Posted: 1/9/2008 3:11:10 PM EDT
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My wife drives a 1999 Kia Sportage, has 80k miles, has never had a problem till now. She was pulling into her parking lot at work last night and the engine suddenly 'died.' 2.0 liter 4 cylinder. Has lots of fuel in tank, engine cranks over quickly. Had AAA tow it home, was wondering if anyone has any suggestions as to what to trouble-shoot? I wanted to remove a plug wire and attach another plug to determine if I even have ignition spark, but can't locate the plugs. I am suspecting the ECU since it is making no attempt to start. THANKS for any tips. P.S. I already told the wife that I was going to ask for help on ARFCOM, and for her to not be upset when most responders say to not have purchased the Korean P.O.S. in the first place! Thanks Again. Bill Edited to add, no engine trouble lights or any similar are on, all fuse are good, won't attempt to fire up. |
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Well, you have the right idea. The plugs are probably under some kinda plastic cover/shield that you'll have to remove, and/or they may have individual coils for each plug, I'm not familiar with how that engine is set up. Remember that an engine needs three things to run - spark, air, and fuel. Ideally, you'd want to install a fuel pressure gauge at the rail to make sure there's enough pressure and volume to run the engine. Just depressing the schrader valve (if any) isn't really a good indication of whether there's adequate fuel pressure and volume to make things click. You say the engine cranks over quickly...it's not really, really fast, is it? As if it had no compression? |
Timing belt would be a good worst case guess. Hard to say without listening to it try to statr, but if it turns over and sounds like it's turning really easy, then timing belt. Somewhere I have a pic of a car crusher that I have used a bitlately...lemme look.. Best of luck. |
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My brother had the exact same thing happen to him in his '99 Suburban. We checked everything, fuel pump, fuel filter, spark plugs, etc. We finally found out it was a crack in the distributor. Check to make sure you're getting fuel into the engine and spark at the plugs. Check a couple plugs, as the first one we checked on my brother's suburban was getting spark, but apparently none of the others were. If you're getting fuel and spark and it still doesn't start, you might check the distributor/rotor for cracks. |
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Some KIAs don't have plug wires as the separate coils are mounted directly to the plug. You have to remove a cover on top then the indiviual coil is held in place over the plug by at least one screw. You should be able to hear the fuel pump run when you turn the key on. If not the find the fuel pump reset button (probably in the trunk) and push it. If it is not a fuel problem it has to be electric. Look for loose connections, corroded contacts, bad grounds (most likely), or something wrong with the magnectic pickup for the crankshaft mounted ignition pickups. |
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A quick Google search indicated that 1999 Sportages did indeed use a timing belt. Your other symptoms match a broken timing belt - suddenly dieing (after absolutely no evidence of any problems), 80K on the existing belt (which is typically as long as a timing belt lasts) - It could be any one of several dozen other things, but the timing belt would be a prime suspect. |
| Diagnosing car trouble over the internet is pretty much a shot in the dark. I'm not real familiar with the KIA but it could be a number of things. Possibly the fuel pump. Could be a relay. Relays are located in the fuse box that is under the hood. As someone said the plugs are more than likely under something. These newer cars can be a treat to work on. Is it an OHC engine? If it has a distributor make sure the cap isn't cracked and the coil wire is on tight. That's the one in the center of the cap. It could be coil packs also but like I said I am not sure if the KIA has them or not..My best advice is to take it somewhere and seek knowledge from someone in the know... |
Have not had a lot of time to check things, but saw no obvious plug wires. Exhaust manifold is on drivers side, so I assume plugs would be on opposite side of block. Will have to get underneath the car and look up, as nothing is visible from the under the hood view, Thanks for the input. Thought maybe somebody had worked on one of these. |
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1. Check for spark. Normal fashion would be to pull a plug, and use a spark tester while cranking the engine. 2. If no spark, now you need to know why. This is what I'm guessing your problem is, and it sucks, because there are about 13 brazillion places from plug to battery where it can get fuzzed up, especially in newer vehicles. Could be a fusible link, could be a fuse, but what you'll need to do is using a fluke meter, start at the battery and keep tracing your way to the coil for power. At some point there won't be power, otherwise, if you have power all the way to the coil, then you can deduce it's the coil or distributor. This is an overly simplified generic explanation. |
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1)Is the fuel pump running? It runs for a couple of seconds with the ignition on or wile cranking over the engine, it makes at buzzing sound. Are the fuel injectors working? they make a clicking noise. 2)Does it have spark? the spark plugs should be on top of the engine if its a dohc http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff70/eques_02/kiaengine.jpg 3)Does it have compession? is it cranking slow, fast, or normally? is it sucking air in(intake)? blowing air out(exhaust)? |
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Okay I have put a cylinder head on a 99 KIA . So the spark plugs are under the black plastic strip in the center of the valve cover like a hemi you only have four. I would suggest checking that you hear the fuel pump come on when you turn the key on. If you hear it then pull a spark plug wire to check for spark I would guess it is probably the crank/cam shaft sensor that failed. |
It would still be sucking air in and out of the tailpipe, even if the valves aren't moving - so, you'd still notice some air movement. However, if the tailpipe is building up positive air pressure (i.e., valves opening and closing), then yes, you could rule out the timing belt. |
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Take the oil filler cap off. Take a flashlight and see if you can see the camshaft, valve spring or the rocker arm. MAKE SURE VEHICLE IS IN NEUTRAL AND THE EMERGENY BRAKE ENGAGED. Have someone crank the engine over and see if the camshaft is turning or other parts are moving. If it isn't you have a broken timing belt. If you can't see in the filler cap hole then remove some of the cam belt cover bolts and gently pull it back till you can see the belt. See if it turns when th engine is cranked. The mileage is in the range for a broken or stripped timing belt. If the water pump is turned by the timing belt it could have bad bearings and taken the cam belt out. The cam belt is doable at home. Make sure you have a means of holding the crankshaft pulley to break loose the cranshaft pulley belt. If you get a Gates Timing Belt Kit it will have the parts you need except the water pump and will have an instruction sheet. Other kits may have instructions but I've only used the Gates kits. I don't think it is an interferance engine but put the parts on and see what you get. I've had interfereance engines start and run fine after a broken timing belt. |
A good friend of mine just traded (Gave it to them) her Kia Sephia in on a Toyota Matrix. The dealership is also the Kia dealer and when she told them she wanted to trade it on a Toyo the Manager called everyone in to see the 'ancient' Sephia that she was driving!  It was a '97 model IIRC and they said it lasted longer than any other one they had ever seen. It had 135K on it and she has had many, many things go wrong with it but until now she really couldn't afford to get another one. BigDozer66 |