yes you’r right one of major reason is bad braking
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My most likely guess continues to be air in the ABS unit, which may be next to impossible to remove without access to a pro-level scan tool. If you feel lucky however you could try bleeding the brake master cylinder. I’ve done this on my truck a few times, curing some mushiness in the brake pedal , usually after MC replacement. I carefully remove the two brake lines from the MC, keeping them pointed up so fluid doesn’t leak out, then helper pushes on the brake pedal. Makes a bit of a mess with the brake fluid pouring out of MC & over everything below though. (Brake fluid can damage paint btw). If I have the proper fittings on hand I’ll make a couple of short tubes, running from the output of the MC back into the reservoir. Fluid then goes back into the reservoir, solves most of the mess. I doubt air in the MC is the problem, and if it is, it will usually work itself out over the course of a few days. Just an idea is all.
My scan tool is not professional, it sells for just over $100. Definitely not dealer quality. It sure sounds like it’s doing something but who knows.
In the pre ABS days I’ve had quite a few vehicles that the air eventually worked it’s way out after changing master cylinders. Thanks George
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I’ve always had to bench bleed masters.
I don’t know about yours, but my $400.00 cheap scan tool does not open/close any valves in the ABS (well that I know of anyway lol)… Sounds like you need to find a friend with a shop level scanner or just take it to a shop that has one and see if they can bleed your brakes…
I may have missed it, but what was the reason for bleeding the brakes this time??
I’ve got more expensive Acton and Ancel scanners but they didn’t bleed ABS.
The Foxwell NT630 plus I bought , says “ it prepares the brake lines for bleeding by clearing air from the modulator……”
Being a novice on ABS systems I was surprised there was nothing in instructions about activation of ABS while opening individual bleeders. This is what I thought the scanner would do but apparently it (supposedly) clears the ABS of air internally …….and then you bleed brakes normally.
(I keep bleeding the brakes since it always needs one ( or two) quick pumps to get the pedal to normal height. Car still stops with low pedal but it’s just not at the normal height)
From what I see brake bleeding must be done with all of the ABS system’s normally closed valves in the open position and the ABS motor running. Caution suggested to limit amount of time motor is on, otherwise ABS motor may burn out. As you might expect bleeding the ABS system is not so easy for a driveway diy’er.
Suggest the best method is to seek out a shop w/Kia pro scan tool or equivalent and pay them to bleed the brakes. Or just cross fingers & wait, the air may eventually exit the system on its own. Not much else you can do, other than on your next vehicle purchase, ask sales-staff to confirm that diy’er brake bleeding is possible before making purchase decision.
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Do you really think anyone on the sales staff of a dealership knows anything at all about brake bleeding? When I went to buy a car at a Honda dealership in Milpitas (near you?) the clown didn’t know how to open the hood.
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Yeah I told it before on one of our acuras but I asked if my Acura power steering fluid could still be used in my new one. He wasn’t sure. It has electric power steering.
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Short term, no dispute, customer’s won’t getting much help with brake bleeding questions from the sales staff. The sales staff are hired to sell the cars. The more they sell, the more they earn. I expect they’d like to sell more rather than fewer, so would pay attention to customer comments like this and pass it on to the corporate decision makers. If car A sold better than car B, in part b/c car A was considered more diy’er friendly, I expect car B’s manufacturer would take notice.
I wouldn’t expect the sales staff to know this sort of info off-hand, but as a customer I’d be more likely to buy a car from a sales staff who said “Not sure, but I’ll ask the service folks next chance I get and get back to you.”
The salesperson should memorize which models have electric power steering just in case someone wants to know what type of fluid it has in the system? For some vehicles it depends on the powertrain package.
The correct answer is “These cars don’t leak fluids”.
That salesperson would be told not to engage in conversations with buyers about amateur hydraulic brake repairs. New vehicles are expected to last for a reasonable amount of time without hydraulic brake system failures.
Maybe that explains the comment at the bottom of a recent vehicle service bulletin, along the lines of " The corporation suggests to not provide anything in writing to the customer about this problem" … lol . …
I bought a Pontiac Vibe from a Toyota dealer and the sales people didn’t even know it was just a rebadged Matrix… 
A dealership sales person only cares about the next victim looking for a vehicle, new or used… They refer repair questions to the service department… Just like the service department doesn’t talk to you about selling you a car…
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When I was working at the Benz dealership, one of the salespeople came running over, trying that kind of stuff with me. They were clearly in a state of panic, asking what the horsepower and 0-60 times were for a car they were trying to sell
I told them to get out of my face 
Well ok, maybe you wouldn’t expect a sales person to know if a car had electric power steering or not, or the transmission speeds, or awd, or interior materials, but would you expect one to provide a temporary license tag before sending me off? Sure my bad for not checking but drove 30 miles home with no plates and no 30 day permit in the window. Just forgot. He did bring it by the house on his way home that night. The dealer told me the sales people move around quite a bit from dealer to dealer so I guess gets a little confusing for them.
I’ve had quite a few single masters and dual masters go bad on me over the years but they always went to the floor and braking was exceptionally compromised. Like scary almost no stopping whatever.
This has been different, the pedal is low ( unless pumped up quick )
Welcome…
Are you asking a question or making a statement or???
We run into this often on kia and hyundai at http://theautollama.com
It definitely sounds like a master cylinder failure. Good news is the parts on these are fairly cheap!
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I’ve exhausted everything else. Ordering a new master from rockauto today. Will do a follow up post after installation.
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If it turns out to be a faulty MC, interesting to know what caused the unusual failure mode. Maybe a piston seal somehow moves into place near the end of the reach, or the cylinder has a smaller diameter near the end.