UPDATE: REMOVING THE BAFFLE DRAIN PLUGS HAS FIXED MY OIL BURNING ISSUE. 
What I did:
1. Remove valve cover aka cylinder head cover (might as well replace the valve cover gasket, high pressure fuel pump gasket at the same time.) Follow this video and part 2 that shows how to.
Note 1 - You do not need to use channel locks to remove the caps on the air intake hose clamps like in the video, the clamps have a security cover on the bolt that can be popped off, revealing a normal hex head underneath.
Note 2 - The engine lift mount on the back side of the motor is almost impossible to remove, I had to push it back with a prybar a couple of mm's to be able to slide the valve cover on and off.
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2. Use pliers to pull out the orange rubber drain plugs circled in the picture below. If the tip of the plug breaks off when removing use an air compressor from both ends of the baffle to blow out the little piece of rubber.
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3. Reinstall valve cover using a two step tightening process. Not sure why, but the order of tightening the bolts from my service manual has 2 listed 3 times and it's missing 4 and 8.
Note - In the video he installed gasket maker between the valve cover and the valve cover gasket. This should be installed between the valve cover gasket and the corners where the timing chain cover meets the cylinder head. Shown with blue circles in picture below.
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History: My 2016 Sorento 2.0l Turbo has been burning oil at the rate of about 1L per 800-1000KM's. Originally thought I was losing oil from a leaking valve cover gasket, so I replaced it. Still losing oil Then replaced the PCV valve. Still losing oil. Nothing on the garage floor so it must be burning it. Figured at this point it must be stuck rings causing blow by. Did a piston soak, used a borescope to check for grooves on the piston walls, checked compression, all was good and matching across all four cylinders. Still burning oil. At this point I noticed my turbo was covered in oil on the outside. So I made the assumption that my turbo seals were shot and causing oil to leak into the intake. I replaced the turbo. Still burning oil.
One common thing I've noticed in my vehicle as well as what others have stated online is that we burn more oil when doing longer drives. If you mainly do short drives around town the consumption is greatly reduced.
This thread has a lot of great info in it. I tried his fix and it worked, but I don't recommend it for the reasons below. By disconnecting the breather line that connects to the air intake right before my turbo and then venting the PCV with a drilled out PCV valve I was no longer burning oil.
Reasons not to do that fix. Instead keep reading for my solution.
1. The pressure is now very high in my engine. High enough to cause oil to blow out of my oil cap seal
2. The fumes are awful, the cabin air intake sucks them up no matter where I locate the vent line.
3. This can cause a build up of carbon sludge in your oil system. This video explains why PCV's are needed in modern engines.
4. Engine doesn't feel as powerful with the lack of suction.
5. Fuel economy is worse
So why would this work? Why am I no longer burning oil? After loads of reading and thinking of a hypothesis I've come up with this:
*Important to note at idle and during deceleration the PCV is closed. When the engine is revving above idle there should be negative ventilation coming from the intake manifold causing the PCV valve to open and allow the intake to suck out the fumes in the valve cover. The amount the PCV opens is variable depending on the RPM and amount of negative pressure.
Another great video that explain what I believe is happening with KIA's that are burning oil.
When the engine is running the oil becomes volatile and droplets of oil are mixed with the air. PCV systems can suck this oil out causing it to be burned. To mitigate this, baffles need to be added to the valve cover to catch this oil in the air and allow it to drop back down. Historically auto manufactures had open holes in the baffles to allow the engine oil to drop back down.
Here's where I think the problem stems from. KIA has tried to engineer a new type of baffle drain that uses a rubber seal over the drain holes. When enough oil builds up in the baffle it should cause enough pressure on the rubber seal to push it down out of the way and allow the oil to drain. As well when you decelerate or idle the vacuum should pull these down a bit and allow the oil to drain out of the baffle. < This explains why more oil is burnt on longer drives. Remember vacuum only exists on deceleration and idle. Driving on a highway for hours you might not see vacuum for a long time. I understand why they added these rubber plugs to the drain holes. It prevents air from being sucked up the drain hole when there's positive pressure, but historically vehicles didn't have these and they didn't have oil burning problems. If a small amount of oil or fumes gets burned by having these drains open all the time it's not a big deal.
These rubber plugs get gummed up and cause the drain holes to also get plugged, which then causes the baffles to fill with oil. The oil is then sucked or pushed out of A. the breather line directly into the turbo (which explains why my turbo was covered in oil) B. the PCV valve into the intake manifold.
My fix which I am testing further right now, and seems to be working (I'll update after some more KM's), can be seen in the pictures. I removed the rubber plugs in the drain holes to allow them to fully drain at any time, even when driving long distances with no deceleration. By doing this I can keep my PCV system in tact and avoid the negative side effects of by passing the PCV system.
This should work for any modern KIA engine, not just turbo engines.
Alternatively I could have bought a new valve cover, but I believe the problem would return after time when the drains get plugged up again. Going forward I'm also switching to a high grade full synthetic oil. I've been running Valvoline max life high mileage semi synthetic, which I believe gums up more than a full synthetic and the additives could cause the rubber plugs to swell up and reduce drain.
