[MRPLATINUM79]

I am almost to a point where I want to have the car put on a dyno to see how much horsepower it is actually putting to the wheels. Since there is no CEL.... it's like Kia nor the dealership acknowledge that there is any problem.

 

[MRPLATINUM79]

Oh... Mine is hit or miss. Doesn't really do it at any given time... it is very random.... When it runs good. It runs weakly 90% of the time. With the summer and AC running it's been miserable driving it, especially on highways merging at high speeds.

 

[km163280]

I was thinking about the Dyno today. I don't have any clue what could be causing it. The car is even more miserable to drive when I have other passengers with me. My parents 2013 Soul and my neighbors 2014 Optima don't have this problem. It actually drove a little better when I put premium fuel in it. But I shouldn't have to. I'm actually taking it on Friday afternoon. I'll post an update.

 

[km163280]

Here's an update. The performance of the vehicle has been extremely poor, until today. I tried to avoid a pot hole but was unsussessful. I ran over it and came to a light. I took off and its like nothing ever happened. The car is driving like the day I drove it off the lot. This leads me to think there is an actual mechanical problem with it.

 

[MRPLATINUM79]

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted man. Mine ran good for 2 days in a row and almost tricked me into thinking it was all better and then it went back to normal. I am considering disconnecting my battery today and let it sit for a few hours and see if a reboot does anything.

 

[kiaguy007]

Here's a question about something I don't see anywhere in this thread. Has anyone tried revving the engine while in park during one of these times of poor performance? It might help to know if the engine can always rev smoothly with no load, both when stepping down on the pedal hard and also revving slowly.

That said, this problem belongs to Kia and the dealer, and it IMO it's gone WAY over the "normal" amount of time for a resolution. It sounds like this is happening to you guys more often than not, but the dealers say nothing is wrong. The standard way to handle one of these things is for a tech to accompany the owner on a road test. Assuming the problem starts happening, the owner tells the tech "that's it'. At that point it becomes a question of the tech agreeing that there is a problem, or not agreeing. If he agrees, then it should be a fairly straightforward case of leaving it with them until it's fixed.
But it would of course become quite a different situation if the tech didn't agree that there was a problem. At that point you could try other dealers in your area, trying to find someone who will agree there's a problem. Last resort would be to pay an independent shop to do the same road test, and see what their opinion is.
IMO someone needs to be pushing this harder with KIA (before the warranties run out).

 

[MRPLATINUM79]

Yes... I have revved the engine with the car sitting still. It's weird to describe. The engine will still rev to redline even when it is running weak. It just sounds different and isn't as eager to run to redline. I disconnected the battery for an hour.... still no dice.

Mine also makes a clicking noise along with a high pitched frequency sound at the throttle body once I have turned the car off. I have read that this is normal in some forums (cleaning or calibrating itself allegedly) but I am skeptical. My sister has a 13' Elantra with Electronic Throttle Control and her car does not click like mine does. I also had a VW before this car and that car had issues in that area when there was the same clicking. But unlike the VW... no CEL here.

Then I started thinking.... I looked at my air filter the other day and it is remarkably clean. I also noticed this huge resonator that the air has to run through before it even gets to the air filter. Maybe..... something is clogging this resonator up and the engine does not get enough intake air. My next test is to bypass this and see if there is any improvement. For me, my car sounds like it's slightly bogged, running lean, or SOMETHING. It's not happy revving and even sounds weak. When it runs good, it runs to redline quickly, transmission shifts better, and it sounds strong and good at high RPM. I am hoping to get to an answer through some testing. If not.... I will continue prayers for an ECU update that will address this.

 

[kiaguy007]

... and isn't as eager to run to redline ....

Hmmm. Here's another question (not intended to be a suggestion about how you should, or shouldn't be driving your Kia). Let's say you were to limit the RPMs to a max of around 5K. If you ran it that way, would you still be noticing any changes in performance?

 

[MRPLATINUM79]

I think you misread or misinterpreted what I was saying. I do not drive my car full throttle everywhere I drive. It drives weakly whether I have the pedal all the way at full throttle, shifting at 3k, 4k, or 5k RPM. It is weak regardless.

 

[kiaguy007]

Actually I was just checking that this isn't happening only at high rpm, which you've confirmed it's not.

This sounds like a fairly significant and obvious problems, so I'm not understanding why you don't just lay this on Kia and your dealership. I'm a DIYer, and always want to do everything myself. But something like this, which sounds like a mechanical or electronic problem right from the factory, is something they should be responsible for taking care of. Is it that your Kia out of warranty now?

 

[darth_pewee]

Mine also makes a clicking noise along with a high pitched frequency sound at the throttle body once I have turned the car off. I have read that this is normal in some forums (cleaning or calibrating itself allegedly) but I am skeptical. My sister has a 13' Elantra with Electronic Throttle Control and her car does not click like mine does. I also had a VW before this car and that car had issues in that area when there was the same clicking. But unlike the VW... no CEL here.

this is a cleaning that all kias with electronic throttle control now do, carbon and other materials can build up in the actuator and will not be able to open the throttle plates. 2011-13 Sorentos had a big problem with this, and we would see them towed in unable to go faster than 5-7 mph, or however fast the vehicle could pull itself at idle. if KGIS will tell you service actions, take a look at SA153 for sorentos, it goes into a bit more detail as to what is going on in that cleaning process. or if KGIS doesnt list it let me know and ill post the contents if any of you are interested.

