2024 Kia EV9 Visibility & Wipers Problems

Windshield wipers stopped working in middle of bad snow storm. I had to pull over, wait for the weather to improve before proceeding. I have a minor child and safety is a concern to me. Thought it was the wiper so I went to AutoZone to replace it and was told the problem is the wiper motor and that I needed to take to the dealership for repair

Wiper washer system was working properly until the first snowfall today. Despite the very small amount of snow, the wiper washer system for the front windshield will not operate. The rear washer works properly. Washer reservoir is full and the wipers work properly.

Snow accumulates under wiper blades and then ice sticks to the wipers themselves. Big chunks of ice form on blades so that wipers do not clear snow/water off of windshield. Impossible to see while driving when this occurs in snowy conditions. Defrost setting on HVAC is not enough to melt ice so must be manually removed. No reference in user manual or from KIA on how to manage.

When blocked from returning to the fully off/down position, in this case by ice, the windshield wipers stop working. In my other vehicle, even if they don't go all the way down they still operate. We had an ice blockage that completely deactivated the wipers while driving in already hazardous conditions.

Windshield wipers are not strong enough to deal with even small amounts of snow. The gap between the windshield and the hood is unusually large which allows snow to accumulate and get packed into the gap. The wiper motor stops functioning even with a small amount of snow accumulation in that gap. Even when completely cleared before driving, when snow gets pushed down from the wipers or slides off the roof into those gaps, the wipers stop functioning immediately and view is completely obstructed. Took me 10 minutes with a garden spade and my finger nails to dig out every piece of snow before starting my drive, then had to pull over twice during the drive to do the same thing again. Even when a small chunk of snow slipped down (the size of a hand), the wiper couldn’t push it back up and off. This is extremely dangerous where winter snow is a daily problem.

There was 1/4" of slush on the roof of the EV9 when starting an in-town trip. On a back road when decelerating, most of the slush slid forward and down the windshield. It was very wet but frozen enough to create a lump under the wipers. It seems the EV9's wipers will completely stop if they are unable to fully return to their start position, and some of the ice was preventing them from doing that, and so they refused to continue wiping at all. I tried turning the wipers on/off and changing speed, but nothing would get them running again. Thankfully the back road I was on had no other cars, I had to stop on the road (I had zero visibility) and get out to clear under the wipers. Clearing was also hard due to the hood overhang design covering the wiper area needing to be cleared. If this had happened on the highway it would have been very serious.

The wipers stopped working completely when some slush slid down my windshield and got piled up at the base of the windshield where the wipers sit. I had to pull over and scoop out the slush before they would resume working. This was super dangerous as not having the wipers work it was hard to see to safely operate my car.