My 8 year old Kia 170 k km 4 cyl. gas auto has started to behave very sluggish on acceleration and hills. No check engine light ; no mis-fire ; no smoke ; noleaks ; starts & idles fine ; Fuel economy is suffering as would be expected. Under light-footed driving it seems almost normal. Any ideas ? I keep thinking it could be clogged cat. converter but I've never had that before. John T.
ps : these 2 litre GDI engines have issues with internal premature wear - a class action law suit and some sort of hidden 10 year warranty exists apparently .. - could this issue lead to my symptoms ? .. I would have thought I'd see smoke and hear noise for valve / piston / crank / cam type problems. Dunno. John T.
snipped-for-privacy@ccanoemail.com wrote in news:muekuitsups5ud0gcq2onltjoj2kmf5f4l@
4ax.com:
I've had a clogged catalytic converter on two vehicles. One was still under warranty, the other was not. In both cases, the symptoms were exactly as yours. Driving on level roads was fine, but once I started to climb, especially a steep climb, I sometimes didn't think I was going to make it to the top.
Everything else was fine. Started fine, no misfires, no check-engine light, etc.
Good luck.
Much thanks. John T.
Go up the steepest hill you can find with a carload of passengers and the windows rolled down . If the cat is clogged it will hiss . Once you've heard it you'll always recognize it .
Most likely issue on THAT car is carbon build-up on the intake valves. The "fix" is walnut hull blasting the back of the valves - through the intake ports. I believe they pull the intake and blast the intake ports with the valves closed and vacuum out the mess then blow it clean and wash it out with solvent. The dealers have the equipment. MAY be covered by a good-will policy, but I wouldn't count on it - maybe 11000 Km ago -- - -
Foding the intake with SeaFoam or CRC intake valve cleener or liquid Moly Valve Clean or ATP AT-100 intake blaster may also do the job - at under $50 Canadian - many of them under $39 it would be worth a try
The 2 people that I know, who had this engine fail, both had failure while driving - flashing engine light + limp mode. I don't know if they had this symptom leading up to it. Thanks for the reply. John T.
Is this the sort of treatment you're talking about ?
How fast can you go in limp mode? I mostly drive around town, not very far, I'm in no hurry, and I could play the role of an old man, and maybe I could just save on repairs by just limping along.
... probably why mine is carboned-up - I drive like an old woman. John T.
Thanks, I'd never heard of them making noise. John T.
I think googling is damaging to the traffic level here, but I did it anyhow: How fast can I drive in limp mode? This depends on what parameters the manufacturer has set, in most cases you will be limited to no more than
30mph to 50mph and will not be able to rev the car above 3,000rpm or change into higher gears if it is an automatic.Sounds good. 30 to 50 is enough for me. I don't go higher than 3000 most of the time.
Just wondering... How long since you changed the spark plugs?
And... the engine air filter?
The 3 I know had absolutely NO symptoms - just total catastrophic failure - one other one it never failed but rattled like a cold diesel and drank oil like a 2 stroke. all 4 got free engines. One at
240,000KM (the rattler) and one at 208000KM. My sister's grenaded at under 70,000KM under normal warranty
That is the CRC product I mentioned.I would use that product twice.About 500KM apart. - then every 15000Km thereafter
If the check engine light is flashing drive it JUST far enough to get it out of the live lane of traffic unless you want to spend a LOT of un-necessary money!!!!
TAke anything Scotty K has to say with a grain of salt and an alka-seltzer. What an opinionated know-nothing asshat.
Neither one will produce the symptoms reported without throwing a code and lighting the CEL- and from my experience the OEM plugs on that car are generally still VERY serviceable at 170,000KM - but I would never leave them in that long
Spark plugs are original ; numerous air filters. John T.
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