel gauge, speed, winshield wiper speed, tire air levels, what gear I am in nothing.”

That is serious on its own. This one (ODI 11751721), at about 34,000 miles, goes further:

“the vehicle suddenly experienced a complete electrical failure without warning. The instrument cluster went completely black, I lost electric power steering assist, the transmission would not shift”

Sunroof — 12 complaints

The panel shattering on its own, the same failure that dominated the 2022 — counted as filings naming the sunroof, the moonroof, or the wind deflector and its arm. From ODI 11687025:

“While driving on a surface street the sunroof glass shattered all on its own. The glass was in the closed position. No rock or debris was located in the sunshade portion. No one else was around us on the road when it happened.”

One filing (ODI 11744819) reports a rear passenger window going the same way at interstate speed.

Seats — seven complaints

Mostly the seat fire recall, which has turned into its own grievance. One owner (ODI 11754602) filed over a dealership declining the work:

“SAFETY RECALL DENIAL APPEAL: Pinched Seat Harness Fire Hazard”

Which lines up with what Kia itself found in 2026 — that some dealers hadn’t completed the original seat repair correctly.

Brakes — six complaints

Separate from the section above, and the opposite failure. NHTSA files six under service brakes — owners reporting the brakes not working when asked. One of them hit a tree (ODI 11754431). Another (ODI 11698832) describes the car rolling after being put in park and switched off, which is what recall 24V214000 covers rather than a brake fault. From ODI 11629649:

“The Brakes on this car had a failure. As the car was approaching a stop, the pedal went to the floor without any notable slowing of the vehicle. Fortunately, there was not a car immediately in front my Telluride or approaching from the side, so there was no impact.”

Seventeen filings use the word “brake” at all, and it covers both directions at once — the car braking on its own and the car not braking when asked. The word does not separate them. NHTSA’s labels do, and they reach filings that never use it — 28 under forward collision avoidance, six under service brakes.

Engine shutdown — five complaints

Not oil, which is the point. Counted as filings describing a stall, a shutdown, or a loss of power while driving. From ODI 11745611:

“The contact stated that while driving 5 MPH, the vehicle stalled. The contact stated that the engine warning light was illuminated and the message “Engine Failure – Shift to Park or Neutral” was displayed.”

The other version has nothing to do with the engine at all — it’s the complete electrical failure in the screens section above, where the car loses the cluster, the steering assist and the transmission together.

Five filings out of 214 is not a pattern the size of the windshields. It sits in the same category as this year’s valve spring recall, though none of the five describes a broken valve spring, and the complaint record does not connect them.

Recalls

Five campaigns, and one of them exists only for this model year.

24V077000, opened February 2024 with owner letters mailed April 5, covers 2024 Tellurides whose engine valve springs may break while driving. Kia’s stated consequence is a loss of drive power, which raises crash risk, and possibly a hole in the engine block, which raises fire risk. The remedy is not an inspection or a software update: dealers replace the engine sub-assembly, free of charge. Kia’s internal number is SC296. NHTSA’s listing doesn’t give a vehicle count for this one.

The one in the news is 26V430000, the power seat motor fire. It covers 2020 through 2024, and this is the last model year in it.

Kia first recalled these cars in June 2024 under 24V407000, then recalled essentially the same population again in July 2026, after finding further switch failure modes and finding that some dealers hadn’t completed the first repair correctly. The filing lists seven seat fires and eleven melted motors. NHTSA says park outside until the second repair is done.

24V214000 is the one nobody talks about. On 2020–2024 cars the intermediate shaft and right front driveshaft may not be fully engaged, and the car can roll away while it’s in PARK. 25V494000 covers the door belt molding coming off, 2023–2025.

All five are VIN-specific.

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

Oil consumption, which is the one that mattered. One filing out of 214, against 78 on the 2020. One filing today is real; it isn’t proof of anything yet. The 2020 was at one filing by the end of its third year too, and these cars have not reached the mileage where it showed up there.

Headlights: zero. Paint: not a pattern. The third row, the ride, the seats as furniture rather than as a recall — nothing.

None of that means the mechanical side is in the clear. Five filings describe it stalling, and Kia has a recall out on this model year for valve springs that can break while driving. The wear-related failures have barely appeared so far. The manufacturing ones are already here.

What the complaint curve says

Filings by year: 16 in 2023, 86 in 2024, 71 in 2025, 41 so far in 2026.

Front-loaded and falling so far — early filings, then decline. The most recent year is always the least complete, so the 2026 figure will grow. The 2020 and 2021 went the other way, quiet at first and then spiking after warranties ran out.

But the composition is the thing. Read the 2020 filings and you’re reading about oil, headlight housings, and paint coming off in sheets — parts wearing out or having been built wrong. Read the 2024 filings and you’re reading about screens and sensors.

These failure modes don’t announce themselves with a noise or a leak. They’re intermittent, they’re hard to reproduce at a dealer, and they don’t wait for high mileage — the complete electrical failure quoted above happened at 34,000 miles.

If you’re looking at one

All of this comes out of the data above. It’s not a verdict — this is a Top Safety Pick+ that outsold every Telluride before it. Here’s where to spend ten minutes:

Ask for recall 24V077000 in writing before anything else. This is the valve spring recall, it applies only to 2024 cars, and the repair is a new engine sub-assembly rather than an inspection. A completed repair means Kia replaced the engine sub-assembly on that specific car — which is not the same as a whole new engine, and the recall notice doesn’t spell out which parts that includes. A car that hasn’t had it is one Kia says can lose drive power while you’re driving it. Nothing else on this list is in that category.

Sit in the car and watch every screen come up from cold. Cluster and center display both. Then shut it off, wait, and do it again. Twenty-three filings describe screens and electrical faults, some intermittently, and an intermittent fault is exactly what a quick test drive misses.

Ask directly whether the car has ever lost power steering assist or refused to shift. Not “any electrical issues.” The specific event. One owner reports all of it at once at 34,000 miles.

Ask about phantom braking. Whether the collision system has ever braked with nothing ahead. Twenty-eight filings — the second-largest count on this car — and owners describe it recurring on the same roads.

Ask whether 26V430000 is completed, in writing. 2024 is the last year covered. At least one owner has filed over a dealer refusing the work, so “we were told it’s fine” isn’t the same as a completed repair record. Until it’s done, NHTSA’s instruction is to park the car outside and away from buildings.

Ask about 24V214000 too. That’s the driveshaft recall — the car can roll away while it’s in PARK, and one of the brake filings above is exactly that.

Check the door belt moldings at the base of the windows for lifting. That’s recall 25V494000 (Kia SC347), covering 2023–2025.

Windshield and sunroof glass, as always. Thirty-six and twelve complaints respectively. Lower than the 2022, not zero.

Oil consumption is a much lower priority here — one complaint in 214 — though the dipstick still costs nothing.

Numbers worth writing down

Recalls are per-VIN and free at nhtsa.gov/recalls, which also holds all 214 complaints, searchable by ODI number.

Sources

• NHTSA complaint database — 214 complaints for the 2024 Telluride, retrieved 2026-08-26
• GoodCarBadCar — Telluride US sales figures
• Kia Media — 2024 Telluride earns IIHS Top Safety Pick+
• Motor1 — 2024 Telluride pricing and changes
• NHTSA — Park Outside recall, Kia Telluride

Complaint counts and quotes come from NHTSA’s public database, retrieved 2026-08-26, with ODI numbers attached. Model years and calendar sales years don’t align, so complaint rates here are approximate. This summarizes what owners and reviewers reported; it isn’t buying or repair advice.