[Darwin Sport]

Hi all and greetings from Darwin Australia.

I have a 2000 model Sportage, and i have to say i have neglected her a bit service wise. She was running very rough which was a lot to do with some dodgy fuel I put in about 2 weeks ago in a remote area. I decided to give her a service, new oil and filter, new fuel filter, new air filter and new plugs.

All was going well until i remove the back spark plug and found that the plug was sitting in about 2 inches of oil, so of course as soon as i removed the plug, the oil drained into the combustion chamber. Not really sure what to do, I had the brilliant idea of putting the plug in, getting it all back together, and then blowing the oil out during combustion. Well, that worked... NOT. Poor thing was banging and groaning, and all of a sudden she stopped, and I now have no power at all to the ignition. No dash lights, no interior lights, nothing. I have checked the power at the battery at 12.67 volts. At the main power fuse it is 4.34 volts. I am really at a loss as to why there is no power to the ignition system. I understand that I may have really done some damage engine wise, but why no power?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[inxquve]

I hope the first thing you did was check the battery terminals to make sure they are tight and not corroded. Take them off and make sure the post and terminal are both clean. A spontaneous failure like this to the entire vehicle is almost always a bad battery connection.

I have many, many times let oil around a plug drain into the cylinder without having any problems. Just makes a little smoke on startup and a brief misfire sometimes that clears up quickly. You do need a new valve cover gasket, and if any plug wires or coil boots are oil soaked they will need replaced as well. Double check that the coils and plug wires are routed and seated properly, check the harness connection to the coils, they can become brittle and the locking tabs break off so they won't stay connected. Also make sure that all the hoses and wires are connected on the air duct.

 

[Darwin Sport]

Thanks for that. I will have another look at the battery in the morning. the way it was shaking and banging around, i would not be surprised if there was a connection issue. the harness connections were a little brittle. are they able to be purchased from the local KIA dealer?

 

[cobra259]

Yes you can buy a connecter for the harness going to your coils. If and when you get things running good again, remember you need to replace the valve cover gasket, it will stop the oil from getting into the spark plugs again.

 

[GottaCruise]

Greetings,

Would highly recommend confirming basic ground point integrity:

With battery disconnected:

Negative battery cable -> ground tray ground,
ground tray -> engine ground strap (wire),

and ground tray -> frame bolts (if present): remove the battery, the battery tray, look for (3) or (4) bolts securing the ground tray to the frame: clean the bolt threads, replace bolt hardware if badly rusted,

clean all connection rings / terminals / bolts with fine-grit sandpaper, steel wool, or wire wheel, wipe clean, use some dielectric grease on contact points at reassembly..

Ground point checks:

*Engine off / Key Off / Key out of ignition:

voltage direct at battery,

With battery cables reconnected:

voltage battery Pos. +12v to engine ground,
voltage battery Pos. +12v to frame ground,
voltage Passenger cabin fuse box +12v to frame (dash) ground,
(*use the power door lock fuse feed to test..)

All readings above should be within .1-.5 volt of voltage direct at battery.

--
Inspect and clean ground points G200 and G201, behind driver's kick panel, below pass. cabin fuse box, behind pass. kick panel, supplies common ground to ECM..

* Optional, but recommended:

Inspect and clean the fuel pump ground point, under carpet flap in rear cargo area: hit the screw with some penetrating lubricant (eg PB Blaster, etc.) and let soak before attempting to unscrew, or use a Dremel tool with cutting blade to put a slot in the screw head / use a flat-blade screwdriver to remove if the (phillips head) gets stripped..

*** Once you have these basic ground points / wiring inspected, cleaned, and confirmed good w/ voltage testing, you can be confident of any readings obtained further in testing.. ***

(Pay particular attention to the main Neg. battery cable and engine ground strap - confirm these are good, and check that ECM ground point, it provides grounding for the ignition section of the ECM..)

Regards,
GottaCruise

 

[Darwin Sport]

hey guys,

the power problem was the battery connections, so all good, and i cleaned up all of the leads and now she is running like a beauty, better than she has for a long time.

one small issue though. Hopefully small that is. the 'check engine' light is on. i am assuming it is because of the work i had done to it so my next question is how do i reset this warning light????

Thanks.

 

[zkdawg]

go to auto zone or advance and they can hook up a code reader and see what it is and erase them for u with no charge

 

[GottaCruise]

hey guys,

the power problem was the battery connections, so all good, and i cleaned up all of the leads and now she is running like a beauty, better than she has for a long time.

one small issue though. Hopefully small that is. the 'check engine' light is on. i am assuming it is because of the work i had done to it so my next question is how do i reset this warning light????

Thanks.

Glad to hear the Sporty is running, well done.

--
To clear the ECM codes, disconnect the Pos. and Neg. cables from the battery, and turn the headlights on for 5 minutes or so with no power supplied, that should drain all electrical power from the system / ECM ..

Then turn the headlight switch off & reconnect the battery terminals.

If the check engine light reappears, it means you have a sensor throwing a code at startup, or your model ECM has a non-volitale memory which is storing the DTC code, even after draining power from the system - in either case, depending on the Diagnostic connector on the vehicle, you may have to hookup a code reader/scanner and read -> reset the stored DTC code(s) using the code reader/scanner.

On the US model Sporty here, I use a USB/Laptop based code scanner software & ODBII connector combo, link is in my sig. to the scanner I use here,

Congrats on getting the Sporty running, post back if we can help w/ identifying (which) code scanner is applicable for your Sporty,

Regards from snow-covered NH USA,
GottaCruise

 

[Darwin Sport]

Thanks for all the help, the check engine light has reset itself and all is good with the world!!

 

[Wry 'Cuda]

Sounds like you were lucky.

Oil in the combustion camber isn't good. Depending on how much oil is there, it's possible that you'll break something. I'd leave the plug out, cover the engine with a rag to catch excess oil, and turn it over with the ignition disconnected. That will ensure that there's not enough oil remaining to stop the piston. Expect some smoke when you start for real!