Kia Sephia brakes
I recently drove my son's 99 Sephia. The brakes
were very sluggish at speeds over 20mph, you could
actually feel the pumping thru the pedal!
The braking distance seemed to be too far, but it
always seems to take longer to stop than it does
when you must stop....
I had him take the car to the dealer and have them
checked- while he was explaining the problem to
the service area, everyone else in line said "Me
too!"
Does anyone else have a similar problem? I'll let
you know what happens at the dealer- he just
brought it today.
were very sluggish at speeds over 20mph, you could
actually feel the pumping thru the pedal!
The braking distance seemed to be too far, but it
always seems to take longer to stop than it does
when you must stop....
I had him take the car to the dealer and have them
checked- while he was explaining the problem to
the service area, everyone else in line said "Me
too!"
Does anyone else have a similar problem? I'll let
you know what happens at the dealer- he just
brought it today.
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Comments
98 and 99 Sephias are having problems with warping rotors. Most people say that the dealer replaces them with the newer, less warp-prone rotors with no hassle. Check out the Kia forum in "sedans" for more info.
-cr
I have the same trouble with my brakes. I have a 98 Sephia, and I just thought it was the result of the driver who owned the car for a year before I did. I'm glad I'm finding this out now, especially since I'm still under warranty, and I shouldn't have any trouble taking it to the dealer.
I had the front brakes replaced two times so far.
When I was scheduling the second replacement, I was told by the dealer serviceman, that the problem stems from the new laws passed 'outlawing asbestos materials in brakes'. He said Kia isn't the only dealer with the problem. He specifically mentioned GM as having this problem. Can anyone verify this information?
CF
I have a 97' Sephia and had voiced my concerns and problems in the forum over a year ago with the car! After getting some feedback from the forum, without any recourse, I simply gave up feeling I was trapped with that piece of junk with nowhere to turn. Some of the folk on the forum simply ditched their KIA's and bit the bullet as they were up-side-down in their loan. I knew I could not afford to do that. My primary complaint was with the brakes though the car rattles terribly and has other minor faults. I did make inquiry with the dealer where my car was serviced, while under warranty. After it fell out of warranty, the dealer had a different song & dance!! Lanham Ford, in Lanham, Maryland is the dealership and the service manager maintained that there was no way he could tell whether or not my rotors warping was the true problem. Yet, when it was under warranty every 3 to 4 months I had to have the rotors replace. My thing is that the service receipt says "replaced rotors" but did they indeed replace them with NEW ones or simply shaved the ones that were on the car? I cannot prove that and I'm really pissed that in order to buy new rotors I have to go to KIA and pay close to $80.00 for each.
I plan on contacting Skertich@perdue.edu who has given me hope on getting KIA to be responsible for the junk they sell. Will be in touch .... later.
Good luck with those breaks...
I did have the problem with the brakes at about 4000 miles, but the dealer fixed it and replaced the pads & rotors with redesigned ones that will not warp the rotors. I'm at 7000 miles and no problems so far.
Many of the problems posted are not really car problems, but dealer problems. I imaging when the Kia network is larger it will be easier to find a good dealer.
In fact, the dealer that gives me such great service has the slimiest sales department ever. I wouldn't buy gum from these jokers. They are located less than a mile from my house and I drove 35 miles to another dealer to buy my Kia. But if I need anything fixed the service guys are right on top of it.
purchase the Alternator belt was loose, that was
the first in a long list of trips back for repair.
Twice for the brakes, rotors, wiper motor, fuel
pump, fly wheel. I too have a problem with the gas
gauge and fuel spitting out but with all the other
problems I forgot about them. The most recent
problem was two nights ago when my daughter was in
an accident.
She was doing about 30 mph, slid on ice and landed
head on into a tree stump. Put $3800 of damage in
the front end, pushed the bumper clear into the
fan, and neither of the airbags deployed!
For the past few days I've been researching, I
found 22 pages of complaints at the National
Highway Transportation Safety Administration
(http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/complain/compmmy.cfm
)These are all on the 99 model alone! I personally
have had 90% of the complaints on that site! I
have contacted a couple of other people who's
airbags did not deploy and they too have had a
multitude of other safety problems with their Kia.
One of the folks I wrote to suggested we get some
stories together and contact a news agency to get
something done, these aren't small problems, they
are SAFETY ISSUES! I don't care how much of a deal
the car was, it still has to be safe!
Anyone who is interested in making some noise,
PLEASE email me at jdavis@gis.net. I don't know
about you but I'm sick of spending my time at the
repair shop!
threatened that I would pursue the lemon law--of
course it took almost a year for this to happen.
