Kia Sorento

lok888

dlb14frost - Are you referring the lower portion of the body cladding? I found one small chip near the front grille. It's properly caused by flying debris or rock salt from a sand truck on the highway. A touch-up paint was took care of it. Overall, the painting is in excellent shape. www.autoanything.com has some custom made protective tape (clear) for the headlamp. But I think they have anything for Sorento and the cladding yet.

Also, does anyone notice a problem with the door hinges? Squeaking noise when close and open rear passenger's doors. The hinges was dried. I sprayed some WD40 and it dried very quickly. The dealer did the same thing with the same result. Like I mentioned this on the Sorento Problems forum, I think the hinges are made of some heavy duty plastic. At least I can tell it is not metal.

dlb14frost

REPLY lok888 Yes, it's the narrow strip about an inch wide and 6 inches long, right in front of the rear wheels. Each area has about 50 nics, but isn't down to the black plastic yet.

bobboct

ABS WARNING Light came on Has anyone had this happen. Can I check anything - fuse ?
BobboCT

shanpooks

Anyone done it? Where did you find the wiring harness? Did you have to cut them and wire it yourself?

Please please please help me out!
This delco is killing me.

robert_delarosa@hotmail.com

lok888

dlb14frost - I'm glad your dealer will fit it. Are they going to repaint it? It seems you can't replace the part.

bobboct - No. Bring it to your dealer and have them look at it. Maybe some lose connectors. I think some posters had this problem before.

shanpooks - I assume that you don't have the in-dash 6CD changer with separate ampifiler. That is a part of the luxury package. So far, Crutchfield (even Best Buy) don't have any data on Sorento yet. They are usually months behide because there many new cars coming out each year. Some car audio places (also sell auto alarm system) may help you. They need to call the manufacturer for diagram and layout. I prefer Crutchfield because they include the harness, just plug it in.

paisan

Hey any Sorento Owners out there want to join us for a weekend of camping and offroading in North Carolina? I'm gonna be caravanning down on thurs night from NY/NJ area.

http://www.4x4wire.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=117;t=0- 00039

-mike

dlb14frost

lok888 Yes dealer will repaint, but I'm afraid its going to keep happening. I have e mailed Kia to see if they have anything in the works to put over the area.

lok888

pasian - Sounds like fun! Great pictures! Is that your Trooper in green? I would like to go but I afriad my wife won't let me take the Sorento. And I am not sure the Kia roadside assistant will cover that. I hope other Sorento owners can go. Post some pictures. Happy off-roading!

paisan

I'm sure your Sorento would do fine

My Trooper is silver actually can be found at http://isuzu-suvs.com/trooper

There will be much picture taking while we are down there I'd love to see a Sorento out there so that I could post it up on the Jeep board and show em that not only "jeeps" can go offroad!

-mike

lok888

Thanks! But my Sorento is still new. And just looked at the pictures of Trooper Smashed. I hope they are all fixed now. No wonder most people use their SUVs as a family car to the hockey games, carrying back from Home Depot and not off road. BTW, it will be cool to see more off road gear on your trooper, like light bar on the roof, front tow wrench, something like Land Rover Discovery.

paisan

My Trooper got smackedup on the Garden State Parkway!

I was pulling out of a toll barrier and this tool who was in the left side breakdown lane pulled out into traffic w/o looking, smacked right into my door! I don't know of many people who have gotten damage from the trail, unless they are nutz like my buddy with his Montero.

I just put on an ARB front bumper/bullbar, replacing the stereo with an MP3 player and will be putting in some guages. Later in the spring I'll be adding a 1" spacer to my 2" lift springs for a total of 3" of lift. And will be putting on 305-75-16 tires v. 245-70-16 stockers.

-mike

lok888

steve281 (and anyone) - Regarding the post no. 2114, see post no. 153 on Lexus RX330 forum.

lok888

It rained all day yesterday and it became snow this morning after several days of 50+ warm temparture. here in MA. It is the same storm system which dumped nearly a foot of snow in CO. I applied the Rain X on the windshield, windows and side mirrors. It's a very good product. Again, I found no windshield noise. It is nearly 4000 miles and it runs great.

tmflaherty

Hi

Iam a new Sorento EX owner and cannot figure out how to change the climate control to Set/read in Farrenheit. Any suggestions?

lok888

For U.S. model.

bobboct

I think that you need to hold down the UP button for a few seconds to change to Farenheit.
I had the same question - It's detailed in the Owners manual..

lok888

Are you sure that we can change that (AMB reading) from Farenheit to Celsius? What about the temparture reading for the cabin (Sorento with auto climate control)? I think U.S. version of the Sorento only has Farenheit reading. And when you said press UP button for few second, do you mean the Temp. button or the Fan speed button. These are the only two buttons with UP and Down. I will double check the owner's manual. BTW, why do you folks care?

yosorento

Hold the AMB button down and the down tempurature arrow for at least three seconds.

