2013 SXL Turbo Problems

[rpd162]

Wife and I just leased Optima sxl and its been in the shop twice now. We have owned it a week. First problem was it lost power on freeway causing wife to get in the center median before getting ran over. Kia dealer claimed it was a throttle body actuator problem and needed a new part. Picked up car and very next day, upon startup, major shrieking noise like sire. Figured it was turbo and took it immediately to shop. Now they saying the turbo is bad and they are overnighting a new turbo. Wife and I love the car but never had a new car with so many issues. I've read articles on this forum regarding wastegate actuator problems. Have you guys hear of a turbo failure with a week old car? Dealer is really taking care of us so far but im hoping they know what their doing. Starting to lose faith in this car. Any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

[cwoptima11]

I don't think we've had many (if any) true turbo failures that I am aware of.

[cobra259]

I've been with Kia 3 years now, never have We replaced a turbo on a Optima or a Sportage. Let them fix it and enjoy.

[rpd162]

Is that a big job to replace the turbo or is it basically a bolt onto place type of deal? They overnighted a new turbo and swear they will have it ready today. Is that even possible? My local kia atleast gave me a loaner vehicle which was cool, but just very frustrating to have a 4 day old car with 2 problems. Could the
throttle body issue be part of the turbo issue? Hoping that this will fix both issues.

[cobra259]

It is kind of a big job, the turbo is part of the exhaust manifold and it mounted between the engine and the firewall. I don't know it this will fix any others problem you might have. Maybe the new turbo will fix it all.

[rpd162]

Just got a call from the service manager at my local Kia. They found what they believe was a small hose clamp that had been accidentally left in the turbo unit during assembly. This clamp damaged several pieces within the turbo and possibly my throttle body actuator, which was my first problem. They also found small pieces of this clamp in and around the inner cooler, now i'm waiting for a new inner cooler. Needless to say I have one pissed wife since it's her car that she purchased just a week ago. Thought I would pass on.

[JLB]

So not a design defect, or a part defect really, but rather a case of sloppy manufacturing at some point along the way. So long as Kia replaces all the involved damaged parts, and gets everything together and adjusted well, I doubt you'll find any long-term issue from this. It is very frustrating that in this age of modern factories and robots manufacturing, there's still so much room for human errors in our complex assembled products.

[dfrost]

A problem very similar to this (foreign object debris in a high pressure turbo pump) caused the 1,000,000 lb rocket I work on to lose thrust about 8" off the pad, despite all the many, many tests and inspections that are performed on these launch vehicles. Our problem destroyed a very expensive satellite, and we were fortunate that the launch platform was not destroyed.

These things can happen.

[rpd162]

After new throttle body acuator, new turbo, and now new inner cooler, were back in business. Funny thing was I new something was wrong with this car in just the few days we had it. Turbo never seemed to kick on, so the foreign object must have already done its damage. Car runs fantastic now making wife very happy. Hopefully that piece of metal caused no further damage, keep fingers crossed.

[Arctic]

Glad to hear you're back and running again. You raise a good point though, if some metal gernaded in the turbo and remants were found in the intercooler and throttle body, then what's the likelihood debris made it into the cylinders? I have no clue, thus the question.