My brakes had to be fixed 5 times during the
first year I owned the car; the rotors would
warp about every 3000 miles. The service
department explained that this was normal
for 98 Sephias. Supposedly, they installed
the updated pads/rotors the last 3 repair attempts
and it made no difference. In Washington State,
my recurring brake problems alone would have
qualified it as a lemon...I also had about
25 days worth of other problems with my car.
Kia Consumer Affairs treated me so poorly and
played so many stupid games with me that I will
never buy another Kia or recommend them to anyone.
A merely dissatisfied customer will tell maybe
10 or so people about his customer service horror
story. An extremely pissed-off person like me
will spend much of his/her free time sharing
the experience with as many people as possible!
I hope Kia goes out of business for selling such
horrible cars and working hard and treating customers so badly.
the rotors had to be replaced before we even gt to 3000 miles. Now at 13000 I find myself in the same position. After reading all these posts I have to ask you all, are the rotors covered under the 36000 mile warranty? I do not want to have to pay for them as it looks like a regular problem Kia is having. The only other problem with the car was at about 11000 miles the engine light came on. The service center in Fort Myers Florida tried to tell me that I was not closing the gas cap tight enough (bull hockey, I have trouble opening it since I close it so tight) turned out that a clamp had come loose. If you seem to have this problem make them check it! WE are a one car family so this is such a PAIN to wait all day, even with an appointment! To fix the last two recall items I was told I could not bring the car in until the end of the month and I have to leave it there all day. Considering they are on the other side of town and they offer no courtesy shuttle I think they should have a better system, dont you?
car....so don't buy a Kia!
Look what Kia doesn't want you to know:
J.D. Power 1999: Kia has the highest number of defects (twice the industry average) of any make and had the lowest customer satisfaction.
Consumer Report 1999: Ranked the Sephia among the worst ever tested; a car to avoid.
Strategic Vision Inc., 5 May 99: "Worst brand: with sixty-two percent of Kia's buyers reporting defects, 28 percent said it affected overall satisfaction with their purchase."
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found the 99 Sephia offered Poor (the lowest score) occupant protection in a crash.
It is quite apparent that the KIA headquarters is not willing to even discuss resolving the problem with their wacko rotors, so I'll have to resort to another means of getting rid of this car.
I did try contacting (via e:mail) the fellow who enlisted the help of an attorney in Chicago, but never got a response. Perhaps I made an error in his e:mail adress. I will try again, today.
With much persistence and continued nagging, I am certain I'll get KIA to cooperate. Like most of you, I don't even want another KIA or Korean car for that matter! I did contemplate a Huyandi, but I'm scared to death of having serious problems. I want to get out of the car, period!!
I cannot afford to lose money in trading in the car, however and as most of you already know ... the book value is a joke!! I'm highly disturbed by KIA's performance and the fact that KIA doesn't value its customers enough to build rotors that will not continue to warp time after time after time.
For the woman who asked about whether or not rotors are covered for the duration of the warranty - 36K miles, no they are not! Read your warranty booklet, closely, you'll see. I got that disappointing news when I took my KIA in thinking all was covered since I only had about 2,200 miles on the sucker!
Will keep in touch. May take the advice of the KIA owner who bought an entirely different rotor ... WAGNER. Heh, I've never had a car where the rotors warped!! My last car lasted almost 10 years without a single incident of having warped rotors. I know it is a KIA defect and KIA should pay for it; with GOD's help and the help of each of you, KIA will absorb the cost - not ME!!
I read that you took matters into your own hands, since KIA had lousy service when you attempted to get your rotors fixed, in addition to the fact that they told you rotors were not part of the warranty.
I've been told the same thing, but what I need to know, since you've put WAGNER rotors & pads on your car how has it been holding up? Would you recommend it to others? I see no immediate way to resolve this problem and I cannot continue to ride around with the rotors warped.
Please get back in touch & let me have a current update to your vehicle now that you've switched to WAGNER rotors. (email: ciddy55@hotmail.com)
My first problem occured about 1 week later. I took it to the dealer (not the one I bought it from) to have some very minor work done on it. They asked me to leave it overnight so they could work on it first thing in the morning. No problem I said. Wrong, BIG PROBLEM. The next morning I received a call from them telling me that my car had been broken into and that they ripped out my CD player (a factory one no less). This should have been my first clue.
Within 2 weeks I noticed a scraping sound coming from the right front tirewell, most noticable when I would turn a corner. I took it back to the dealer (which happened to be Carmax) and they fixed the problem by remachining the rotors (whatever that means). Now the only problem I seem to have with my brakes is that they make a high pitched noise when I press on them, however if I press harder it seems to disappear. I contacted the Kia dealer here in Tampa (both of them) and they quite simply told me to suck it up or fork over some Ungodly amount to fix it (not surprisingly it had just gone out from warrenty). I also encountered a problem with my fuel pump that took 3 tries to correct. (The check engine light kept coming on)
1. Loose gas cap....they told me that it is a common problem seeing as I had had an aftermarket gas cap. That was $12.00 to buy a new one.
