The automatic transmission has failed on me twice. The car is not even 2 years old.
2001 Kia Sephia transmission complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 18 of 18, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Transmission is not working properly,.gears have become harder to change, and when driving, transmission will slip at times. Contacted dealer. Please provide further information.
Vehicle does not have any power. Vehicle has been checked by dealer, who has replaced wire harness/ 2 computer chips, and transmission twice. Vehicle was picked up 7/3/02, and broke down again. Consumer has to have pedal floored for vehicle to move.
Bought new car. Several electrical malfunctions. Inside door locks (repaired 2 times). Horn malfunction (repaired 2 times). Spark plugs, wires, and coil (replaced 1 time). Rear defrost malfunction (repaired 1 time.) air filter cover screws and holes stripped out (replaced 1 time). Air conditioner fan-scraping noise (never repaired). Outside door locks malfunction (currently being looked at). Stick shift was "jumping around"-rear motor mount was bad (replaced 1 time). Knock sensor malfunction (replaced 1 time). Dash dials not working (replaced fuse 1 time). Problems started day after I purchased car-should have heeded the obvious warning! Do not buy kia!
Consumer states while driving constantly the shift locks and 3-35 minutes vehicle will be out of power.
When vehicle is in reverse there is a clunking and rumbling sound. When vehicle is stopping or standing still it makes a loud whistling noise. When entering highway vehicle will not accelerate over 50 MPH, gas pedal has to be pushed to the floor. Consumer feels this is very unsafe.
Vehicle was parked in the driveway on a slight incline. I made sure that the vehicle was in park, turned off and I removed the key. I went inside and an hour later I was informed by my uncle that my car was sitting at the bottom of the driveway. When we went outside my car was in neutral and had rolled backwards down the driveway. After the vehicle was pulled back up the driveway I tried to take the key out after putting the vehicle in neutral, it would not allow me to remove the key from the ignition. I then put the car in reverse and tried to remove the key, it again would not allow me to remove the key. I then put the car in park, turned the car off, and removed the key. After removing the key, I tried to force the gear into reverse and into neutral, it would not allow me too. I pressed on the brake and pulled on the gear to get it to move and it would not. My father, and insurance agent, had informed me that a while back there was a manufacturer defect in some ford vehicle's. The result of the manufacturer defect was that the transmissions were throwing themselves into reverse. I have spoken to mechanics and they say that it is possible for a vehicle with a transmission defect to throw themselves into neutral, but when I called around to different kia dealers, they refuse to believe me and tell me that it was human error. There is no way that I could have removed the key if the vehicle was not in park. I am affraid that a child may be playing behind my car, or an individual may be harmed if this were to happen again, so if you could please look into it, and let me know if there is anything else that I can do besides set my parking break. Thank you.
The first day driving the vehicle, I drove approx. 3 miles and the "engine" light came on and the "overdrive-off" light kept flashing off and on. The dealership told me it was a defective shift lever bushing and they had the car for 3 days to replace the part. A week later the engine light and o/d lights came on again. Dealership couldn't find problem, so they called the kia manaufacturing plant and the factory said they have had over 2,000 complaints about the same problem and that theres a flaw in the transmission control module and it's not detrimental to the engine, but they are in the process of making the right part to send out to the dealerships to handle the problem. Whether this is accurate or not, I was onlty taking the service managers word for it.
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