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Kia Sedona problems
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Second case was we'd report a car sold to our distributor, to meet a sales target with them or something like that (or to pad sales contest results). This was also an effective way to 'hide' cars from other dealers, because once a car was reported, it was deleted from the inventory database. They can't DX what they can't see. Once the car was really sold, we'd cancel the original report with the distributor, and re-report the car sold to the actual owner. Why our distributor never figured out that the same ten people were buying dozens of cars, I really don't know.
Something else rare that I saw happen was that we had customers living in California Emissions states (CA, MA, NY), and we were unable to obtain CA emissions vehicles. So we'd title the cars to the dealership and sell them 'used' to the customer, but the warranty was transferred in full to the customer, and at no charge. Apparently, our interpretation of CA Emissions was that new cars registered in those states were required to have it, but used cars were not.
Lastly, and this happened twice that I know of, there are cancelled sales. One time it was a borderline finance that was approved the day before the buyer lost her job, and while we could have stuck her with the car, we didn't feel right about doing that, so we tore up the contract. Second time I saw this happen, the sales manager obtained a car with the wrong equipment on it, it was sold and delivered, and the sale was cancelled because the customer found out he had requested and paid for power steering, and the car he got didn't have it.
In all of those cases, as far as I'm aware, the ultimate owner received the full warranty on the car from time and mileage of original purchase.
Breaking a belt in a tire is not uncommon...people drive over a curb, or bounce through a pot hole at speed, and when the tire doesn't go flat, they forget about that incident...the tire doesn't. My guess is that without visible tread separation or a knot/bubble, the tire warantee won't cover it (road hazard) but I haven't checked my manual.
Although you'll probably be OK for awhile, I wouldn't let that go...especially if you like to drive at 80 in the summer time. The Firestone/Explorer rollover stuff didn't happen that long ago. Tires are a lot cheaper than medical care.
BTW, Phong, in Virginia anything 15mph or above over the limit is an automatic careless and reckless driving charge...so you can get a C&R for doing 71 in a 55 zone. They LIKE folks driving 80+ as it pays a lot of city revenue.
Reminds me of a time when a friend of my mom's asked my brother in law (an ADA) to 'fix' a speeding ticket. He said he'd see what he can do, but when he found out that mom's friend was 30+ over the limit, there wasn't much that could be done.
We took it for a 300 mile trip to Mystic, Conn. with A/C on, and got 22 mpg.
My question is, will this CEL go off by itself, or do I have to go back to the dealer to have it re-set.
I had a similar problem on my 99 Elantra, and as soon as the cap was tightened, and the engine re-started, the CEL went away. I supposed the Sedona's computer might be programmed differently.
Does anyone have an idea?
Living in South Florida now, my kids have never been there. Might just be time for a road trip.
The Sandman :-)
I have had other problems that have either been attempted to be repaired or actually repaired.
Anyway, I had an incredibly squeaky seat that was in the shop two times. Finally, they ordered a new seat. I took the van in to have the seat changed out. The new seat is squeak free, but it has some type of greasy looking stain on it. It looks like it was pulled from a junk yard. Also, the seat base (under the seat/used to attach the seat pad) was really scratched and scraped up. You have to look down to see it, but if you do it really looks like the car is 10 years old, not 3 months. Am I just being a pain or is this ridiculous service.
Also, my driver's side floor fuse box always pops off. Guess what they did to fix it? Put more duct tape on it. I am also weary of how long it takes my van to stop sometime, even though they say it checks out ok. My gas mileage is now around 14/16.
I have just had so many little things wrong with this car I am afraid I am getting too picky. I like the car but I question myself everyday with all of this little stuff. Any suggestions?
This seems like the height of simplicity - what am I missing?
After reading all of the posts (a lot of which don't actually have anything to do with actual problems), I decided there were a few common problems that seemed to be minor in nature, and Kia seemed to be standing behind their product. For about $200 dollars less than I could get a comparably equiped 2002 Toyota Sienna with 28K miles on it, I got a 2003 Sedona EX with ABS, leather and sunroof.
After driving off the lot with our new van, we took a long drive home. During the drive, at low speeds, we heard the moaning/video game sound caused by the a/c compressor, which has been the topic of several posts on this board. After hearing the sound the second time, I couldn't help but laughed. My wife didn't find any humor in our new vehicle making this strange sound, but after I explained about reading about it here, was relieved that it was something others had experienced, and that nothing was going to explode, catch fire or fall off.
The only other problem I have seen is a small spot of rust near where the roof rack attaches to the roof on the front passengers side. It looks like it was scratched when the rack was put on. The dealer agreed to fix it with no questions asked.
There is service bulletin (bull. no.1 vol.2) circulating, at least here in Canada, concerning this problem.
It seems that the problem come from a faulty valve.
The part has been ordered. I'll post the number as soon as I can.
A brand new vehicle that wasn't anyone else's headache...or rental vehicle! That full warranty certainly made our Kia decision easier.
And this is from someone who swore he'd never buy Korean about a year ago. (And I thought that about Japan 10 years back.)
After struggling over the lack of reliability history for the Sedona, I finally realized I had driven my Dodge Grand Caravan for years knowing it was just a matter of when my transmission was going out, not if. In the mean time, I replaced the a/c condenser ($700), ABS Controller ($1,300), had the wiring harness catch fire (an $1,100 fix if I hadn't patched it together myself), replaced the fuel pump ($800, in Laramie, WY, on a 4800 mile vacation) and finally re built the transmission at 150,000 ($2,000). I finally asked myself why I was concerned about buying a new vehicle with a 100,000 mile warrenty when I willingly drove a American vehicle for years that I knew had a bad reliability history when I purchased it.
