2007 KIA Spectra

[Conda1234]

I recently Bought a Salvage 2007 KIA spectra That was hit in Left rear Quarter Panel and it was hit in the right front, Any way Bought the car and Had it fix'd this was a 1 Month ago. I have been driving the car for 1 month now and i notice the speedometer is of bye 4 miles at high speed ! I First discovered this when I was using my GPS on a trip any the Gps has a speed clock that Measure the speed of the car traveling down the High way I had the Speedometer set at 70 Miles and the Gps said I was going 65 ? . Is this a common Error with the Spectra if not what is My Problem ? Thanks

[DavesSpectra]

Welcome condra1234 to kia-forums...
Your my kind of guy..

I also have a "rebuilt salvage" Spectra....It's an 06 SX. Bought in January 2010 with 24k miles on it for $2100. Put a right front door, right front fender, rack and pinion, windshield, and had the frame pulled slightly... It now has just 40k on it.0

We also have an 07 Spectra that my wife drives. Her's we bought used before mine and her's has just turned 60k.. Only things we have done to it was rear pads, timing belt, AC belt, and Plugs (at 58K), and just this week a new battery (ps it's a 90T5 for your info and got it at Advance Auto).. Put NGK plugs in yours when the time comes. Put tires on it (wear item) and that's all..

Both of our cars do not have any problem with the speedometers being off. We're within 1mhp of the GPS.. Your tire size may be off throwing your actual speed off..

These are very good cars and can get 300k miles "if" you maintain them propery..
Timing belts EVERY 60k miles, Drain and refill the automatic trannys every 30k and use ONLY Hyundai/KIA type III fluid, Drain and replace the coolant every 2~3 years, and normal oil changes every 3~5k miles. Use ONLY KIA filters.. There is some real junk out there (FR@M for one)... You can get them reasonably cheap from cobra259 right here on this forum. He's a KIA parts manager in Michigan..pm him if you want parts.

Be sure to check/replace the timing belt (and the AC belt while you are at it) as this engine IS an "interference" type engine and "if" the belt breaks you will have big bucks in repairing/replacing the engine...

I hope you get many miles out of your Spectra..
Dave

[Conda1234]

Thanks David for Info Um the tire size on my Kia are 195/60 R 15 87 H I do a lot of Highway driving are these tire the right size any thanks for the Info say My Ex did come with a cruise control package is it easy to install one ?

[DavesSpectra]

Correct tire size for 15" tires...Are your tires new? They would be larger in diameter and there would be some error from that. The OEM cruse requires a different wiring harness from the non-cruse models so unless you want to do a lot of parts swapping I'd say buy an aftermarket cruse kit.
Dave

[Conda1234]

My Tires have about 95 percent life on the front and 90 percent. I also want to point out on the earlier post , on my first week of driving my KIA I past a police speed Scanner and it said I was doing 65 , I had the clock on the car read 70 miles. any ways thanks again for the Advice

[tt2jzgtes]

needle might be off. when i replace my LED on my cluster i had to keep on taking it off and put it back on about 3 times before i was in the 2mph off range. so when im doing 68 the speedo says 70. but i can live with that.

[DavesSpectra]

tt2jzgtes..You coud be right...but you could end up going 4mph BACKWARDS at a full stop :-)... and with a TURBO who knows? Had to poke fun at you after reading your turbo post.
One thing that bothers me is the Spectra ECM trying to compensate for the boosted air fuel mix and/or the Tiburon ECM not matching the Specs electronics (Speeo). I don't think anyone has tried to "crack" the encoded ECM 0software for KIA/Hyundai so you can't modify the lookup tables.. I'd bet you could get the stock engine to "breath" better optimizing the timing and air/fuel for performance and not for pollution "if the code was readable.
Dave

[Conda1234]

Dear Davespectra I if I were able to reset the speed sensor on my 07 KIA how can I do it also is there any way to reset the speedometer ? Thanks conda1234

[DavesSpectra]

The ECM/TCM module handles the pulses from the speed sensor and calculates the car's moving speed.. The programing in this module is encripted and the only one able to access this program, the data, and the lookup tables (so far) is KIA.. Being off by 4mph "could" be corrected by going to a different size tire.

Your 195/60/15 could be bumped up to 195/70/15
at 70mph their calculation says the speedo would read 74.44mph
(an increase in shown speed of 4.5mph)
Add that (4.5mph) to your "slower" reading of 65mph when you are doing 70
and the speedo should read 70.5 when actually going 70.
Not too far off from actual... Without any extra mods...
See this calculator to see what tire size can do..
Tire Dimensions Made Simple - Discount Tire
Dave

[Conda1234]

DavesSpectra My tire are the actual size for my car I checked with Discount and the Internet. New development The other day I took my family to town in My car I borrow'd my Brother in law GPS which is the latest Model I used both his and mine to check The speed of my car both Gps read my actual speed and the reading were the same the problem is my car it told us that the Car was Traveling at 60 MPH Both GPS said no I was traveling at 55 MPH My brother in law said the car is off 5 Mph. Both GPS are up to date on the currant Soft ware thats out there.


Next question

My ex Kia didn't not come with cruise but I was told bye a local Mechanic That the car come equipped with the cruise and all I need to do was go to a junk yard and get control switch and plug it in to my car Is this Accurate you see i was ready to buy an after market and he told don't do that just bye the switch and plug it in. Now as far the car it was in a wreck in right front and left rear quarter penal the driver airbag deployed and the steering wheel had to be replaced with anther How do find out if my car came with cruse How ? BTW he threw away the other steering wheel Thanks for your help