[clartsonly]

hello

the reason I originally joined this forum for a single reason of my sedona not working speradically (sp)..

I will try to explain.
I use it for work every day 17 miles each way and it tended to work pretty well although very bad on fuel consumption 25 mpg..

but at christmas 100 miles into our journey with a full car of people, luggage and gifts, the revs dropped from 2,500 a nice 75 mph and struggled to get back up again, if you floored it the needle would fly up and down, but the car ran perfectly up to about 1900 revs, which luckily just allows it to change gear to get a max of about 55mph. it was fine the rest of the holiday no luggage, people or gifts. and got checked at a kia garage their who said the diagnostics had shown up some errors!! but they had no spares during the holiday season. it had its 20K service on holiday too, and assuming that may have been the problem.. we embarked on our journey home and low and behold 45 miles into the journey the same problem occurred. this has been happening occasionally and maybe is due to loading or revs etc etc.. it has been adjusted checked looked at several times and today loaded with 7 adults and taken for a spin by the garage with no problems.!!!

is this an injector problem that other people have talked about on here, when it happens.. if I am on my own (eg car is lightweight) I can floor it for a minute and it sort of clears the problem temporarily.


arrrhhhhhh please help... I hate kia now and I want to start liking them... I feel that the ex demo model we were sold we were sold because it was already broken. although it was fine for 8 months apart from a few niggly problems. air bag light / broken door / ECU change / seat belt change / now rust and this mechanical problem.


many thanks

 

[1fastkia]

It almost sounds like a bad ground. Like a loose wire somewhere. Id say have them check all the engine ground wires to make sure they are all tight and not frehed or shredded...... Just a thought.

 

[clartsonly]

hmmmm.... how do I ask a trained dealer to check certain aspects of a car.? everytime they plug it in it comes up clear apart from one time when they adjusted the "brake switch", it ran okay for a week. when it was initially scanned they said the diagnostics was showing up a "wiring fault" do you think the current dealership is b3ing lazy and ignoring this fault report from the computer. it is definetely an electrical issue I have also started running with redex in, which seems to have improved the performance right up until the fault starts then I could use maybe a quarter of a tank in about 20 miles. instead of 60-80??

should I write to kia or try a different dealership?

 

[1fastkia]

"wiring fault"

A ground wire is a wiring fault..... tell them to check all the ground wires.... or you will bring it elsewhere..

 

[clartsonly]

hey please can anyone give me some input I think I am moving towards the problem...

it previously had a "Brake switch adjustment" and ran fine for about 1 week. a colleague of mine said that his dads van had a similar problem and explined it was to do with the brake light switch stopping the flow to the injectors? could this be the problem. I had a similar problem today and gently touched the brake pedal whilst still accelerating and the engine warning light appeared and the car went to tick over... should this happen.. can someone else please try and drive their sedona and gently touvh the brake pedal to see if it cuts out etc.. it is as if after a certain amount of time / miles / conditions / vibrations the brake keeps thinking it has been switched on.


thanks... finally I feel I might be getting somewhere. it would apparently be interesting to know whether or not the brake lights light up during the journey which will explain why people act funny behind me when it is playing up...

 

[1fastkia]

have someone watch you go down the road when hitting your brakes to see if they come on.... I dont htink the brakes would have anything to do with the injectors. considering they are not connected or even interconnected. I dunno what to say Im actaully stumped for once. lol. Bring it to the dealer and let them know whats up..... Its gotta be still under warrinty!

 

[clartsonly]

yeah it is in again on thursday that will be the sixth time for this, nothing ever shows up on the scans, apart from when it was actually happening then it was the "brake light switch" which is at the top of the brake pedal, apparently it cuts the fuel to the injectors when you put your foot on the brake to save fuel emissions... perhaps not in the kias..? although there is quite a component at the top of the pedal with about 6 wires plugged into it.

 

[1fastkia]

Like i said bring it to the dealer. I know the thing your talking about that cuts fuel what it does it cuts hafl the cylinders off.. (in the cars Ive seen that has this option) Not sure if kia has that. It should say though in the manual maybe look through it. If it doesnt say anything about that feature Im betting it doesnt have it....

 

[clartsonly]

right it did it with a kia engineer in the car, he said the "brake light switch" problem is quite common. there are 2 one to switch the lights on and one to tell the ECU to cut the diesel to the injectors. but unfortunately he doesn't think it is that... unless the actual component is broken as the adjustments required are to de-sensitize the ECU switch, and he was pulling up the brake pedal which made no difference. but he has witnessed the problem himself and thinks it maybe the ECU... hopefully it will get fixed.

 

[clartsonly]

ha ha... they still cannot properly find the issue.

it is going back for 1 week on the 13th to be sent off to have the complete fuel system replaced... they say it maybe fuel contamination... I don't think they know what the problem is, and I was told even though it was failing constantly during, the engineers test drive.. the manager exclaimed "we could only get it to fail once", as I started it up outside the garage plooms of black smoke (the usual morning and evening start up nowadays) I drove less than 100 meters before it started misfiring and spluttering up the road.

at least I will get a completely new fuel delivery system, and maybe they might work out what the real problem is at the same time. I am looking forward to fitting 2 adults 4 children and a weeks shopping into a picanto.

 

[clartsonly]

I get my sedona back tomorrow, shame they want the spare key to program it I was going to try the instructions from the other thread for that one.

It has a new ECU, the radio fixed and the windscreen wiper arms replaced. apparently the engine problems were the ECU sending "too many" wrong signals? I wonder what the correct amount of "wrong signals" are? hey ho.... for those that give a Sh*t I will keep you posted on fuel consumption, long journey running etc... although what broke ther ECU?, I have to go with a wiring fault still.... unless these ECU's "learn" how to run the car and "learnt" it badly whilst it was having problems?

 

[clartsonly]

okay no current problems on a short journey the new ECU costs £1200 (GBP) about $2000. next year I can extend my warranty for £600 for 2 years, lets think about that for a few months eh.

When driving the car to work after collecting it, I noticed an air rushing sound coming from the windscreen, and called the engineers out to check it, whilst taking it for a test drive the engineer explained that the problem with the ECU was that it was overfuelling causing it to kinda flood, then the car ran in safe mode then when the fuel had disappeared it would start working again (which maybe explains the awful fuel usage I seem to be experiencing.. hopefully I will move into the 30+ mpg zone now.) I drove the car and made the noise he explained that this noise is perfectly correct and was maybe missing from the car previously as it was broken, it is merely the turbo rushing air around the pipes, so perhaps I have increased the boost now the ECU has been replaced.

what he did say about KIA is that they do not allow the engineers to simply try different parts in the car which are expected to be broken they must prove that the reason the injectors are over fueling is due to this etc etc etc..

he said he checked the fuel filter for contamination by looking for iron filings in the fuel filter.

 

[clartsonly]

okay update:

263 miles in short journeys and 267 on long journeys and although the fuel consumption is still bad ( I will raise a poll / survey to see if it is normal..) the car is in perfect working order.