Not to minimize whatever legitimate problems you had, but if you went through two sets of both motor and tranny mounts in your car is sounds to me as if you drove it VERY hard. Unless broken motor and tranny mounts are a "known problem" with these vehicles that would further explain why you went through so many sets of brakes and other "normal wear-and-tear" parts. Driving ANY car that hard will result in much more frequent replacement of many parts.

It would be much more useful if you were to put everything in perspective ... describe your driving style, where the car was used and how it was driven (city/highway/Baja 1000?), etc... I don't exclude the possibility that you had a legitimately problematic car, but it sure sounds as if you may have helped it along to an early demise.

If I'm wrong you have my apologies...

Regards,

 

Every car maker has their lemons there isnt a car maker that has more than another.

 

i have 1998 sephia 5 speed manual and i haven't had much repaired on it. I had to replace front axle due to my driving habit over non-paved roads but other then that i pretty much have most of the original parts on it. i find it very difficult to believe that you had all these problems but its possible i guess. right now, at 108.000 miles it feels as strong as ever. i might have to go in for tuneup which i haven't done at all, ever...

here is video of how not to drive kia

 

For all you nay sayers out there here was the specs of my car.
Kia Sephia 4d sedan.
Bought it at 22 miles.

I never drove it rough because I am a father of two pushing thirty and i dont drive like a teenager. Also i have a perfect driving record, no accidents or tickets ever.

What got me about my car was that it seemed like every three weeks after i took it to the dealership something else would break. Now cars have a breaking in period of like the first year then the realiable stage of them is like up to 3.5 years after you buy it. Then after that they tend to break down which is totally understandable. But come on 60k and an engine seal, Please.
Anyway i dont care now beause I ended up getting a toyota corolla ce instead of my civic i wanted.....that civic will come in two years when the wife finishes nursing school....but anyway have fun guys and if you ever need a new car do your research and go to a credit union for financing....


Ps here are a couple of links that might help you.
Anyway i wish you all the best and hope things work for you. Im out....

DO NOT BUY A KIA!!!!!!
2001 Kia Sephia ratings at Edmunds
Confessions of a Car Salesman

 

My thoughts are much the same as Planecrazy.

Sure you could have a lemon car, but having that many batteries fail is certainly not normal, and neither is the need to replace that many brake pads and brake parts. Bear in mind that these components are made by a thrird party, and this third party likley supplies these components to the manufacturer of your new car.

 

Well Ron you should think bud... If i had 6 sets of brakes and i got 102k miles out of them i got about 17k out of them. Not to shabby considering most people do about 15k between brake jobs.
As for the battery thing the dealership kept giving me bad ones...Now mind you on a side note too I live in Phoenix AZ and it can get to about 122 degrees here. WE have no rust issues but anything rubber will deteriorate after so much time soooooo thats why my cv boots and mounts went bad....not to mention they were bad from the get go when they installed them due to the fact that my engine would tilt alittle bit when i reved it and that caused my power steering hoses and air hose to gradually break too. But the dealership said everything was fine and they couldnt figure out why they were breaking...Meh
Ill just chalk it up to this.
Dont underestimate the power of stupid people in groups....XD

 

CvGhost, it seems that things are not as bad as first portrayed then.
The brake component wear is what you were expecting, and your enviromental conditions seem to have contributed to some of the other woes.

It would be wise then to consider these factors that contributed to your Kia woes, and see what measures you could take to protect your new car, because I would expect that any other vehicle make would fair just as bad.


PS. You mention the "computer" ECU is going out - this component does not degrade over time, and will fail completely instantaniously and not progressively.

 

Well Ron you should think bud... If i had 6 sets of brakes and i got 102k miles out of them i got about 17k out of them. Not to shabby considering most people do about 15k between brake jobs.
As for the battery thing the dealership kept giving me bad ones...Now mind you on a side note too I live in Phoenix AZ and it can get to about 122 degrees here. WE have no rust issues but anything rubber will deteriorate after so much time soooooo thats why my cv boots and mounts went bad....not to mention they were bad from the get go when they installed them due to the fact that my engine would tilt alittle bit when i reved it and that caused my power steering hoses and air hose to gradually break too. But the dealership said everything was fine and they couldnt figure out why they were breaking...Meh
Ill just chalk it up to this.
Dont underestimate the power of stupid people in groups....XD

CV if you were referring the last sentence to us then, take crack at us again and say goodbye to membership here. It is agaisnt the rules to slander people.