The fact that Kia is willing to stand behind their product says a lot. The fact that American manufacturers are not says a lot also.
Now that we have the terminalogy right here, I have only noticed it in the right rear while the A/C is on (regardless of whether rear A/C is on or not) and the car is in motion. Quite frequently (but not always) it happens while coasting in the 20 - 40 MPH range, though I don't know if this is just a coincidence. Interestingly, the problem has no recurred in the past 6 - 8 weeks.
Admittedly, I was concerned about the lack of history behind my Kia, but like you said, that warranty speaks volumes about how the company is willing to stand behind its car.
It really does make you see that they have been doing this transportation stuff for a very long time.
They even have some appealling motor homes.
there is enough spilled to leak off there for weeks.
the way i have stopped it is i get two good sized tube socks from my rag bag and lay one above and one below the frame rail to catch the oil when the filter spins off.
that way i get less mess.
this seems to work.
otherwise you get drips of teh spilled oil for many days.
They fixed it once and knew it was their problem - I suspect they are going to do it again for the same reason.
Just as an aside - since I had it repainted I have made a concerted effort not to use that chrome bar to close the tailgate.
This is really my only issue with this van so far. Otherwise it has performed very well.
I would suggest the synthetic oil for future use - I had that placed in there last time and the van is running very very well.
The dealer serviced the vehicle quickly, agreed the seat was defective, and ended up replacing it after a few hours toying with the old one. The new seat was solid & quiet.
Now at 1100 miles the new seat is making a few much milder noises. We'll probably wait for the 3000 mile oil change to have it looked at.
Prior to dropping off the van at the dealer, I decided to take off the plastic "chrome" trim myself just so I could see what was happening underneath that area. To do this you must first remove the inner plastic door trim (upper & lower) and the rear third brake light cover. This enables access to the 2 ea. nuts that hold the chrome trim unit to the hatch (there are also 2 ea. bolts that are on the outside of the hatch.
The problem, at least in my case, was that the trim was not smoothly finished along the side edges where it came in contact with the hatch...it was quite jagged and just digging into the paint and wore through to the bare steel of the hatch. Simply "touching up" the rusted area without addressing the trim piece itself will NOT solve the problem! I spoke to the body shop about my findings (the dealer does not do their own painting) and they ended up preparing, priming and painting the area and also smoothing out the edges of the trim (by grinding or filing) and also adding a thin piece of rubber cushioning tape prior to re-installing the trim.
The hatch looks great and the trim is not in direct contact with the hatch now. This is critical - and may be why the repair of bnhbucks hatch (post # 339) did not last.
I also had a slight area around the front grill that need a slight touch up...the chrome trim had rubbed a small area of paint off on either side ...but no rust had occurred there.
Kia knows that the hatch trim had a flawed design for the '02 Sedona...I say this beause I have studied the '03 Hatch trim and discovered that the trim now "flares out" on each end...preventing it from coming into contact with the hatch itself!
Other than this, I love the van! I just took a trip to Virginia beach last weekend (about 525 mi. round trip) and the van was running great! Now if I could just find those "boogie boards" that fell off the roof rack...he he! just kidding!
MVF
I have a very new Kia Sedona LX 2003 model (began leasing in June 2003) that started to develop a problem (or at least revealed itself) at approximately 3000kms. If the van sits for more than a day without running the battery drains to the point where the electric key won't even open the door and roadside assistance is needed. This has occurred 4 times already and the van has been brought in for servicing to attempt to diagnose the problem but without any success. It is currently in the service center now and has been for the last two days. The battery has been replaced once already the last time we went it for service. There is nothing on inside the vehicle (at least that we can control) that would drain the battery like this. If we start the van every day the problem disappears which is the way we drove it up until 3000kms when the problem first revealed itself. It may have been there the whole time but with the kids off during the summer and with the van constantly shuffling them around it never set for more than 24 hours.
Has anyone else seen anything like this?
Oh we also suffer the noisy seat problem that others have complained about in this forum.
So far this has been an absolute nightmare and although we like the drive, the service and the van we totally regret having leased a Kia. Lesson learned. Now if we can only find a way to get out of the lease...
Be interested in any comments/suggestions/experiences/recommendations.
Thanks.
What is interesting though is that after replacing the lumbar switch the driver's seat seemed to be much farther back than it is now. Nor can it be adjusted backwards any farther either. I don't know --- grasping at straws now.
I delivered it to the Kia garage on Wednesday afternoon. They charged it up on Wednesday. Verified everything was shut off that could drain the battery. Come Friday morning (this morning) totally dead. They think it might be an alternator related problem now (not that they know just the next best thing to check) which means, since they don't keep the part in stock, it will be another week before I see my van again.
5 times needed roadside assistance and it has spent as much time off the road in the last month as it has on it. I can't wait to fill out the 6-month customer satisfaction survey.
Will try and keep everyone updated.
We use a plug in Toshiba 9" TV/DVD, and have had no problems with it. Of course, we do make sure to unplug it whenever the van's not in use.
Frank
MVF
Haven't removed the wind guard, but it doesn't look too hard.
Dealer hasn't been able to fix the a/c whine yet...only long standing problem in 15k miles.
You, Your Vehicle and the Technical Service Bulletin (TSB)
Steve, Host
Yes, after reading the posts, I went out to check and, YES, I have about 5 areas where the paint is chipping around the grill of my 03 Sedona EX. I only picked the car up on Monday of this week and have 300 miles on it. Do I have to paint a new car???
Ron
sisu145 Apr 30, 2003 5:36am
There was no follow-up post that I see off-hand, so we still don't know how it turned out.
Steve, Host