3 weeks later:
2. Loose gas cap and bad ground wire. 3 hours later they said that it should fix the problem.
6 Days later:
3. The light comes on again so I call the dealer. It will be a month before they can fit me in unless I want to try to drop it off first thing in the morning. NO! Finally by the time they can see me it turns out there has been a recall on something to do with the fuel line. I was not a happy camper that day seeing as I had not received a notice telling me this information.
I have basically decided to fix what is absoletuly needed to maintain my car but I will not be spending anymore than that to repair anything.
I am trying to do the same thing as you, to KIA to buy back the lousy vehicle. I realize that although KIA has had numerous complaints, they will hold out to the bitter end in bringing resolution to the hundreds of dissatisfied customers.
I am going to look into buying rotor pads that have "fins" on them, however, I am going to take the advice of a KIA owner who put WAGNER pads and rotors on his KIA. I figure, how much worse could that be, because I AM CONVINCED KIA makes defective rotors.
I hope to get this work done by the end of April. Listen, if you have not already contacted NHTSA, do so. They will take your complaint and register it. The call only takes a minute! Every weapon we can use, will assit in getting results.
it may cost a franklin or two but it would be worth it compared to all the hassles.
otherwise i think the kia are pretty well made cars.
just go see all of those outraged vw consumers in the jetta gls, and beetle forum, etc.
the vw's are absolutely horrendous.
go check out the vw forum's and see for yourself!!
post #35, I am a very satisfied VW owner. You can't compare a "made in Korea out of recycled
beer cans" (KIA) to a fine German engineered automobile. There is NO comparison whatsoever. There is no excuse for Kias crappy performace and safety issues -- issues which are unheard of in
Volkswagens. So, for all of you Kia owners who got burned by Kia, I'm sorry for your inconvenience. All I can recomend is that you steer clear of cheap cars. If you can afford a german or japanese car, you should be much better off than you would be with an American or Korean
automobile.
most of the issues with the sephia are with the brake rotors anyways. rotors can be easily replaced plus somebody said in a previous post that kia has found a solution. the brake pads were the culprit?
anyways the vw is a really generic car and coming from germany we all know that that country's extremely high labor rates have a lot to do with the over-pricing of the cars. they must drink a lot of beer over there.
if you can't afford the mb or the bmw or porsche don't get a german car. they are sub par. even bmw, mb and porsche does have its share of problems but nothing like the safety and drivability problems of the vw. just go look at the new jetta forum!
i would take the kia sephia over any vw golf or beetle, jetta anyday and save a lot of money and headaches.
the koreans have come a long way.
Also another thing to go wrong, a hose busted while driving on the freeway, sending coolant everywhere throughout my engine comparment. This happened at 10k miles. It still has not run the same since. Also since having the "recall" work done, everytime I back up, my car idles high and low if I do not or barely press the gas peddle.
As for those that blame the dealers, it's really not their fault. *Not* every Kia has this problem. I work in cellular sales, and there are some phones that are cheaper, but don't work as well, but we still have to sell them to make money. But since working the job I do now, and having hte car I have, I've learned with anything electronic, "you get what you pay for".
So far the brakes are smooth since I had the new rotors and pads put on before my last post (04/12). Hope they continue to be so. I haven't tried to go further with the lemon approach, though now realize that the seatbelt releasing while driving is a problem others are having and should be fixed by Kia. Have not gotten to talk to the dealer about this. Am concerned for the poor performance in the crash test, the air bags not opening for people along with the seatbelt issue as my son is about to start driving so am thinking of just selling the car. Have no real complaints about the engine, but think those of us with '96 cars with the Mazda-inspired engines seem to be in better shape than those with later models made by Kia. Have been looking through the ads in Puget Sound and have noticed dealers are asking quite a lot for used Kia's so this may be the way to go if you want to get out of yours - maybe they're holding their value better than some would like us to believe.
I guess KIA finally found the correct metal alloy. Other than the brakes, I have had no problems with my little red KIA. I just drove it to Las Vegas and back from San Diego.
It's small and noisy, but it works.
Now, the body work is shoddy and my dashboard cracked in the Maryland summer sun last year, but Kia replaced it at NO CHARGE!
I too will be trading the car in next year, but hopefully it will continue running well until then.
Good luck to all others out there.....
Have you looked in the Sedans or SUV conference yet. This conference has mostly problems in it, by design. You will get a much more balanced viewpoint in the other conferences.
Your host, Bruce