 

[km163280]

I would like to add that when this problem occurs, my MPG is between 17 and 19. Ever since I ran over that pot hole and the problem went away, my MPG ranges from 25-28.

 

[km163280]

Here's a question about something I don't see anywhere in this thread. Has anyone tried revving the engine while in park during one of these times of poor performance? It might help to know if the engine can always rev smoothly with no load, both when stepping down on the pedal hard and also revving slowly.

That said, this problem belongs to Kia and the dealer, and it IMO it's gone WAY over the "normal" amount of time for a resolution. It sounds like this is happening to you guys more often than not, but the dealers say nothing is wrong. The standard way to handle one of these things is for a tech to accompany the owner on a road test. Assuming the problem starts happening, the owner tells the tech "that's it'. At that point it becomes a question of the tech agreeing that there is a problem, or not agreeing. If he agrees, then it should be a fairly straightforward case of leaving it with them until it's fixed.
But it would of course become quite a different situation if the tech didn't agree that there was a problem. At that point you could try other dealers in your area, trying to find someone who will agree there's a problem. Last resort would be to pay an independent shop to do the same road test, and see what their opinion is.
IMO someone needs to be pushing this harder with KIA (before the warranties run out).

I have revved it in park during one of these instances, but never to the red-line. When I did it sounded a little rough. In fact, one time I revved it when the problem was hardly noticeable. Well when I drove off, the problem was a million times worse. It's like the revving in park messed something up.

I had an appointment scheduled to take it to the dealer but cancelled because it went away. I want them to be in the car when the problem is occurring. I want them to see how the accelerator is to the floor from a stop and it moves/sounds like I'm holding the brake.

 

[MRPLATINUM79]

Not at all. I am at 18k miles. I have tried previously but they cannot find anything wrong and I do not want to waste my limited free time fruitlessly sitting at the dealership. Last time I tried to leave it and get a loaner car they said they couldn't give me one since my car was technically drivable. Plus... others are experiencing this apparently and having equal luck so it seems like a waste of time at this point. I check kiatechinfo.com DAILY for updates.

 

[kiaguy007]

... I want them to be in the car when the problem is occurring. ....

Yes, that's what you want - you and a tech in the car when the problem is happening. Once they agree there's a problem, then just keep hammering on them until it's fixed (or they replace your Forte with a new one). That pothole thing makes me wonder about a loose connection somewhere. Did you scan it, to see if a pending code was set? I don't know how likely it is with our KIAs, but I've seen pending codes (with no CEL) get set on other makes.

 

[bryantest]

I was thinking about the Dyno today. I don't have any clue what could be causing it. The car is even more miserable to drive when I have other passengers with me. My parents 2013 Soul and my neighbors 2014 Optima don't have this problem. It actually drove a little better when I put premium fuel in it. But I shouldn't have to. I'm actually taking it on Friday afternoon. I'll post an update.

Idk if you know this but both optima and soul are manufactured in the US but the Forte's manufactured in south Korea.

That being said, I'm not surprised that KIA has been ssllooww in solving problems forte-related problems.

 

[daniel77]

I too experience the acceleration issue and have taken to toggling ECO mode on and off and then additionally manual shifting car for a brief time to push it a bit. Not sure if this works, but I do encounter the sluggish periods less frequently in comparison to a couple months ago.

I would like to add that when this problem occurs, my MPG is between 17 and 19. Ever since I ran over that pot hole and the problem went away, my MPG ranges from 25-28.

This is another thing I experienced. I wasn't quite doing that bad, but I was averaging 23-24mpg in strictly city driving and then all of a sudden the mpg started to average between 25-27mpg. Did nothing different, but can certainly notice the improvement.

 

[Mikala]

I am exactly in this same position right now! Went to the dealership today in the morning. The shop foreman test drove with me and said everything was fine and that it picks out the best gear for optimal fuel economy. Which I think is BS. But when I'm driving on automatic, it feels like the gears don't shift properly or inconsistent. My rpms get stuck at 2000 for a few seconds then would jump to 3000. I can feel the hesitation and loss of power and the struggle...

I also told him I was driving up a hill and my car felt like there was no power at all and it struggled a lot getting up there. I was stuck on 35mph, no power, rpm stuck between 2k-2.5k... Considering this is a brand new 2014 forte ex with only 1k plus miles on it, it shouldn't be doing that. The pedal felt very heavy and hard to push.. And his response wAs.. It's normal jus keep pushing the pedal until it goes.. Told him it smelled like something was burning when I got to the top.. He also said it was normal... He doesn't want to acknowledge anything is wrong with the car.. When he test drove, according to him everything was fine... Also told him, even when I'm not depressing the brake pedal, it feels like the brakes are on..

How can we go about this if the dealership doesn't want to help???

 

[bryantest]

Just tweeted this thread to KIA north America

 

[Mikala]

Hopefully they will do something about this now.