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I am having issues with a 2000 kia sportage. To begin, this is definitely my fault. I finished doing a timing belt job, replaced all belts and water pump, and didn't have time to add coolant before leaving for work (the kia is my wife's car, I of course drove mine to work). While I was gone she decided to run errands. I'm pretty well positive she overheated the engine as there was not much coolant left in there and when I picked her up, the temp gauge was reading pretty hot. I asked her what it was when the engine died and she had no clue as she never bothered to look while she was driving.
The car still runs but has a rough idle and is hard to start, usually taking a nudge of the accelerator. The check engine light is not on and, with coolant, the temperature stays well within normal. When driving it definitely feels like its missing performance but doesn't feel rough. Only rough at idle and occasionally tries to die at idle.
At this point I'm just wondering what my first step should be for trying to figure out what is wrong. I'm sure the engine is screwed up from the overheat but I just don't know where to start. I would really appreciate any advice.
Since you got it hot, I would do a compression check to see if the head gasket blown. Are you having to put water in it on a regular basis? You might get lucky, but if you got it really hot and it has some miles on it, your are probably looking at a head gasket replacement.
I will have to wait to do a compression test on Tuesday as I work 12 hours tommorrow. I haven't seen any leaks and I haven't had to add any more water. I intend to open it back up and make sure the timing belt is still aligned. I checked it before closing it up and I ran the engine for a few minutes before work but I didn't get to let it run a while before it got driven. I've been told the belt could have skipped a few teeth.
Thanks for the advice. Tuesday I will be doing the compression test and rechecking the timing belt as well as an oil change. I figured I would also check for water in the oil. I will tell you how it goes from there. If you can think of anything else I should try and check while I'm at it please let me know. Thanks again.
Well I opened it back up today and the timing belt was definitely loose. It had about an inch of give between the cams. I tightened it up, checked the alignment, and put everything back on. Afterwards it still had a hard time starting but ran smoother afterwards.
I shut it off and started it again and it was running rough again. Now its back to its same tricks. To start it I have to give it a little gas. It will run rough and if I feed it gas then take my foot off the pedal the engine either dies or just barely keeps running. It looks and sounds like it is idling to low, but I know you can't adjust the idle on these.
I did not get to do the compression test. I honestly forgot to pick up a compression tester while I was out and since I didn't finish reassembling the car till after dark I called it a day. I will be trying to do the compression test Thursday. In the meantime, I would appreciate any other suggestions.
It is possible the car never overheated. My wife was only 5 minutes from the house when she broke down and she said when it died that she did check the instrument panel and nothing seemed too far out of balance. If there is anything that could be screwed up post changing the timing belt and water pump I would like to look into that as well.
Thanks again for any help.
If the timing belt was the least bit off the engine light would be on. A timing belt does not just randomly skip teeth if the tensioner wheel is laying/resting on the belt and then tightened in that position. If you have put the tensioner against the belt and have applied any pressure to it yourself the belt will break within a few miles anyway. Do not force any tension on that belt, let the tensioner do it. Next, take your car to any autozone and they will for free hook up a tester to the diagnostic coupler under the dash and tell you what is wrong. WEb lookup and research says you probably have a Mazda engine. Stop throwing parts and uneducation at it. Let a pro diagnose.
Already took the car to an autozone. Its not throwing any codes, nor is the check engine light on. I replaced the timing belt and water pump because it needed to be done. The car is at 65k. The rough idle started afterwards. I have done many timing belt jobs and this is the first time something like this has happened. I am frankly just confused. I opened it up to recheck the timing and everything appears aligned. I won't be able to afford to take it to a shop for at at least another week. I was hoping someone could suggest anything else to check in the mean time, as testing costs me only time, not money.
P.S. I'm not a jackass, the first thing I checked was error codes and there are none.
If there's any sign that it did in fact overheat, and with this some coolant got past the head gasket into the combustion chamber, then to the exhaust where it would likely degrade the O2 sensor.
If the O2 sensor is not responding right, then the car would be sluggish and idle rough. Only if the O2 signal goes way out of range would it trigger a code - checking the O2 signal response with a scanner can confirm this.
Rough idle and the need to give it a little gas could point to a sticky IAC (ISC) valve, but a bad IAC will have no impact on performance but only be incapable of maintaining the correct idle speed.
It's quite easy to clean the IAC with carb cleaner.
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If the timing belt was the least bit off the engine light would be on. A timing belt does not just randomly skip teeth if the tensioner wheel is laying/resting on the belt and then tightened in that position.
Really? I can put at least a dozen people in touch with you that will strongly disagree with that little gem!
The timming belt can slip a tooth or two and not trigger the CEL, and they do skip teeth if you neglet to change them about every 70,000km or 5 years, they simply stretch with age and use!
If the rough idle started after you overheated the engine, and cleaning the IAC valve like Ron said dosn't clear things up i'd would be checking the spark plugs and coil packs, but you also could have cooked a senor or two, but these would throw a CEL. Also check the engine vacuum lines you could have a vaccuum leak? And I'd be double checking the timming belt, again, just to be certain!
Last edited by mgbgt1972 : 03-15-2007 at 07:29 PM.
As much as I hate to admit it I think the timing belt is the cause. I wasn't having any problems until after I changed it, and my wife could not have driven the car more than 10 miles when it died. I checked and cleaned the IAC and it made no difference. How would I check the O2 signal response? Thank you again for the advice. Additionally, can anyone give me an idea of what it should cost to get the car looked at? I'm going to check the timing belt one more time and anything else you can suggest before I actaully take it in. I will probably have to borrow money from my family to be able to take it to a shop so I'm trying my best to avaoid that.
Rudgin, we'll do our best to avoid the need for you to borrow money from the family, because we know from experience how uncomfortable that is.
Go ahead and confirm the timing 100%.
The O2 sensor is best checked using the expensive scanner hooked up to the OBD2 port, but you can also check it with a multimeter.
Set a multimeter to the 2 Volt DC range and connect the negative black lead to ground and the red positive lead to the sensing wire on the O2 sensor.
The O2 sensor has three wires - the two that are the same colour are for the sensor heater, and the remaining one is the sense wire - I use a paper clip or pin pushed into the connect for connecting to this.
With the car warmed up the O2 voltage should fluctuate between 0.4 and 0.9 , with the reading beeing lively when you pump the throttle.
With the engine idling, pull the vacuum pipe off the fuel pressure regulator momentarliy, and the O2 sensor voltage should increase towards 0.9 V showing a rich mixture.
If possible get a vacuum gauge and check that at idle the manifold vacuum is close to - 480 mm Hg, and if not this would be a sign that the vacuum pipes are not correct or the crank case PCV check valve needs to be cleaned.
__________________ For service info register (free) with KiaTechInfo and click on 'Shop' on the left, and for elect schematics click on 'ETM'.
Quality and not quantity counts.
Sig image is 500X100 at 11.7 kb
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