 

CV if you were referring the last sentence to us then, take crack at us again and say goodbye to membership here. It is agaisnt the rules to slander people.

Now Now fast i wasnt taking a crack at your guys it was the dealership I was taking a crack at. I would not do that to any of you because i believe that the people that visit these forums are genuine honest hardworking people that i believe are just trying to solve the problems that they encounter with thier cars. So I ask you to not be to quick to threaten the ban hammer on someone...its called giving someone the benifit of the doubt.

And anyway slander is this
1 : the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations which defame and damage another's reputation
2 : a false and defamatory oral statement about a person

I have not done that to anyone here....anyway i dont want to argue with anyone here becuase we all have enough stress in our lives.
About the computer thing it can gradually go out due to microfractures in the electronic mainboards....I had a computer mainboard that took three days to die due to that which i mentioned.


Peace

 

For what it's worth, I read CV's "questionable" last sentence the way he intended it ... not as a slam against any of us.

I have had several months of recurring trips to my Ford dealer lately for a problem that has stumped both the dealership AND the engineering team at HQ. Several times the truck was there it was because too many people didn't know what the others were doing, and they inadvertently did something (or didn't do something) that aggravated the problem.

Thankfully it seems that they may finally have succeeded in fixing the issue, but it certainly HAS been aggravating, especially since the vehicle has been almost flawless for two years now...

Regards,

 

Yes we all know there a A LOT of Kia dealers that are assholes. Yes... We all go through it with them at least once or at least a lot of us do.
I personally have had problems just like kia but dealing with ford and dodge dealers. SO it isnt just kia.

You had a lemon. K. Ive owned more than one. if you get a lemon, Get rid of it as quickly as you can when the car is currently not having a problem sell it, trade it do whatever it takes to get it gone.

I misunderstood the post you made. I wasnt trying to be mean I just read it wrong. Its hard sometime to interpret what others are trying to mean by what they say on a forum.

 

Hehe yeah my car was definitly a lemon but i held it together for 7 years and alot of pampering(synthetic oil for example for 60k miles)....anyway i got rid of her and man did she ever protest (overheating 2 days before trade and on the way to the wholesaler ect.)
Also this is a joke between my coworkers so take it as good humor

You guys are alright in my book , I dont care what i say about yah....

Im out....
btw once i get my haynes repair manual converted to pdf ill post it here for you guys in order to help you guys out..... Cya

 

BUYING A HONDA CIVIC EX EDITION TOMMOROW

Sounds like an excellent decision.

BTW did i say i cant sell my kia cus no one in thier right mind wants it.

I know the feeling. I had to take a massive loss when trading in my '02 Sedona. It was so bad, the dealer where I bought my '06 Scion xA, wouldn't even keep it on the lot. In fact, they had no Kia vehicle of any type on the lot.

SO i wish you all the best and remeber one of the best investments you will ever make is a Buying a Kia Sephia car repair manual.

Or, better yet, never get into a situation where you'd even need a Kia repair manual.

Best of luck and happy driving.

 

well, here are few things for you ex owners. you didn't buy kia because it luxury car, you didn't buy kia because it was expensive, you didn't buy kia because its most comfortable ride out there. why did you buy kia? money and warranty, hence, why even complain about resale value if you know when you buy kia you keep kia. eventually, resale value may go up but then is yet to be seen. however, to further on this topic. i also live in Phoenix, AZ and as i mentioned earlier i haven't had much of the issues that this thread talks about. As far as brakes go, i bought mine at Pep Boys, one of those with life time warranty and guess what, i haven't had to change them for a 2-3 years now, and many, many miles later. just a thought...