This will change the readout from Celsius to Farenheit.

Our Sorento came with the display set to Celsius as well.

bobboct

Sorry - I do not have Climate Control. Mine is only outside temp indicator --
B

luvmysorento

One day I am driving my Sorento on a 70 degree day with the sunroof open and the windows down feeling the wind whip through my hair...the next day I am grabbing my winter coat and watching the snow pile up on the grass. This weather is weird! This weekend is supposed to be warm again. I plan on waxing my Sorento with this stuff I got at a flea market. It leaves a glassy shine. It's funny because your vehicle can be dusty on the outside but you can still see the shine coming through underneath! The guy doing the demo lit his BMW on fire. I am not planning on lighting the Sorento any time soon!

hciaffa

I beleive I noticed your Sorento on the 28th. It's a Indigo blue with biege caldding right? My wife and I were going to Stratford on 5/15 and she lets out a yell that she finally see's a Sorento heading north. I believe it was yours. I know people are buying them but to see one is far and few between. We have only seen 2 others around.

hciaffa

I had been noticing a whistling and wind noise coming from the driver door or window and I was going to get around and see if I could pin point the area. I tend to be anal on noises and rattles. Must stop noises and rattles, (this was the only annoying thing so far with our Sorento). But I installed the Weather Tech window visors which mount to the inside of the window channel and lo and behold the wind noise subsides and the whistling sound is gone. Probably the channel wasn't seated properly. The visors are nice but the tinting is on the light side compared to other brands. I also attached the front bug shield. I will be looking for some 3M protective tape though because the shield covers only the top portion of the hood and not along the sides of the grill. This shield even though its a Kia brand is different than the ones sold in Europe and in Korea. Kind of enhanced the Sorento's look.

lok888

Still not too many. There are many 4Runners, XC90s, H2s and Elements on the road. And that makes it one of the kind.

larch99

Back in February, Nymphetamine posted a link to a pic that showed a Sorento with a nice set of wheels and this awesome looking front grill. Has anyone determined the origin of the grill, by any chance? I just cant take my eyes off of it when I look at this pic! I MUST have one!
Heres the link:

http://www.sorento-forum.de/images/nl_dezember/DSC014073.jpg

lok888

larch99 - It looks great and unique! Isn't it? For the wheels, I think you can go back and see several posters found out the wheel size and style, some 18" tires & wheels. For the chrome grille, I think the owner mentioned some imported parts from Korea. That looks like a Sedona type grille. And I believe that is an European Sorento with side marker and headlamp washers. I think the owner changed the turn signals from amber to hyper white bulbs. However, that guy gave no email address on his profile.

lok888

larch99 - That is a Korean model. The guy also gave the site for the company which sells the wheels. www.mijinauto.com The wheel is BAZO, BA-4, 18" wheel. The company is in Korea. Hope this helps!

sandmann

@lok888

Yes you are right, it's a Korean Sorento. Tom, the webmaster from www.sorento-forum.de tried to import this grill from Korea, but he wasn't successful.
But he found another Grill (nearly as nice) with the Korean KIA front logo.
You may wann check his new established Online-SUV-Store @ www.suv-tuning.de
The price for that Grill is EUR 150 incl. 16% German Salestax plus EUR 6,90 Shipping/Handling inside Germany. Send Tom an email (info@suv-tuning.de) and ask him if he is willing and able to ship them to the US!
http://www.webmart.de/wmshop.cfm?ID=31710&ProductID=235- 787&CID=52753&do=detail

lok888

sandmann - Thanks for the info. But I prefer the existing front mesh grille with KIA logo. The red oval KIA emblem (like the one on Sportage) would be nice too.

