The offending oil looks rather dark. Could it have been thrown high into the engine from another leak? Any loss detected by dip-stick?

 

The dipstick reads just slightly below full. I would estimate less than 1/8 of a quart. It is down a little bit as it had rested right on full initially. This is still the factory fill of oil so it is nearing the 6 months or 7500 miles Kia recommends.

 

That's a normal amount of oil usage for the factory fill, and there's obviously no major leak. It just looks a bit darker and thicker than I would expect from the engine; that's why I was wondering if it had been thrown from the transaxle. Hope KIA can track it down for you.

 

I'm only familiar with the V6's but had a Hyundai Santa Fe that had a few leaks that where difficult to track. One was from the oil sender unit just under the oil filter housing ( this was pretty common and became a TSB ), the other was a valve cover gasket that would trickle oil down into the alternator. They redesigned the valve cover gasket for the 3.3 and 3.5 due to this problem.
Keep a close eye on it because sometimes an oil leak could be from over torque and the dealer could have made it worse, but that could have been their intentions so they can pin point it. Also that oil looks pretty tired and I would get it changed once they figure out where the leak is, just my two cents.

 

I've seen plenty of these leak right near the water pump, from the timing cover.

 

Ours has the V6, but we had a timing cover leak last fall. I find it hard to believe in this day and age that new cars would develop oil leaks. This was one of the reasons that I bought a new car.

Our lovely dealer tried to sweep it under the carpet by saying "Oh don't worry, you have plenty of warranty" but that is not the point. I bought the car to drive, not sit in his shop.

Sorry, got on a bit of a rant there....

 

Well here is an update to my thread. I took my Sorento back to the dealer last week after putting about 1000 miles on the engine with the dye in the oil. After putting the car on the lift and checking with a black light they informed me that the engine is leaking from the oil pan gasket. The service advisor stated that oil was being slung up to the two water pump bolts causing oil droplets there. I am not sure I totally believe this because if oil was being slung from air while driving it would probably be everywhere including the firewall, suspension, engine block? Anyways, the dealer is going to drop the oil pan and put new gasket material in. We will see if this resolves the issue. Hopefully it does.

 

Air flow under the engine can make leaking oil go where you would not expect so.Had a leak show up on v-8 diesel that showed up on rear of engine just higher than oil pan and to one side.Nothing leaking from above so checked oil pan bolts,one slightly loose bolt near the rear was the culprit.