2.6

hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
57,000 miles

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problem #1

Oct 102003

Sephia 4-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 57,000 miles
I own a 1998 Kia Sephia and ever since I have had this car it sometimes will not start even the battery is working fine. The dealer remedy for this is just replace the starter. I have replaced the starter several times and this seems to provide a cure temporarily. Just recently I had this happen again... I had it towed to a local mechanic that had just again replaced the starter for me...this time he took the starter back to the rebuilder and there was nothing wrong with the starter...the mechanic did some more searching and found the the solenoid that was designed to need a minimum of 11 volts to start was only receiving 7 volts....the mechanic felt the this was a design fault with the car. The starter rebuilder recommended the use of an alternate solenoid from an early model Ford that only required 6 volts....with this fix the car has been starting very well... the problem that I am having is that with all of the Kia high paid engineers why couldn't the figure this out....

- Springfield, IL, USA

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