Also, nice pictures found on www.sorento-forum.de Check out the indigo blue EX with raised roof. And the black Sorento on snow. There are many links to many Sorento forums in their country. Pretty much like edmunds (Car Discussions) with pictures or videos.

mcclutz

I was just taking a peek at the Volvo XC90 forum, and all us Sorento owners will be happy to know Volvo owners who have paid some $20,000 more are getting 16MPG as well and some as low as 12-13MPG. Also, there will soon be a recall for a parking brake problem with that vehicle. Long live the solid, value driven, problem free Sorento!

venanzik

I have been following the introduction of the sorento since its soon to be released status, and to this day i have seen only 2 sorentos on the road. I guess this is good if you want exclusivity but was just wondering how well they have been selling and if they have still been going for MSRP or less. Also, i have a 97 jeep grand cherokee and was wondering if anyone went from a jeep like this to a sorento and what their thoughts are.

luvmysorento

I have seen two more Sorentos this week in traffic! I saw a Silver one and an Aqua Blue LX. I usually drive down the road scouting for the KIA emblem on the grill. I have yet to see another Indigo Blue in my area. I think I will be a little bit disappointed if I do see one. I like having the only one like it around because I get alot of compliments on it. My son said he saw an Indigo Blue EX in Pittsburgh last weekend but it was decked out with the visors over the windows and sunroof. He said it looked awesome. Now I'm saving my pennies for sport visors too. I also want to get those KIA emblem lugnuts and it would be nice to get that bumper guard with SORENTO on it. Anybody know where you can get that? Is it going to be available in the US?

lok888

luvmysorento - I agree. I have seen more XC90, 4Runner and Element than Sorento on the road. It is a great SUV, isn't it? It makes my beige EX look like one of the kind. You can find the accessories from the following sites: www.kiausaparts.com and www.mats.com
For the rain visors and WeatherTech rubber floor mats, I prefer www.mats.com My dealer still don't have any information on the bumper guard and side steps yet. There are some cool stuffs from www.suv-tuning.de (click on the picture of Sorento). Nice pictures. You won't believe how much people love their Sorentos. German only.

lok888

venanzik - I am not in the market since I bought mine in December. There was a discount. $1500 under invoice, if I remember. Mine is EX 4WD with torque-on-demand. If you do your homework (edmunds or Kelly Blue book websites), 3 to 5 % over invoice is the deal. Just let you know the price went up since early this year. For example, my EX 4WD (MSRP) was $24100. It is now $24700. The MSRP for the options are also went up. The dest. fee was from $495 to $595. No more Sorento under $20000 now. Hope this helps. Good luck!

rcnnc

If any KIA Tech's frequent here, please check out Article # 310 under Discussion Group "Kia Sorento Problems" rcnnc "Kia Sorento problems" Apr 4, 2003 9:48am!make=Kia&model=Sorento&ed_makeindex=.ef10cd3

Thank you ...

lok888

Sorry to hear this. I am not a mechanic. And I know this sounds like wild goose chase. But give this a try, www.bochkia.com/service/ and send them an email about your Sorento. I found one guy in parts dept. which is very helpful. Anyway, they will tell you bring the car in and take a look. It's difficult to discuss that over the phone or email. Good luck!

brooklyn1951

venanzik- I had a '94 JGC with quadra-trac,the 4.0L engine and up-country suspension. I sold it in January after I bought the Sorento. The jeep had 136,000 miles- but not trouble free. The engine short block was replaced twice under warranty, the transmission once on my dime, the PCM and A/C evaporator under warranty, the rear axle on my dime. The good parts- mileage was 21 mpg on the highway, good handling on and off road and a good interior fit for me as well as ample storage space. The bad- the transmission always shifted rough and the engine was noisy.
In comparison, the Sorento has a silky smooth engine and transmission. The engine is so quiet, that the other day I attempted to start it while it was still running-Ouch! The Sorento is more roomy both in front and back seating, except headroom is tight for my 6'4" frame up front. Rear cargo area is smaller than the JGC, but still large enough to hold my 55lb dog confortably. Gas mileage is not as good as the GC- only about 18 mpg on the highway- believe the EPA sticker. Acceleration seems about equivalent to marginally better than the JGC- but only instrumented testing can tell. Ride comfort is slightly more jiggly than the JGC- even with the up-country suspension option on the JGC. Handling seems to be about equal for both- but again, instrumented testing would be more definitive. Towing capacity is better for the JGC- 5000 lbs vs. 3500 lbs for the Sorento. But perhaps the newer Sorentos have the higher capacity tow hitch that has been promised- the vehicle is capable of more than 3500 lbs. Fit and finish are worlds apart- in fact the quality of the Sorento was the reason I chose it. The Kia warranty was also an added incentive.
In short, if the headroom is adequate for you, you don't need the towing capacity of the V-8 JGC, and the 18 mpg of the Sorento is acceptable, go for it.
I also might add that this is the first Asian vehicle that I have bought new. Kia was never initially a vehicle that I would have considered to replace my JGC- but I was blown away by the fit and finish, warranty and value. A loaded EX cost about the same as a base JGC Laredo back in December- it was a no-brainer.

rcnnc

Thanks for the information. I will inquire with them to see what information they might offer.

