Probably everyone that reads the threads !And one to get his hands dirty. I am still concerned that there is something else wrong. The plugs were bad, and probably needed changed long ago. But why did they all get fouled out at once? What was the burning smell? Which coilpack is nearly fried? Why own a Kia? Ooohps, wrong question!
Someone at work asked me why I was laughing. This was great. Yeah seems too good to be true, but let's not make him paranoid yet. But you know how it goes. If one thing goes right when working on your car, then you did it wrong.
Yea, but I learned that if you do enough things right eventually you will git-er-done! ---------------- Till something else goes wrong!:banghead3:
I really shouldn't pick on a Kia. Only met two other Kia's. One was a lemon, even though it was that ugly Kia green. The other a new Kia that seems okay so far. I'm sure they are as dependable as most new cars. They all scare me when I look under the hood. It just ain't right with an engine going sideways in your lap!
OK...I'll go on record here as the whipping post. Xavier has a lot of problems in his life right now and precious few resources to solve all of them. He has also, on a few occasions, related his little old lady driving habits. No offense meant, but, he has said that he drives slow and careful. He loved the Fox wagon he had and he would like another or one to his liking. With the above considerations it may just be better, at this time, for him to keep what he has until he is better situated. The Kia is not the wagon flash that most here love but it seems to me that it may serve his present purposes well. I know nothing about Kia's, but, in looking at the car it appears to be a simplistic, cheap to run, 4 cylinder. I know he has complained of all the problems he has had with it but, if you go back and read all those posts, the problems were not of a serious nature and were an easy fix. Again, no offense to Xav, he, admittedly, does not have car repair knowledge or experience so some of the small diagnostic and subsequent repairs were frustrating to him at the time. If he were to buy a V8 wagon in his price range I fear that he will be faced with even more repairs and expense to get the wagon up to snuff and the gas mileage would not be as good as his little 4 banger. It's my feeling, and I may be wrong, that maybe he should keep the Kia until he is settled in his new place and is aware of his new financial position. Yes, he could score a great wagon that wouldn't require much money to bring it up to good running standards but maybe not. I would love nothing more than to see him score a cherry wagon in his price range and be happy. But, with the things going on in his life right now....I would hate to see him roll the dice and lose.
If I remember correctly my speedometer goes up to 180+ mph. Now the KIA is not out of the woods yet but the trees are thinning out. We "borrowed" $200 from my bank account thinking that we were going to spend most of it on the car anyways and since the plugs only cost $10 + change and the anti seize at $4.30 we decided to celebrate by going out for a cheap meal and picked up the upstream O2 sensor. The O2 sensor looks a bit complicated but I am sure that I can do it no problems. It seems I will have to do some wire splicing, but I am good at that. There is something of concern that I noticed after I got the old plugs out. I have included some pics to show what I mean. I don't think that the plugs should have been covered in oil. In the pic of the plugs they are in order from left to right with 1 being the front of the engine. #4 was drenched in oil. In the pic I had wiped most of it off. I had to borrow a deep socket and an extender since the spark plugs were down inside the engine, and because my tools are a small collection of mismatched tools most of which being metric, and I have like 5 10mm sockets. Thanks again everybody. This car has been one thing after another and I couldn't have done it without your help. I would love to be able to do an engine swap someday. Maybe I will. Special thanks to Dewey for saving my @$$ yesterday. I had fun talking to you. Any time you want to talk, bro.
With plugs, the important thing to look at is the electrode/insulator. Those actually don't look too bad in that picture? Some parts stores will loan you a proper socket to pull a O2 sensor...I've heard they can sometimes be tricky to get out.
You have good points there, Fox. However, it does seem that we are still going to sell the car before we leave. There are a plethora of good places in Chicago that we can get and that are near public transportation. I can get an all access pass for cheap and ride anywhere to my hearts content. I do not in any way relish even the thought of not having a car and I think that Zoe was picking up on that as she sat outside with me for a while as I fixed the car. She knows how important it is to me. I don't have much in my life that makes me feel useful and a car is one of the most important things to me... So it is not set in stone. I noticed that she has been trying to find a place that has parking or that there is parking nearby. We will see. No I don't want to get a wagon that will cause me the same form of troubles that the KIA has. I feel or rather I believe that when the wagon I am supposed to have comes along I will know it when I see it. You are also right that many of the problems I have had with my car have been frustrating to me but were, in fact, quite simple. This is why I get so excited when I fix it. It simplifies the machine and it makes me feel closer to it... I may hate the problems appearing and the money they demand, but at the same time I am glad because it means that I get to learn something knew.
I'm going to say those plugs were pretty worn out, the gap appears to be about .80 when they should be around .44 so I can see why it was running poorly or unable to start. Honda, Toyota, Acura, Kia, Hyundai, Nissan, Etc...almost any Asian vehicle is plug sensitive to a pretty extreme degree. When my customers have a problem with an Asian vehicle I always suggest plugs first. You're very welcome for the help yesterday Xav, if you really need that Oxygen sensor socket let me know I will send you the extra one I have. Hit me up.