 

Well zula heres the thing.....
If you read my posts you would of read that i bought my kia a couple of months before the 10year /100k warranty-infact my warranty was bumper to bumper 36k power train 60k.
Now i will take the blame becuase i bought it 7.3 or so years ago and i should of done research on them but on the flip side KIA dicontinued making the car due to defect in design and such thus why it only goes up to 2001. Did i mention that Kia was bought outright from Hyundai since they were building some pretty bad cars. Now the brakes, I bought after market brakes from them too and they didnt last that long...in fact i got better mileage from the kia brakes.
Now I wish you the best and hope you have a better time with your car than I did.

 

well, here are few things for you ex owners. you didn't buy kia because it luxury car, you didn't buy kia because it was expensive, you didn't buy kia because its most comfortable ride out there. why did you buy kia? money and warranty, hence, why even complain about resale value if you know when you buy kia you keep kia. eventually, resale value may go up but then is yet to be seen. however, to further on this topic. i also live in Phoenix, AZ and as i mentioned earlier i haven't had much of the issues that this thread talks about. As far as brakes go, i bought mine at Pep Boys, one of those with life time warranty and guess what, i haven't had to change them for a 2-3 years now, and many, many miles later. just a thought...

Well, in all fairness I should mention that I DID buy my Kia (Sorento) because it was much more luxurious and comfortable than any other vehicle in its class (including the Honda Pilot we almost bought), as well as MUCH quieter on the road (less wind noise even with the sunroof open than EVERY other comparable SUV). It WAS more expensive than a number of better known competitors I considered (Ford Escape/Mazda Tribute).

Now, regarding resale, I knew it wouldn't be as good as other makes and that didn't bother me since I do plan to keep it long enough so that it doesn't matter. I HAVE had problems with premature rotor warping, and I do plan to go with upgraded aftermarket pads and rotors the next time around ... we'll see how that works out. Otherwise, I like the idea of doing a Pep-boys style lifetime warranty deal and letting somebody else worry about them if my next set doesn't last significantly longer. The only reason I don't plan to go that route this time is because I'd like to dramatically improve the braking capability of the truck and I'm willing to experiment with higher performance parts to see if I can accomplish this.

Regards,

 

why even complain about resale value if you know when you buy kia you keep kia.

I don't mind buying a vehicle and driving it "until the tires fall off." It's just with Kia, the automobile is as bad at 100K as other makes are at 200K-250K+.

 

Ok enough of the kia bashing. A few of you I sent a warning no more..... So itll get locked. Fair warning!!!

 

i will add just one more thing. i have no issues with my 1998 Sephia. i just bought my 2007 Sorento 3 days ago and if this car is as is my Sephia, i will be buying Kia for many years to come.

 

Do what you gotta do, 1fastkia. If shelting Kia from criticism is more important to you than the people I help out in my many of posts and private messages, censor away!

 

WE all have gotten all of your points. We know some cars are lemons. Period. THats what this boils down to. THeres tons of post about ppl sick of there cars. Have I said anything there.. NOPE!!

 

Please let me know the signs of ECU computer going bad. Does it partially go bad.
Thanks

 

Heres the thing with electronics. All circuitry boards wear out over time.
The solder connections will eventually go in certain areas ( like the power conncection etc. ) due to many reasons- dust, heat, cold, electrostatic discharge, pwr spikes, what not. Or the board will get whats called micro fractures. Those electronic paths are like roads in real life. Thus the roads or electrical circuits would have gaps were no current would go thru (cold) or have no gap (hot).They expand and contract with the heat or the cold. For example my cars pcm would act up when it got down to the 40's or 50s(which doesnt happend but couple of months out of the year here in Phoenix) but it would work at higher temps. Another example is my aunt computer that I built her. The mainboard or mother board had some microfractures by the main cpu. It steadily would take longer to boot up over three days were it eventually died. When electronics go they tend to do some wierd shit. Especially when you got tens of thousands of connections in any one complex device. Now if you think that some electrical component or comp is going i suggest you get it tested by the dealer ship because they should have the equipment for it. About partially bad it could happen. I also had a cd player where half the board was toast and the other was good. SOrry i could not help more. I hope that you find the solution to your problem.