1999 Kia Sephia problems...

JTongue · 07-31-2006, 09:37 AM

Well first thing i guess is to tell you that my kia sat for over a year now without running, due to some bad personal choices i had to take the car off the road for a year. Since i have recently been trying to get it running after that year, mind you it ran perfectly before i parked it, i have found that i am getting no fuel to the motor, and decided to tow it to a garage. When we went to tow it this morning, the passenger rear wheel is locked and will not turn, i have replaced the battery, plugs, plug wires (or whatever those things are that are supposed to be the wires), added dry gas to the tank, cleaned the fuel filter and checked the fuel pump, which to my knowledge isnt even turning on, it makes no noise what so ever. Now i guess my question is what could possibly make it not only not want to run now, but what could make one of the back wheels lock and not the other, and do you have any suggestions on what i should do before i just have it towed with a flatbed and pay my life savings to a mechaninc to fix this car!! Could it be something simple that i have over looked? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for any help!! This is a 1999 Kia Sephia with 76K miles, ran perfectly before it got parked for a year.

99kia · 10-22-2006, 09:16 AM

It sounds like your e-brake is frozen. Did you have the e-brake on when you parked it? It may sound vulgure but you need a big hammer.
Remove the wheel that slocked up and start hammering away at the drum (it's a good idea to put all your lug nuts back on so not to damage the threads if and when you hit a stud). The drum will free up eventually. Good luck!

1fastkia · 11-18-2006, 11:40 AM

If it sat over a year the gas probably wnet bad. Check the fues and replace the relay for the pump. If it still doenst turn on its time for a new pump. and the brakes this happened to me get them adjusted.

Tower_99 · 01-08-2007, 12:41 AM

My 97 Sephia RS has the same prob. Brakes worked fine right up till the day they didn't work at all and went out on me. Then left rear locked up and I had it towed on flatbed to shop. Mechanic said the drum lining seperated and wedged over the wheel somehow, locking it up.

Plus, I'm told my proportioning valve/s are leaking, and the company that manufactures them has gone out of business (Consequently, so has my only vehicle!! Been 4 weeks and counting....) and the part is on national back-order while Kia looks for a new maker. Kia's own website doesn't even list the part in their glossary of searchable items.

Front and rear brakes shot, maybe master cylinder too....cost to fix? $350 - $1000, if master is bad.....but can do nothing until proportioning valve is found.

WTF???

wasilm · 01-08-2007, 09:32 PM

tower
i had the same problems what yours are. a rear brake shoe had separated locking the wheel. got a set of new brake shoes for $15 and replaced them myself. got 2 front rotors with a set of pads for $120. got on the web searched for a junk yard in a 100-mile radious. found one, went there, got 4 proportioning valves out, paid for 2, took 2 out in my pocket (just in case the other 2 turned bad), paid $2. the whole project: $150 + my time, experience: priceless.

Tower_99 · 01-09-2007, 12:19 AM

I had CV axles replaced a month before all these brake probs, and they had problems doing them. The left one didn't fit, so they ended up rebuilding the old one. My nephew said if the brakes were re-installed incorrectly that could be why they went bad. Any truth to that? The rear brakes had been making a clunking noise intermittently during the time of the bad CV's and I didn't know what it was, but as far as I know the front brakes were ok. And the valves weren't leaking.

Nice that you could do the work yourself, but I'm a 47-yr old woman who spent a lot of my "dating years" hanging out in garages and with tow truck drivers. There's a lot of stuff I picked up through osmosis, but I wouldn't tackle a complete brake job by myself! And currently the car is taking up space at the local Pep Boys, since the wheel is locked up and all.......

kiasephia1998man1980 · 07-22-2007, 07:53 PM

pep boys and brakes do not go kindly together lol ive had many friends that had thier cars totally screwed up going there-oil change equals car not running at all failed notice of suspected cracked balljoint equalled another friends boyfriends custom camero to bottom out like an accordian not to mention if u are lucky they near triple charge for the same part i could go on but ill be quiet just incase there are any people working there that actually are professionals(could be one of your major issues here) get the brakes looked at by a PROFESSIONAL shop. trust me youre better off if you dont want to tackle it yourself.-goes to show when u get flat rate mechanics in a no care mood if they know to begin with lol.plus if you dont know a thing about kias its better not to mess with them(ive learned that from taking my sephia to "american" car repair shops and nearly completely lost my axle.