Thanks again!

lok888

No problem. You may not find any answer from them. As my last oil change there last month, they had not serve any Sorento with mechanic problem, except the dry door hinges on mine. Be sure let us know what's going on.

venanzik

that was exactly the explaination i was searching for ... our jeep has been faithful so far (knock on wood) but it sure does creak and groan and shake when you hit minor bumps (very common where i live, PA) I too was really impressed with the interior quality of the sorento but i have yet to drive one. I would like comparable fuel mileage though (maybe it will get better with time?) thanks for your time. ......by the way regarding sightings..i still have only seen 2 sorentos but during my lunch break today i saw 3 different H2 Hummers and 2 volvo X90....who wants a hummer they are all over....

saber86

I just checked the kia webpage and it looks like sales of sorento is on a steady pace with just over 3k units a month. What I find interestig is following quote from peter butterfield ceo of kia motors usa. Here is the quote “We’re seeing particularly strong volume for Rio, Spectra and Sedona, and if we could increase our supply of the new Sorento we’d be even farther ahead of the industry pace.”


I also noticed at the local kia dealer, they have not received any new sorentos in about 2 months now. They are getting new vehicles in but just not sorento.

How is it in your part of the world?

lok888

At least two locals dealer posted 30 to 35 Sorentos in stock (you pick your model and color). Is it because people are not buying any new car at these days?

saber86

Do you know how often they update their website? Lot of the dealers don't update their inventory numbers on their website regularly.

rcnnc

Well - I am back - I called the dealership you mentioned and explained my situation to them. They had not had anything and therefore, had no suggestions.

I guess I am going to once again as that if anyone with similar issues as those found here rcnnc "Kia Sorento problems" Apr 4, 2003 9:48am , that they please let me know.

And if I am lucky enough that a Kia Tech might actually review it, please email me and let me know what I should have my dealership do. My email address is in my profile.

Thanks ...

StevePIII

I can pretty much guarantee that was me you saw. I travel up 5/15 every day to work. Oddly enough, there was one day this week I saw 3 Sorento's headed in the opposite direction, all on my way home from work one day. Could one have been yours?, what color is your Sorento?

lok888

saber86 - It could be true since I am not in the market for car since I bought one months ago. I haven't done any research since that time.

venzik - Drop a few emails to the dealers and tell them what you want to pay for the car. Getting one that you like shouldn't be a problem.

hciaffa

We were heading south to Stratford in the morning about 6:30 am and returned about 12pm. Ours is a Ivygreen with pewter cladding with a front bug/stone defector and side window visors. Like I said we have only seen about two or three so far and one was yours.
Funny story while waiting for my wife at the local CVS, a guy came out and was checking out our Sorento and did a double take on the front hood name plate. When he got into his BMW his wife said nice color for a Lexus and he said "not really a Lexus, it's a KIA!!!".

slan_canada

Hello everyone!

I read this forum for some months now but never took the time to register until today, when I saw some posts about the beautiful grill. I ordered my grill from Tom with the oval kia logo this week.

I will be the first one in canada, also in North America to have this great grill ! It's so cool to be unique ! But I will not be unique for long time because the grill seem to be very popular here !! hehe !!

I should receive it in the next 2 weeks. In april, I will put some options on my LX Sorento including the grill.

The Sorento is a great truck. It's the best looking Truck/SUV on the market for the price.

If you want to see some pics of my Black LX Sorento, take a look at my site:

http://www.powow.com/mysorento

hciaffa

While at my dealer to buy some Pewter touch up paint the you guys gave me the number (thanks again) was talking to some sales people and they were saying that they are having a hard time in getting their allotment. And like the other dealers in the area when they get the few that they get they is no trading from dealer to dealer. It seems that to be a Sorento owner is to be a rare breed.

dirk1970

I also want that chrome grill and have inquired at their web site. How much did you pay for shipping?
I have a silver LX but haven't noticed to many others yet. Liked your pics, should look awesome with that grill!

slan_canada

Hi dirk1970

I paid 23 euros for shipping to Canada via airmail.