I have a KIA Carens diesel that has shown the same engine management fault on five occasions. So far this has been rectified four times at no cost under warranty, but now both the dealer and Kia are claiming that I must pay for any further rectification - Kia customer services says that technical department do not consider it is a warrantable occurrence.

The claim is that the fault is caused by "driving style" of too many short journeys creating a build up of soot etc. Apart from the fact that this should be irrelevant, the car has completed over 17,000 miles in just over a year - hardly evidence of short journeys. The KIA owners club forum is full of references to the symptoms from which our vehicle is suffering. Kia recognises the problem (but won't admit it), and has issued a technical bulletin suggesting an upgrade for the ECU (which has not worked in my case) and is said to still be working on correcting the fault. Most significant is KIA’s decision to replace the 2-litre diesel engine for 2011.