ok first post to this site, i am trying to help my mother and her god forsaken kia, everytime i work on this car it is a pain, in any case i have an interesting problem, she told me that sometimes it would not start but that if she tried long enouph it would eventually fire up but the it would run funny for a little while, so i figured that it hadnt had a tune up or really much more than an oil change and t-belt and over a 110k miles on the clock it probably needs a tune up, so we get the parts and i take the throttle body off clean it up, replace the plugs, inspect the wires and boots, pressure cleaned the injectors, and new filters. started it up and it seemed to run fine.
week later she says it is still doing it, i tell her no problem buy a new car, she says but i love my kia and now 3 weeks of it sitting in y drive way i am at wits end, what the car does and it only does it after a hot soak or after it has been driving for a while and then gets parked for 2-40 minutes is the engine will crank and not start, i tried manually providing fuel buy using starting fluid in air horn and still does not start which tells me it is spark related, but by the time i get to plug wires it has spark and will start, takes a while with removing the aluminum air horn that goes over plug vally cover.
based on symptoms i thought maybe the crank sensor was failed as that was a common problem with jeeps that gave the exact same symptoms and conditions of no start, so i called looking for cam and/or crank senors and ended up at dealer who stated they were special order and after a litttle more quizzing of parts person found that they hadn't sold either in over a year, well in my experience if the dealer parts person tells you that you dont put a $120 part in as a guess if it hasn't broke on any one elses it probabbly aint broke on this on.
i did try reading codes but the otc nemysis that i have access to will not hook up this is an obd 1 set up, apparently they were that way in early 95 models and i haven't had much luck.
i would gladly take it in to a dealer , but the condition does not happen every time it is kind of a crap shoot on whether it will start or not i drove it one day all over town making 20-30 minute stops and never a problem and then another i thought i would need to tow it back to the house.
any help would be greatly appreciated
B.T.W. this is a 1995 KIA Sportage 4wd with a dohc motor
