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Another description is it is like running over the little warning speed bumps before an intersection.
This is an intermittent condition and it does not trigger a check engine light. There is no rhyme or reason to it other than it occurs at about the same speed when it does happen.
Could this be a computer issue? Does the computer need to be flashed?
Any advice or assistance in determining what the cause is would be most appreciated.
It is just another item to emphasize as to why I would not buy another KIA vehicle.
One day I may wake up and decide, forget the smooth ride and comfort, I want a vehicle that is reliable. At that point, KIA is history, permanently.
as for the computer problems I as having, kia replaced the electrial conetion box under the driver seat. It must have been where the short was because I have not had any problem since then. knock on wood.
How much was the electrical box change?
Did you have the same symptoms both buckhorn and I described?
We have a lot of little issue with the vehicle. In fact we nicknamed the car Chuckie since we feel it is possessed.
We have issues with the climate control and the mirror recall settings. The vibration problem is just one more in a growing list.
We debate if it is worth while to get rid of it but who wants to buy a car that get 19 mpg average fuel economy.
It does ride and look nice.
When parking and trying to put the car in reverse our 2006 Amanti Kia lurched forward and accelerated down the street. I was the passenger and had unbuckled my seat belt in preparation of getting out of the car. Seeing that I was not belted in, I leaned over and saw that my husband had his foot on the brakes and not on the accelerator.
The brakes did not engage, nor could the car gear down. The car kept accelerating faster and faster. The car was steered around a turn and finally lost control due to the speed and crashed through two tree shubs, through a closed garage door, took out the main post in the garage, and hit the parked car in the garage. The airbags went off and the car stopped.
911 was called and my husband and I were taken to the hospital.
The car was totalled!
There was certainly something wrong with that car. It had only 20,000 miles on it.
So there is a case in Ohio where a driver had the same make and model and has 200K of personal injury and is permanently diabled. We are doing a video tape deposition for that case. Please read the post that I posted.
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Mar. 14 16:05 I received a call from the local KIA service manager. He stated that a TSR was out from KIA, authorizing the computer reprogramming. He wanted to set an appointment up. I asked him if they were going to put it in writing this time and he said yes. I made an appointment for Tuesday, @8:30.
Mar. 20 16:38 Took can to dealer. The following was written on the service order, “A customer requests that we reprogram the ECM as per TSB on Amanti.” “39110F26 ECU upgrade”. I will now drive it for a while and see what this upgrade has done.
Now, as for the upgrade, it made my vehicle to be under better control, with the braking/acceleration issues happening much more infrequently. Does it still happen now, yes, but more on a rare aspect, and out of the blue. So did the fix make it so that the car is more reliable--yes. Did it totally eliminate the problem--no.
The name of the lawyer that has the lawsuit against Kia is Charles Bendig out of Columbus Ohio. If you email me at joannlopez@neteze.com I will forward his email address to you.
Dealer replaced spark plugs, spark plug wires and coil packs and it has not had the problem since.
I have gone back to Kia Corporate to ask for a free repair and a request for a TSB and a recall. Cost was almost $900. I did file two federal complaints with NHTSA and the Center for Auto Safety.
Never buy a Kia or Hyundai. Kia is now partially owned(51%) by Hyundai. I asked for the used parts and the coil packs were for Kia and Hyundai.
I wonder how much of a Kia is really Hyundai (like a Lincoln or Mercury is really a Ford).
Before taking it to the dealer I had a friend drive it on the highway (with myself in the passenger seat)and had no problem until starting up again after filling up with gas when it accelerated with no gas depressed. No wreck due to their foot already on the brake. My friend admitted the problem as did the dealer I'd name the dealer but I do not know if the moderators will allow me to name the dealer or my city. e-mail me at subway-buff@mindspring.com and I'll give you the name of my local deal :mad: :mad: :mad: er.
Any thoughts?
Have or did you find out why this happens and how it can be repaired. My warranty runs out this October (extended warranty) Pat Hansen
Personally, I would get rid of it. With our accident, we could have been killed or we could have hit some of the people standing on the street.
By the way, the lawyer won the lawsuit against Kia!
Personally, I would never own another Kia after the life threatening problems that we had.