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
What I did:
1. Remove valve cover aka cylinder head cover (might as well replace the valve cover gasket, high pressure fuel pump gasket at the same time.) Follow this video and part 2 that shows how to.
Note 1 - You do not need to use channel locks to remove the caps on the air intake hose clamps like in the video, the clamps have a security cover on the bolt that can be popped off, revealing a normal hex head underneath.
Note 2 - The engine lift mount on the back side of the motor is almost impossible to remove, I had to push it back with a prybar a couple of mm's to be able to slide the valve cover on and off.
2. Use pliers to pull out the orange rubber drain plugs circled in the picture below. If the tip of the plug breaks off when removing use an air compressor from both ends of the baffle to blow out the little piece of rubber.
3. Reinstall valve cover using a two step tightening process. Not sure why, but the order of tightening the bolts from my service manual has 2 listed 3 times and it's missing 4 and 8.
Note - In the video he installed gasket maker between the valve cover and the valve cover gasket. This should be installed between the valve cover gasket and the corners where the timing chain cover meets the cylinder head. Shown with blue circles in picture below.
History: My 2016 Sorento 2.0l Turbo has been burning oil at the rate of about 1L per 800-1000KM's. Originally thought I was losing oil from a leaking valve cover gasket, so I replaced it. Still losing oil Then replaced the PCV valve. Still losing oil. Nothing on the garage floor so it must be burning it. Figured at this point it must be stuck rings causing blow by. Did a piston soak, used a borescope to check for grooves on the piston walls, checked compression, all was good and matching across all four cylinders. Still burning oil. At this point I noticed my turbo was covered in oil on the outside. So I made the assumption that my turbo seals were shot and causing oil to leak into the intake. I replaced the turbo. Still burning oil.
One common thing I've noticed in my vehicle as well as what others have stated online is that we burn more oil when doing longer drives. If you mainly do short drives around town the consumption is greatly reduced.
This thread has a lot of great info in it. I tried his fix and it worked, but I don't recommend it for the reasons below. By disconnecting the breather line that connects to the air intake right before my turbo and then venting the PCV with a drilled out PCV valve I was no longer burning oil.
Reasons not to do that fix. Instead keep reading for my solution.
1. The pressure is now very high in my engine. High enough to cause oil to blow out of my oil cap seal
2. The fumes are awful, the cabin air intake sucks them up no matter where I locate the vent line.
3. This can cause a build up of carbon sludge in your oil system. This video explains why PCV's are needed in modern engines.
4. Engine doesn't feel as powerful with the lack of suction.
5. Fuel economy is worse
So why would this work? Why am I no longer burning oil? After loads of reading and thinking of a hypothesis I've come up with this:
*Important to note at idle and during deceleration the PCV is closed. When the engine is revving above idle there should be negative ventilation coming from the intake manifold causing the PCV valve to open and allow the intake to suck out the fumes in the valve cover. The amount the PCV opens is variable depending on the RPM and amount of negative pressure.
Another great video that explain what I believe is happening with KIA's that are burning oil.
When the engine is running the oil becomes volatile and droplets of oil are mixed with the air. PCV systems can suck this oil out causing it to be burned. To mitigate this, baffles need to be added to the valve cover to catch this oil in the air and allow it to drop back down. Historically auto manufactures had open holes in the baffles to allow the engine oil to drop back down.
Here's where I think the problem stems from. KIA has tried to engineer a new type of baffle drain that uses a rubber seal over the drain holes. When enough oil builds up in the baffle it should cause enough pressure on the rubber seal to push it down out of the way and allow the oil to drain. As well when you decelerate or idle the vacuum should pull these down a bit and allow the oil to drain out of the baffle. < This explains why more oil is burnt on longer drives. Remember vacuum only exists on deceleration and idle. Driving on a highway for hours you might not see vacuum for a long time. I understand why they added these rubber plugs to the drain holes. It prevents air from being sucked up the drain hole when there's positive pressure, but historically vehicles didn't have these and they didn't have oil burning problems. If a small amount of oil or fumes gets burned by having these drains open all the time it's not a big deal.
These rubber plugs get gummed up and cause the drain holes to also get plugged, which then causes the baffles to fill with oil. The oil is then sucked or pushed out of A. the breather line directly into the turbo (which explains why my turbo was covered in oil) B. the PCV valve into the intake manifold.
My fix which I am testing further right now, and seems to be working (I'll update after some more KM's), can be seen in the pictures. I removed the rubber plugs in the drain holes to allow them to fully drain at any time, even when driving long distances with no deceleration. By doing this I can keep my PCV system in tact and avoid the negative side effects of by passing the PCV system.
This should work for any modern KIA engine, not just turbo engines.
Alternatively I could have bought a new valve cover, but I believe the problem would return after time when the drains get plugged up again. Going forward I'm also switching to a high grade full synthetic oil. I've been running Valvoline max life high mileage semi synthetic, which I believe gums up more than a full synthetic and the additives could cause the rubber plugs to swell up and reduce drain.
