The car kept spewing oil all over the driveway. We couldn't figure out why or how because there were no signs of oil leaks around the engine. It did this for 3 weeks on and off, until finally it became chronic and you could see the radiator overflow tank spewing oil!! That's right! Engine oil was coming out of the coolant overflow/fill tank!
We immediately took it to the stealership to get a diagnosis. There's an oil cooler that sandwiches between the oil filter and the engine. A coolant line runs from the water pump to it to circulate chilled water from the radiator in an attempt to lower the oil temperature going to the turbo. This cooler is prone to failure and when it does the cooling system gets pumped full of oil. This could happen any time/anywhere and you would never no it until the engine locks up from running out of oil.
This is a VERY BAD DESIGN!! There should be a recall on this part AFTER Kia has a retrofit part that is more reliable. At a bare minimum there should be a SENSOR to let the PCM know there is engine oil circulating through the cooling system. The part that failed was only about $200. For Kia to stand behind their repair we had to agree to replace the entire cooling system!! This is why the total cost of the repair was over $1900.
The car kept spewing oil all over the driveway. We couldn't figure out why or how because there were no signs of oil leaks around the engine. It did this for 3 weeks on and off, until finally it became chronic and you could see the radiator overflow tank spewing oil!! That's right! Engine oil was coming out of the coolant overflow/fill tank!
We immediately took it to the stealership to get a diagnosis. There's an oil cooler that sandwiches between the oil filter and the engine. A coolant line runs from the water pump to it to circulate chilled water from the radiator in an attempt to lower the oil temperature going to the turbo. This cooler is prone to failure and when it does the cooling system gets pumped full of oil. This could happen any time/anywhere and you would never no it until the engine locks up from running out of oil.
This is a VERY BAD DESIGN!! There should be a recall on this part AFTER Kia has a retrofit part that is more reliable. At a bare minimum there should be a SENSOR to let the PCM know there is engine oil circulating through the cooling system. The part that failed was only about $200. For Kia to stand behind their repair we had to agree to replace the entire cooling system!! This is why the total cost of the repair was over $1900.
- Jim R., Cordova, US