I just got off the phone with Kia after completing my third visit for the oil consumption monitoring as I was losing 1-1/2 quarts of oil in 650 miles. My car is a 2011 Optima with only 63K miles on it now. This has been going on for the last 10K miles and only getting worse. Jacob at Kia said that my engine is out of standard manufacture warranty and any diagnostics to figure out what the problem is would be an out of pocket expense. If my engine rod bearings went out then it would be covered under their recall warranty but that is only if the bearings went out. So basically they wan't me to find out the problem at my expense so they can relay that info onto other shops to avoid another class action lawsuit and recall.

They said they have investigated this plenty of other times and that some of the instances required the engine to be replaced but he wouldn't tell me what the underlying cause was. Kia knows this is an issue and even their own representatives on the phone as well as service staff at the dealership know this is an issue as they all told me so. They just don't want to be on the hook for fixing it; most likely since a class action lawsuit hasn't been filed yet that I am aware of. I could tell Jacob was just regurgitating their standard warranty policy and even tried to throw in that if anything other than the rod bearings were the cause for this issue, then it would be considered normal engine wear and I would be responsible for the costs. I told him that an engine failing under 100K is not normal engine wear especially at 60K miles! I'm not happy with Kia for not owning their design/manufacturing mistakes and correcting them and would never consider purchasing another Kia or Hyundai again, as this has been our second of their vehicles.

When I took my car in for an oil change, they said my oil was black. Shocked, I asked them why, and he said my oil change was overdue, but it was not! My boyfriend always changes it, I only brought it in because I needed to do some unexpected traveling and we thought it best to go ahead and do it early! And he didn't have time to do it, so I took it in.

Soon after it started to make a weird knocking sound and was going burning oil. We made an appointment to take it in, and after having my car all day, they found nothing. Fast forward about 8 months and it is burning about 2-3 quarts per 1000 miles. Guess I will take it in again. I hate to because I'm sure I will hear the same thing, and be inconvenienced for nothing.

I am the owner of a 2011 KIA Optima. First I would like to say that up until now I have LOVED my Optima. I have bragged about this car to anyone who would listen, as it had exceeded all my expectations. I had planned to soon buy another KIA, up until now!!! At approximately 97,000 miles, as I was driving, just a few blocks from home, the oil light on my Optima began to flicker.

As soon as I pulled in my drive, I went in and told my husband about it. He checked the oil and to our surprise, the oil wasn't even registering on the dip stick. He checked it 3 times just to be sure that this was the case. This was a total shock because the car had no signs of leakage and my husband does all of the oil changes so we knew that it had the required amount of oil in the engine when it was last changed. With the help of google, we discovered that this is a common issue that appears usually just before engine failure due to a manufacturing defect. I found documentation on the NHTSA website about a recall that would soon be issued for the said defect.

The following week I took my car to the dealer for a separate recall. While there, I communicated the issue with my car burning oil and asked about the recall that had yet to be formally issued for the engine. The dealership was, at that time, unaware that this recall was coming. The dealership told me to bring it back after I receive the engine recall notice. When I received the notice, I did what the dealership directed me to do, I took it back in.

The dealership tested my engine for the knocking sound, my car passed however because my car was burning so much oil (a quart per 1000 miles) the dealership told me to drive it and bring it back in 1000 miles and they would check to see how much oil it had burned and then they would go from there. At 900 miles, I checked and the oil was already at the “L” on the dip stick. I called the dealership and they said to bring it in. After checking it, the dealership confirmed that the car was indeed burning oil and they had opened a “tech line case” on it. They put more oil in the car and said they would be in touch as soon as they had word from cooperate on what the next steps would be.

A few days later I received a call from the dealership, they wanted to look at a few other things and needed me to bring my car back in. I dropped my car off with them yesterday. This morning I received a call from the dealership saying that corporate wants the dealership to investigate deeper into the engine however corporate will not pay for the work to investigate deeper. The work is $100/hour and they do not know how many hours it will take to find what they are looking for. If I pay for the investigation hours and they deem that the engine is defective, they will reimburse me but if they do not find what they deem to be a manufacturing defect then I will be right back at square one and will also owe a repair bill. I do not understand the logic of KIA at this point.

I am a consumer complaints manager for a very large corporation. I have extensive training and years of experience on how to handle consumer complaints. I thoroughly understand the importance of keeping the customer happy. A happy customer is a repeat customer and at the end of the day that is what keeps company’s in business. Asking a customer to pay for a consumer complaint investigation is unheard of and I feel that is what KIA is currently asking me to do. The oil burning issue began before the car was out of warranty, this was communicated with them before the car was out of warranty. I have done everything KIA directed me to do. It almost seems as though KIA is putting up just enough roadblocks to keep from having to fix an issue that they manufactured. This is not right, it’s not good business, and it isn’t how companies get repeat customers nor is it how companies stay in business long term!!!

I would like for KIA to do the right thing and fix my Optima. The dealership that my car is with has been nothing but helpful and courteous, they are not they ones dropping the ball, KIA is!!!! I am giving KIA the opportunity to do the right thing otherwise I will be forced to take further action.

Brought car in due to losing a quart of oil every 1000miles. The dealership had me bring back my car every 500-1000miles to check the levels. At 1st they didn't make me pay for anything, then after a couple times had me pay and then not again. Was starting to get very irritated so called the KIA office, and the person who answered the phone was very pleasant and apologetic. This is when I stopped paying. But then we got to the point when it was close to my warranty ending so I called KIA again, this time the person answering the phone said, "well of course you lose oil, that's why you have your oil changed"! Hmmm, now we do know that's not true!! Because I'm a girl I don't know!!! Then I took it back for my check, and they didn't see any sludge in the engine, but the oil was low. but because my warranty was passed (by 100 miles-even though they told me to bring in to check and that this would date back to when I brought in at 92,000 miles), they did nothing, and that it was low (did not fill back up), and said there was nothing more they could do!!! Of course after I had done everything they told me to do. Now the oil is not leaking on the ground, so has to be going into the engine, and God knows how long it had been happening, my husband happened to check. I feel like the car stutters once and a while, and had problems turning on, as if the battery was dead (not sure if related, it wasn't the battery). It makes me sad that this shop, and or KIA would treat me this way!!! I already work my life away, and is hard enough!! But now I have to worry that my car will die and I could be in bum %!@#$!!!!! Needless to say my 16 year old son shares my car. IT WOULD KILL ME IF SOMETHING WOULD HAPPEN WHEN HE HAS IT!!! But I have no choice!! I have to pay 2 more years on this car!!! IT SCARES ME!!!!! Thanks for listening!!!

I've had the car in twice for the oil problem and nothing has been done. The first time in they marked the dipstick with a sharpie, then told me to drive it a thousand miles then bring it back in. If it uses over a quart they will determine if the motor needs to be replaced and notify Kia.

I drove it 800 miles and it used over a quart, so I brought it in. The service manager told me that they didn't put enough oil in it in the first place and after adding the difference it had only used a half a quart. So apparently the Kia dealer doesn't know how much oil their car takes. Kinda hard to believe.

The problem that I'm noticing is that it is vaporizing the oil because it runs too hot. When I check the oil it is dark as though it is old and it's very hot and steaming from the dipstick hole and oil fill cap. In effect it is cooking the oil and must be burning it in the cylinders. It does not leak it. Also I have had two spark plugs replaced due to cracked insulators, which I attribute to running too hot. I cannot sell the car as is because of the problem and can't trade it in either. I do like the car and would keep it but I don't want to have to deal with the engine problem.