Kia Rio, model years 2020 to 2021. Filed by Kia Motors America and reported to NHTSA on 1 December 2021. 87 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Kia Motors America (Kia) is recalling certain 2020-2021 Rio vehicles. The brake master cylinder may have been manufactured with sharp edges that can damage the inner oil seal, resulting in reduced braking performance.
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Kia's own number for this recall: SC223. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 21V936 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 21V936 cover?
- Kia Rio, model years 2020-2021.
- What is wrong with them?
- Kia Motors America (Kia) is recalling certain 2020-2021 Rio vehicles. The brake master cylinder may have been manufactured with sharp edges that can damage the inner oil seal, resulting in reduced braking performance.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- Reduced braking performance can cause longer brake pedal travel or extend the distance required to stop the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Dealers will replace the brake master cylinder, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed January 11, 2022. Owners may contact Kia customer service at 1-800-333-4542. Kia's number for this recall SC223.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Kia calls this recall SC223, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “Reduced braking performance can cause longer brake pedal travel or extend the distance required to stop the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 21V936 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Kia Motors America |
| System at fault | Service Brakes, Hydraulic:Foundation Components:Master Cylinder |
| Reported to NHTSA | 1 December 2021 |
| Model years | 2020-2021 |
| Vehicles named | KIA RIO |
What the notice says today
The consequence
Reduced braking performance can cause longer brake pedal travel or extend the distance required to stop the vehicle, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
Dealers will replace the brake master cylinder, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed January 11, 2022. Owners may contact Kia customer service at 1-800-333-4542. Kia's number for this recall SC223.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 583 notices in the record whose component field names service brakes, hydraulic. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 37 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 21V936, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/21v936/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
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All 164 Kia campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 21V936 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
c178df39 - Consequence
817bc16f - Remedy
6839fc17
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 21V936 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Kia Rio, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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