[Turbonut]

C'mon Kia, do better than the Chinese junk please!! I would have never thought to look at the endcaps of intercooler had others not had this same issue. This is pretty pathetic of Kia.

Glad you posted the problem and fix with a quick diagnosis.
Yup, you're not the first, and hard to believe these intercoolers commit suicide quite often, but as you stated,
it's a Kia/Hyundai.

 

[Turbonut]

In defense of Kia/Hyundai their build quality is quite good. I have had kia's/hyundais since 2001 and not one has ever left me stranded. I've been a car guy for 25+ years now and have had every sort of car from luxury to sports car you could imagine and it's not a bad car. Granted my 13 optima SXL cost me over 40K back in 13 so it certainly should be expected to be of decent build quality. I can tell you the interior build quality is better than my vette.

Dave

Must have an old Vette. Our '89 RX7 Turbo, we purchased new, along with the wile's old '04 Acura TL puts the Kia interior to shame. Also, got to disagree on quality, that's a word that Hyundai/Kia seems to forget. Our '08 Optima 2.4 was stellar, 298,000 miles, no drivetrain problems at all, no A/C problems, no suspension problems, ride was great, but now let's look at the crappy '11 2.0T. Along with the aforementioned problems, it rides like a truck, actually our F150 4x4 rides better, crappy what they call leather, but just one item is all we need to know about in the Kia/Hyundai line up, the horrendous DGI engine.

 

[Turbonut]

Well, I put S rated 55 series tires on the '11 and it made no difference in ride, still hard as a rock, and those tires when standing upright could be turned inside out when pushing on the tread. Also one could go to a larger sidewall, end up with a V rated XL tire and the ride would still be hard as a rock, if not harder

Also, not to be picky, but you state great cars, zero issues, but you had to have the engine replaced in the SX, and to me that's a pretty big problem. The VDC sucks, and let's not forget about the poorly designed turbo oil line that needed to be replaced, steering coupler that was junk and needed replacement, oil mix they sprayed under the cars because of excessive rust, and as I stated early, engine so bad that they give a lifetime warranty if the KSDS update has been done, just another way to give the owners the shaft, not a recall, an update.
At 224k I'm on my 4th nav unit, all rear suspension parts needed to be cut out, frozen solid, exhaust system rotted out, brake sliders terrible and even the rubber on the sliders expands and sticks, so just eliminate them, guess Kia never thought of that problem.
Terrible company, terrible product.

 

[Turbonut]

Maybe you didn't realize that Kia/Hyundai products were recalled for rotted sub-frames and rotted LCA's, junk metal, but to you 100% normal, but never had any other vehicle in the household have such serious rust problems, same house location. Maybe you ought to do more research on the crappy DGI engines. All manufactured with poor engineering, cylinder walls distort, rings wear, debris drops to oil pan, picked up through the oil pickup tube, clogs pump, no lubrication, engine seizes, junk. Bose is a sound system, similar to the Infinity in Kia, not the nav manufacturer. Incase you're not familiar with thIs system, when it goies out, nothing works, FM, Sirius/XM, so maybe you would ride around with no sound, not me.
Desensitized the knock system, just the opposite.

If you're happy with the car, that's all that counts.