http://www.autoserviceprofessional.com/article/91532/kia-ecm-upgrade-with-tps-re- placement
http://www.forconsumers.com/carproblemsrecalls/Kia-Problems-Recalls/
http://www.kia-forums.com/1g-kia-amanti-opirus-forum/50690-sudden-acceleration-p- roblems-amanti.html
http://www.safety-db.com/en/nhtsa/odi/details/complaint/vehicle/664694/kia-amant- i-2005-vehicle-speed-control
http://www.allworldauto.com/comments/kia_amanti_comments_and_complaints_266-3425- 4-1.html
You are not illucinating and are not alone, others share your pain. :mad:
http://www.autoserviceprofessional.com/article/91532/kia-ecm-upgrade-with-tps-re- placement
http://www.forconsumers.com/carproblemsrecalls/Kia-Problems-Recalls/
http://www.kia-forums.com/1g-kia-amanti-opirus-forum/50690-sudden-acceleration-p- roblems-amanti.html
http://www.safety-db.com/en/nhtsa/odi/details/complaint/vehicle/664694/kia-amant- i-2005-vehicle-speed-control
http://www.allworldauto.com/comments/kia_amanti_comments_and_complaints_266-3425- 4-1.html
You are not illucinating and are not alone, others share your pain. :mad:
We contacted Kia based on legal advice to report the accident. I did get a call back the next day to acknowledge that they had gotten my message and was told that I would be contacted by someone else at Kia within the next couple of days. They contacted me as asked me what I wanted them to do and I told them that I wanted to be reimbursed for the medical for my husband and I and for pain and suffering. I had to take three week off work at a very critical time on the job. I told them that we had the car stored in a storage unit, if they wanted to send someone to check it out. They said someone would be contacting me soon.
A couple of months later, I got a message from Kia and I thought that was the follow-up that I had been told that they had promised me. Unfortunately, it was not. It was the day before my husband and I were to testify as a witness in a video tape disposition against Kia in the law suit out of Ohio. (By the way, the lawyer won that case). Unfortunately, it was someone from Kia wanting to know what we were say when we testify. Kia was really concerned about us, weren't they?
That was the last time I heard from Kia (Oct 2010). No lawyer would touch us as we were not injured enough to make a suit against Kia worth while. Our medical bills were around $10,000 total. In April this year, we sold the car for salvage, after paying a year and a half of storage on that piece of junk at $145/month.
I agree that Kia is not in the business to worry about the safety of their drivers, but to make profits.
My agent KIA have no idea what can be wrong. They can hear and feel but clueless.
What did he changed ?
Plus, if you shut off your car, the car cannot accelerate. IF you put it in neutral, it cannot accelerate. If you panic and step on the gas instead of the brake, it will accelerate. You know why Kia settled outside of court? Because they didn't want to pay the extra money to win the case. Why throw away more money to win a case but lose a ton of money. Doesn't make sense.
The acceleration issue with the KIA is more than just a 'turn off the key' scenario. When the vehicle accelerates, when it should not, the normal reaction of any party is to be temporarily startled. Depending on where your vehicle is, and its' surroundings, just turning off the key may not do you any good, such as:
1. You are sitting at a stop sign, seeking to turn left, across multiple lanes of traffic. Traffic is coming, from both directions, and the car surges forward suddenly. First instinct, hitting the brakes, the engine is in high revs, and the car still moves forward, although slowly. The initial surge, and continued slow movement of the car forward has placed you into the intersection, into the path of on-coming vehicles. Turning the engine off will stop the vehicle, in the middle of the intersection, in the path of vehicles potentially right on top of you. NOT a good situation. Yes, I went through a situation almost similar to this. Fortunately, the on-coming truck was able to swerve around me, through a crosswalk, and gave me the finger while proceeding down the road.
2. If you are parked, with anything right in front of you, and the surge happens, case closed. Yep, you can cut the key off, as you have already hit what was in front of you.
3. My greatest fear, as I mentioned once before was in a KIA sitting stopped at a school crosswalk, with children walking across the street. The car surges, and you have zero time to stop it from hitting someone in the cross walk. The momentum from the surge will carry the vehicle immediately into the crosswalk, before you could hit the brakes, or cut the car off. The car would still be moving, after you cut the engine off. It would not help a person in the crosswalk.
Summarized, there are many bad situations where a surge would not leave sufficient time to do anything, to avoid a bad situation. This does not even include the fact that different people have different reaction times to emergency situations. It is easier to talk about doing the right thing, when you have the time to think about it, and rationalize it. In an emergency surge situation, you have to react quickly, with zero time to rationalize. Some people will panic and freeze, it is part of the human make-up.
There were too many people that had surge issues, which caused accidents. KIA would have lost and potentially would have put the Amanti in jeopardy of facing a 'recall', due to documented surge/braking issues. It was a LOT cheaper for KIA to settle the case. They did resolve the issue though, by stopping the production of the Amanti. This resolved their problem.
BTW, I went through the surging and the braking issues with my Amanti. I had parked my car and had not driven it for nine months, before the 'fix' came out. I considered the car dangerous to myself and others.
It used to be that there was a mechanical link between the brakes and the brake pads, and between the accellerator and the bakes, but with the implentation of many, many computers in the car controlling a lot of areas that used to be mechanical, there are conditions that exist where the computer logic doesn't work. You know how sometimes your computer just freezes. Well that happened our Kia accelerated had that accident.
Kia settled out of court because the trial had a hung jury. That was too close for Kia. All that one juror had to do was to vote for the client and the client would have won the case.
The laywer had found 8 cases across the United States that had documented acceleration problems with accidents. That is why we did a video tape deposition for his client. And I am glad that she won a settlement.