Hey gang, haven't posted in a while since it's my wife's car. I bought it new for her, and it only has 16,900 miles in 2 years. I don't remember it using oil initially, but now it's burning about 1/2 the difference from min to max on the dipstick (about 1/2-qt???) every 2K miles. I know it's within the normal range, but it was burning that in 5K miles when new, and now it's burning twice that amount. I topped off the oil at 2K miles, and now it's again at half the dipstick min to max at 4K miles on the oil. Is it normal oil consumption for all SXLs??? More concerning than the oil is the coolant. I had to top off coolant quite a bit from new, as expected. But it has kept using coolant, and I can smell it sometimes, but have failed to see any evidence of a leak anywhere. Looked all around the turbo housing, and nothing. Looked at the radiator hoses and connecitons, and nothing. Also no obvious leak in front or anything, due to road debris. Do any other owners have the same problem??? Thanks.
But most concerning of all, just got a letter from Kia saying 2016 to 2018 can have 'excessive connecting rod damage', like if ANY conn-rod damage was acceptable, so it seems to me like it's not a matter of 'if', but 'when' it will happen. And worst of all, the stupid 'fix' is that Kia will make the knock sensor super sensitive to detect that damage, and when that happens, engine will switch to limp mode (2K rpm/60-mph max), and you're supposed to immediately take the car to a dealer. That basically renders the car useless for trips, which is about 2/3s what this car is used for. Letter says Kia will warranty the engine for the life of the car (don't know if it's transferable or not, but it doesn't matter for us original owners), but the kicker is that if you put miles on the engine in limp mode (like if on a trip or something), the engine warranty won't apply due to 'abuse'. WTF? Has anybody here have had an engine failure due to this? Another question: At approx how many miles is this happening, or supposed to start happening? I need to know to see if I need to cut my losses and trade this POS, or if I can hold on to it a bit longer, since I only have 17K miles now. Will some of you elect not to do this campaign for a while? Any comments welcome folks. Highly disappointed with this letter. Thank you.
JC
But most concerning of all, just got a letter from Kia saying 2016 to 2018 can have 'excessive connecting rod damage', like if ANY conn-rod damage was acceptable, so it seems to me like it's not a matter of 'if', but 'when' it will happen. And worst of all, the stupid 'fix' is that Kia will make the knock sensor super sensitive to detect that damage, and when that happens, engine will switch to limp mode (2K rpm/60-mph max), and you're supposed to immediately take the car to a dealer. That basically renders the car useless for trips, which is about 2/3s what this car is used for. Letter says Kia will warranty the engine for the life of the car (don't know if it's transferable or not, but it doesn't matter for us original owners), but the kicker is that if you put miles on the engine in limp mode (like if on a trip or something), the engine warranty won't apply due to 'abuse'. WTF? Has anybody here have had an engine failure due to this? Another question: At approx how many miles is this happening, or supposed to start happening? I need to know to see if I need to cut my losses and trade this POS, or if I can hold on to it a bit longer, since I only have 17K miles now. Will some of you elect not to do this campaign for a while? Any comments welcome folks. Highly disappointed with this letter. Thank you.
JC