2020 Kia Telluride Recall: Incorrect Seat Belt Assemblies Installed/FMVSS 208

Some 2020 Kia Telluride SUVs left the factory with seat belts meant for Tellurides sold in the Middle East, fitted to the front passenger seat, the second row or the third row. Those belts lack the automatic locking retractor that Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 208 requires at every forward-facing passenger seat, the feature that lets a lap belt lock so it can hold a child restraint tight.

Recall 19V594 covers 30,168 Tellurides from the 2020 model year, built at Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia between January 9 and August 5, 2019. Kia estimates that 1 percent of them carry a wrong belt, about 300 SUVs by my arithmetic. Dealers inspect the belts and replace any that are incorrect at no charge.

The Issue

ZF TRW's Reynosa Operations in Mexico supplied the belt assemblies. Kia's Part 573 report states the cause as "Incorrect seat belt assemblies installed," and its safety-risk entry says a non-ALR belt used to secure a child seat "may not tightly secure a child restraint system, increasing the risk of injury to a child seat occupant in a crash."

The first filing, in August 2019, also described the driver's belt assemblies as non-U.S. specification parts. An amended report dated July 9, 2020 has dealers replace a driver's belt carrying non-U.S. labels with a U.S.-specification belt. FMVSS 208 exempts the driver's position from the lockable lap-belt rule, so the child-seat risk is tied to the passenger positions.

At the dealer, a technician reads the part number laser-marked on each belt tongue. A number ending in S9500 is the correct U.S. part, and anything else is replaced with an assembly that has the locking retractor. The check covers the front belts, the outboard belts in the second row and all three third-row belts; a second-row center belt, where fitted, is left out. The third-row center retractor sits in the headliner, and reaching it means pulling the back of the headliner down 2 to 3.5 inches.

Affected Models

Vehicle	Model Year	Production Dates	Estimated Units
Kia Telluride	2020	January 9, 2019 to August 5, 2019	30,168

Kia picked the 30,168 SUVs out of that production window using vehicle production records. Their VINs are not sequential, so a lookup by individual VIN is the way to confirm a particular Telluride. For vehicles produced after August 5, 2019, the Georgia plant changed its process to inspect every seat belt assembly.

Chronology and Investigation

On July 26, 2019, normal vehicle inspection at the Georgia plant turned up a U.S.-market Telluride with a non-ALR belt. The plant and the supplier investigated from July 29 through August 5 and concluded that belts designed for Middle East vehicles may have gone into the driver, front passenger, second-row or third-row seats of a small number of U.S. Tellurides. Kia Motors Corporation decided on a recall on August 8.

Kia filed its Part 573 report on August 13, 2019, and NHTSA acknowledged it on August 27. Dealer notices dated August 15 warned that parts supply would be limited: before a replacement could be ordered, the dealer had to open a Techline case with a clear photo of the incorrect belt tongue.

Reported Incidents

When Kia decided on the recall it had received no customer complaints, warranty claims or injury reports, and its recall Q&A a week later added that there had been no litigation over the condition.

What Owners Should Do

Kia's owner letter, mailed August 30, 2019, says that if the belts in the front passenger, second-row or third-row seats lack the ALR feature, owners should not install a child restraint in those positions until the recall repair is done, and should contact a Kia dealer right away to schedule it.

Check the VIN at Kia's recall page or NHTSA.gov, or call Kia customer service at 1-800-333-4542 and reference Kia recall SC181. The inspection and any belt replacement are free. If you paid for a related repair before the notice, Kia's General Reimbursement Plan covers it; receipts go in through the Owners section of kia.com or by mail with the form in the owner letter, and Kia aims to respond within 60 days.

Kia's seventh quarterly report, filed July 21, 2022, counted 27,981 Tellurides as remedied, a total that includes SUVs inspected and found to have the right belts. Another 339 were listed as unreachable and 96 as scrapped, stolen or exported. By my arithmetic, that left 1,752 reachable Tellurides with the recall open.

How to Spot an Incorrect Seat Belt

The part number on the belt tongue. A correct belt carries a laser-marked part number ending in S9500. On a lighter-colored tongue the marking can be hard to read.

The photos in the owner letter. The letter pictures a correct ALR belt beside an incorrect non-ALR belt to compare against the belts in your own SUV.

How Long Will the Recall Repair Take?

The owner letter estimates one to five hours to inspect the belts and make any repair, and says the vehicle may be needed longer. Kia's warranty schedule allows 0.2 hours when the inspection finds every belt correct. Inspection plus one replacement, excluding the third-row center belt, is allowed 1.2 hours, and six such belts 3.1 hours; the third-row center belt alone takes 0.9 hours, and together with six others 3.7 hours. The bulletin also lets a dealer claim up to three days of rental expense alongside a replacement.

Bottom Line

Quarterly report #7 is the last completion count in NHTSA's file for this campaign, so there is no public figure for how many of those 1,752 open Tellurides have been inspected since mid-2022.

An open recall transfers with the vehicle when it is sold. Anyone who bought a used 2020 Telluride from a Kia dealer or a private seller should run the VIN rather than assume the inspection was done.

Find your Kia Telluride recall information: https://www.kia.com/us/en/recall

Recall 19V594 (August 2019) covers 30,168 Tellurides from the 2020 model year, built January 9 through August 5, 2019, some of which received Middle East-market seat belts without the automatic locking retractor needed to hold a child seat tight. Dealers inspect every belt and replace incorrect ones; a July 2020 amendment added replacement of a driver's belt with non-U.S. labels.