Our Kia has been towed four times now in less than two weeks. We can't find a pattern as the breakdowns have happened randomly. Each time the car won't start, all the panel lights come on, the windows and auto doors open and close without a problem. The main relay makes a tick-tock sound when we turn the key, but nothing else.
3 July, Tues: Drove it less than 10 miles in the day, parked it overnight and the next morning we were going to head home from our trip and it would not start. It was towed to a dealership and they said it was the starter relay. The part was ordered, replaced, and the car worked. Yay!
6 July, Friday: It was our anniversary day and we had a sitter at home so we could catch a movie and go dancing. We drove the car during the day locally, parked for a few hours and then went out. We were headed home at 1am, the car worked find, we stopped for gas, and the car wouldn't start afterwards. We waited at the gas pump for a tow and had the car taken home. The next morning we were going to tow it to the dealership and it started??
12 July, Thursday: I drove the car in to town and stopped twice, then headed home without problems. My husband was going to run an errand about two hours later and the car wouldn't start. We let it sit overnight and Friday morning it still wouldn't start so we had it towed to the dealer. It started after being towed to the dealer...go figure! That's the second time it started after being towed...
14 July, Saturday: Husband drove the car about 60 miles roundtrip without a problem. Four hours later we took the car out locally and stopped it twice without problems. Then we took all four of our kids, including a two year old, out to dinner and when we came out, the car wouldn't start. We had it towed for the fourth time to the dealer where it's sitting now until tomorrow morning when we can talk to a service manager....curious to see if it starts tomorrow morning....
I'm very frustrated because we have a family road trip that will take us from Vancouver Island over to Colorado, USA. This KIA will not suffice for our trip as it is SO unreliable! Has anyone else had similar issues?
The Service Manager suggested that it could be the battery acid mixing around after a tow that makes it start, but that doesn't sound plausible as all the windows and doors and radio, etc. all work without a problem.
I just want to put this information out there in case it is a larger problem than the dealerships are admitting to. We're paying good money for our van for it to be so unreliable, especially when we have four kids to be concerned about!! Very upset, very frustrated and depending on what happens tomorrow, I may start getting very MAD. Please post if you're having issues similar to ours.