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First of all Happy New Year to all. I wish everyone the very best for 2007.
Now, desperate help needed.
My father passed away two weeks before Christmas and I have inherited his Kia Sportage 2.0SX (2000 W Reg, with 50,000 miles on the clock). He purchased it in September last year and only managed to drive it twice (ill health), so I thought it would be a little gem of a car (previous owner was an old lady in Aberdeen)
Drove from his house to my house without any hitches, car drove fine although the exhaust has seen better days. (so much so, the back pipe fell off on a subsequent outing).
Now, I was in two minds to keep it or sell it.
Yesterday I was taking some Christmas wrapping to the tip and decided to use the Kia. I also wanted to try out the 4wd to make sure everything was in good order, since I have read countless topics on the infamous vacuum hubs. Now, I’m not a 4X4 born and bred, but didn’t think it would be too tricky. I found a gravel road, stopped, switched to 4wd and pulled away. The drive was certainly different, so I assume the 4wd was working (please note.. was). After about 1 mile I accelerated (not too hard) down a straight, changed gear and shock/horror.. no drive. I pulled over, tried it again in case it had jumped out of gear, but no. I had no drive what so ever. The car just sat there. Tried switching from 4wd to 2wd and the 4wd light stayed on and still no power to the wheels. Tried switching to 4wd(L) and the lever will not come across however hard I pull it. (regardless of whether the car was stationary, engine switched off/on). Tried all gears including reverse and nothing.
Suffice to say, and this point I decided that I’ve done something completely stupid, broke something bloody expensive, and with the total lack of technical manuals, totally stuffed.
I did manage to get a tow back (1/2/ mile) to my house by a wonderful guy in his Nissan pickup 4X4 (Cheers dude) who said that it’s quite possible that the transfer box has overheated and locked up and that I should try it again when it’s cooled down. Well I tried it again this morning and nothing, same as yesterday, no power to the wheels.
I am somewhat technically minded, but never worked on a 4wd before. I have read all of the posts re the sportage here, but it appears that no-one has experienced the same (so, suggests my initial thoughts of expensive mistake).
Is anyone able to shed some light on this, where I can look for the possible failure?
Any and all information will be gratefully received, including constructive criticism, and words echoing “you dumb….” (which I’ll no doubt get anyway).
By "no drive" do you mean the output shaft of the transfer case to the front/rear wheels does not turn, spins freely, or is jammed?
You are aware that there is a "Neutral" detent position in the manual Sportages transfer case and a similar "un-detented" position in the automatics transfer case on the right hand side between the 4WD Hi and 4WD Lo. This position does exactly as you indicate. Is it possible that it is simply stuck in this position? This could concievably occur due to "wind-up" between the two driveshafts (F&R), loading up the internals of the transfer case. Try simply jacking one front wheel up to unload the wind-up and see if you can move the 4WD stick then. (lesson one with part time 4WD systems, if you can easily scuff your shoe on a surface then it is OK for 4WD. As for concrete/bitumen, NEVER 4WD unless icy (ie can scuff you shoe easily, etc...)
Failing that, it does sound like a selector problem in the transfer case.
The transfer stick will move between 2wd and 4wd(H), but will not move "right" to the (N) position. It goes half way and stops.
We jacked up the front wheel and rocked it while trying to deselect/select/move the transfer stick, but it only moves between 2wd & 4wd(H). The front wheel remained locked in both positions (no free).
How much force would I have to apply to free up the transferbox?
I have discovered that the car does have a 6 month extended warranty (max £500) which my father got when he purchased the car. I'll be phoning the warranty company to see if it does actually cover the transfer box, and then find a suitable garage to see what the fee will actually be.
Found an online technical manual (which I'm sure you all already know about) Global Service Way which explained a lot to me. At least I now know what I'm looking at.
The transfer stick will move between 2wd and 4wd(H), but will not move "right" to the (N) position. It goes half way and stops.
We jacked up the front wheel and rocked it while trying to deselect/select/move the transfer stick, but it only moves between 2wd & 4wd(H). The front wheel remained locked in both positions (no free).
How much force would I have to apply to free up the transferbox?
I have discovered that the car does have a 6 month extended warranty (max £500) which my father got when he purchased the car. I'll be phoning the warranty company to see if it does actually cover the transfer box, and then find a suitable garage to see what the fee will actually be.
Found an online technical manual (which I'm sure you all already know about) Global Service Way which explained a lot to me. At least I now know what I'm looking at.
I wouldn't be forcing it at all. Do the right thing and contact the warranty company, as it should be covered as a part of the driveline (it is afterall essentially immobile at the moment). There shouldn't be any issues with that falling under "driveline" when you show them an immobile vehicle.....
The right thing to do would be to pull it apart and look at the selector for the Hi/Lo ratio gearset, as there is quite obviously something wrong/broken. It may be cheaper to suggest to the warranty company that they replace it with a second hand one rather than try to repair it if it is anything but the easiest of repairs. I recently had issues with the other side of the transfer case (chain drive to front driveshaft, 2WD-4WD) and purchased a second hand case complete for AUD$ 540 + 2.5hrs remove and replace/refit at $200 labour.
Contacted the warranty company and if it's found to be the transfer box it would be covered. Then called the local Kia garage and they quoted £2000 for a replacement transfer box if that is the problem (and that is without labour charge).
Now trying to find out if there are refurbished units out there.
I must be one of the luckiest guys on the planet. After the guy from the refurb shop decided not to call me back and having a free saturday morning, I decided to take the top off the transfer box from within the car (after removing the center console). I found that the two forks where the Hi/Lo lever sits were out of alignment. I moved the Hi/Lo fork down to align with the 2wd/4wd fork, rebuilt the transfer box and hey presto it worked, I now have 2wd, 4wd hi & lo.
Now, that doesn't mean that I recommend this approach, but it worked for me.
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Help - Lost all drive to wheels
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