Kia running but not well

mavrick88 · 05-09-2008, 03:15 PM

My 2001 Kia Sportage died on me about a week ago. The check engine light came one and started to blink and then it died! We put the code reader on it and it said that Cylender 4,2,1 Misfire and fuel too lean. So we replaced the O2 Censor and replaced all for Spark plugs. It runs not but not well. It still has a miss to it. The code reader still reads cylender 2 misfire. When we pulled the old sparkplugs out the back sparkplug as not even in the hole and the gasket on the top was destroyed.

My question is, has anyone had this happen to them and how do i fix it???????

Thanks for your help!

Harry Morgan · 05-09-2008, 05:00 PM

Mav

Very strange...

OK, so you had the initial problem and you replaced the plugs and the O2S and now it does not run well -- what does "not run well" mean ? Does the performance change when the engine warms up ?

Harry

mavrick88 · 05-10-2008, 01:39 PM

The performance still sucks. It has a miss to it and it has no power what so ever. Took it for a test drive it is sputters and coughs. Not healthy that is for sure. If you keep the RPM's up it has a little better power but still nothing like it was when it was running good. We have taken the spark plugs out after the test drive and they still look fine. There is a little bit of crap on them and it looks like black sand but that was on all the old spark plugs when we changed them so we think it is just the crap from before.

Thanks for replying to this issue!!! I need my car back up and running!!!!!

ron1004 · 05-11-2008, 03:13 AM

What have you set the new plug gaps at? - they should be 0.03" (0.75mm) and preferably the original NGK brand.

The black "sand" like stuff sounds like carbon which is a sign of oil burning.

If the thread is damaged in the plug hole - you may need to install a heli-coil.

Harry Morgan · 05-12-2008, 10:03 AM

Mav

At this point, I'd consider changing the fuel filter

http://www.kia-forums.com/1g-1994-20...ht=fuel+filter

and perhaps the air filter if it looks dirty. If this fails to help, then I'd get a compression tester and remove all of the plugs and look for a 160 to 190 psi reading with less than a 10% difference among all readings.

The fact that all of this happened suddenly makes me think that the timing belt might have jumped a notch or two.

Harry