What`s Going On?

[01sportage]

I`m new and need help. We had a "rubbing", then vibrating, then whining noise coming from our right front wheel. My mechanic has taken apart the wheel only to find no problem twice in two days! He (and we) thought it was the bearing, but it was not. He thought it was the traction. It was not. Now he thinks it`s the transmission or the differential. Please no! Anyone out there who could shed some light on the problem? By just reading this forum from last night and this morning, I`ve found many tips and reasons for some of my Sportage`s quarks.
Thanks from Quebec, Canada.

[tuckerx1111]

Hi; There is a NEEDLE bearing at the end of the sideaxle where it enters the wheel. Mine went bad and caused a vibration but it was intermittent. (usually when i hit a bump) It was covered by the 5 yr 100,000 Km warranty. I had the front end checked 3 times without anyone finding the problem. Finally I got the KIa mechanic to go for a ride with me. E-mail me if you need more info.

[redlite35]

Originally Posted by 01sportage

I`m new and need help. We had a "rubbing", then vibrating, then whining noise coming from our right front wheel. My mechanic has taken apart the wheel only to find no problem twice in two days! He (and we) thought it was the bearing, but it was not. He thought it was the traction. It was not. Now he thinks it`s the transmission or the differential. Please no! Anyone out there who could shed some light on the problem? By just reading this forum from last night and this morning, I`ve found many tips and reasons for some of my Sportage`s quarks.
Thanks from Quebec, Canada.

I had a simular problem with my 01 sportage , my mech said its the auto hubs trying to lock in on there own. For some reason there is always a vacuum on the hubs. Kia could not fix but my mech has had to put manual hubs on another vech to fix his problem. We are going to work on mine this week to try to fix without having to replace the hubs. I'll let you know.

[mgbgt1972]

Originally Posted by redlite35

I had a simular problem with my 01 sportage , my mech said its the auto hubs trying to lock in on there own. For some reason there is always a vacuum on the hubs. Kia could not fix but my mech has had to put manual hubs on another vech to fix his problem. We are going to work on mine this week to try to fix without having to replace the hubs. I'll let you know.

If your 'mech' is a Kia tech you might want to look at buying the WARN hubs and installing them yourself, your cost, Hubs $150 USD labour FREE 45 min to an hours tops.

Having the dealer do it, Hubs $200-300 labour $100-200 Unless it's still under warrenty.

[redlite35]

My mech did some trouble shooting and found that the 3-way solinoid for engaging the vacuum was bad. This caused the hubs to always have a vacuum and would try to lock in by themselves. We replaced the solinoid switch and the problem seems to have gone away.

[Sportege]

01 Sportage here.. had a rubbing noise in the front sometimes would suddenly like.. SLAM! being a mechanic myself I suspected it had something to do with the hubs as it seemed to come from there and I had just replaced my leaky hub vacuum lines the day before. so I disconnected the Vacuum line that goes to the 4x4 solenoid. I'd suggest you plug it off to prevent dust from getting in the solenoid. The problem went away.. apparently when I changed my lines and fixed my leak, the leak was gone but dust and dirt had been sucked up the line to the solenoid causing it to stay partially open. Not enough to engage the hubs entirely but enough to rub along the spline.. the slam noise was infact the hubs trying to engage, but since I didn't shift into 4wd, the transfer case hadn't prespun the front drive shafts to match the speed of the engaging hubs.. so moving hub against still front shafts equalls rub and possible slam noises. depending on the amount of bypass of the solenoid, the front hubs could be entirely engaging or partially.. If you shift into 4WD and the noise goes away after a few hundred feet, then I'd say it's the solenoid. I did not replace mine. I took a high pressure air nozzle and blew out the debris. Anyway, problem went away and it's been fine since.. 2 years ago.