Crankshaft bolt too tight, car brown down - KIA Sportage 2001

Jformn · 03-07-2008, 11:08 AM

Please advise -

I was having a problem with the heater. It wasn’t producing enough heat to keep me warm. I brought the car to the Bloomington Metro Auto shop, MN to fix the issue on December 27th 2007. I was recommended to do a full service check and told that my heater is doing just fine and everything is working as normal. I paid $305.98 for the service but I realized the heating issue had continued.

I drove the car for a week before I took it back to the shop. They said we weren’t able to diagnose it at the first diagnostic and performed a second diagnostic. They advised me to replace the Motor blower, Resistor, Fusible link, Belt_V , Belt-V Ribbed, V-Belt All were replaced and paid $683.14 (February 21st, 2008).

Just after 8 days of the service (February 29th, 2008) , the car completely broke down in the middle of a highway which endangered my life and my 16 month daughter who was riding with me at the time. I took it back to the shop and I was told this is not anything has to do with the service was performed by Bloomington Metro. I was advised to have the engine replaced. Another new engine

I informed the shop that I have an extended warranty to cover. The shop contacted the warranty company (Advantage) and the warranty company performed an inspection on the car. They concluded that the crankshaft bolt was too tight and as the result the engine failed and belt came off. While it is a puzzle to me why the crankshaft bolt turnout to be too tight, but not sure who touched crankshaft bolt? How come the crank shaft becomes too tight? The only time my car was at any maintenance shop, Dec 2008 and February of 2008 and before that it was last year at end of 2006. I would have to think somebody needs to take responsibility.

Please advise

Harry Morgan · 03-07-2008, 12:41 PM

Jformn

Holy Cow Batman !!!

Howmany miles on the vehicle ? Kia normally has a 100k mile powertrain warranty... not sure who "Advantage" is. When Advantage said that "the" crankshaft bolt was too tight -- which one were they talking about ???

My quick take is that you are getting hosed by both the dealer and Advantage... unless I'm missing something, it sounds to me like the timing belt just failed. No big deal just put a new one on -- I'd suggest doing it yourself, or, at least, go somewhere else and have it done.

Harry

Jformn · 03-07-2008, 02:04 PM

Thanks Harry,

The timing belt was replaced at the end of 2006. I have 82K miles on it. Advantage is a company where extended Warranty for 7 years or 100K. What I advantage told me that, “breakdown failure by uncovered part will not covered by the contract” I have a feeling something fishy was done by the car dealer , when the replaced the parts described above, could there be a chance they might have touched the crankshaft? I was told I will have to replace the engine.

Harry Morgan · 03-11-2008, 01:04 PM

Jformn

My advice at this point would be for you to contact somekind of consumer protection agency ("Better Business Bureau", etc) and explain the whole situation to them... my guess is that either the dealer or the insurance co (or, both) don't have a very high ranking in this regard.

To answer your specific question, all they would have done re the crankshaft would have been to take the old belt off of the crankshaft gear and put the new one on after loosening the tensioner... the only interaction with the crankshaft would be to line up the timing mark to TDC.

You need to have someone explain just what they mean by "THE crankshaft bolt"... over the years I've ripped apart many engines and rebuilt them -- that phrase in and of itself makes ZERO sense to me and is essentially meaningless dribble.

You should also have them explain what they mean by "inspected the vehicle"... did they pop the hood and "devine" this conclusion somehow ?

Finally, in case you're not aware of this, you can go to the Kia website and just give them your email address and a password (e.g., 2001Sportage) to register. Once you do this you can access the shop manual for your vehicle and get all of the info you need -- like popping up the section regarding crankshaft R&R; select and copy the parts diagram and stick it into an MSWord doc; print it out and take it to the dealer or Advantage and have them circle/indicate -- "the" -- crankshaft bolt on that diagram... I'd love to hear what their response is.

Harry

Jformn · 03-11-2008, 02:15 PM

Thank you very much Harry! I will keep update you. Thanks

Harry Morgan · 03-11-2008, 06:11 PM

Jformn

After re-reading all of this info, it is clear that follow-up questions are in order here... along the lines of

"OK, so 'a' bolt was 'somehow' too tight (... whose fault is that ?) -- explain to me just how that circumstance caused the timing belt to fail (... in turn, how does a failed timing belt on a NON-interference engine result in 'total engine failure' ?)" ?

My take is that there is zip wrong with the engine itself -- you just need a new timing belt... for whatever reason -- certainly nothing to do with their explanation of events.

Harry

fyi: a NON-interference engine just means that the pistons would not kiss the valves if the timing belt failed