I bought my 2003 kia spectra brand new,kept up with oil changes and maintenance,my transmission went out at 71,ooo miles. I had the so called 100,000 mile warranty on it. They did not cover any of it they said because I live in ga it gets hot,so the warranty wont cover it. Also,I was recently in a fender bender and my air bags did not deploy,and we have also had several trips to the kia place because of minor stuff such as the air not working and the check engine light continually staying on. The 2003 kia spectra's are a joke and if you live were it gets hot or too cold your warranty is of non effect.
2003 Kia Spectra: check engine light
5 of the 90 complaints about the 2003 Kia Spectra describe check engine light.
- owner complaints
- 5
- of this car's complaints
- 6%
- recalls
- 0
Is there a fix? 2 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below
Check engine light by model year
What owners say
Purchased the car in may of 2003, june 30th of 2003 check engine light came on and had to have the tps replaced and 3 more times to present. Have had multiple headlights replaced, heating problem, exhaust replaced. Car is now on 46,000 had transmission replaced (through an att. From lemon law) at 16,000 miles had to have tires replaced. And, now to date tires were replaced for the 5th time, brakes were done 4 times, now to find out the reason tires and brakes were needed to be replaced so many times is because the suspension is way out of alignment which seeing I have had the problem all along I now believe it was a defect all along.
Dt: the contact stated when stopping at a stop sign or while braking or pulling into a parking lot vehicle revved and lurched forward. The vehicle was taken to the dealership numerous times. They were unable to duplicate the problem. *ak updated 1/11/2006 - the transmission line had come off and cause coolant to leak. The line was repair and transmission was flushed but transmission slipped. The transmission was replaced. The check engine light illuminated three times and the dealer replaced the throttle position sensor three times. The engine light illuminated again and this time the dealer replaced the gene pulse assembly. The engine control module was reprogrammed. The engine ran rough intermittently. The dealer replaced the idle speed actuator.
While driving at 60 MPH and without any warning, the check engine indicator light illuminated. Suddenly, the engine slowed down and stalled. The vehicle was taken to the dealership who could neither duplicate nor correct the problem. *la nm
Check engine light conitunes to pop on. As of 2/19/04, my check engine light has lit up 3 times. Once it went out on its own, I let it go. The past two times it has been related to the p0442 evap leak (fuel cap). Funny thing is, my 2003 spectra had a recall notice come in to have the fule cap replaced due to a known 'leak'. I never had issues with this prior to the recall fix. I have had my car for 1 year now and never had problems before. Scheduled appt for 02/23/04 and dealer advised they would investigate and re-replace fuel cap if needed. It is not a major problem, but an annoyance. It will make one get to a point where they might ignore the engine light do to it continuously coming on for no serious reason!
Service bulletins that may apply
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 2003 Kia Spectra check engine light
Is check engine light a common problem on the 2003 Kia Spectra?
5 of 90 owner complaints about the 2003 Kia Spectra (6%) mention check engine light. The model year with the most reports is 2002.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2003 Kia Spectra?
There are 0 recalls and 2 service bulletins for the same area of the car. Check them below with your VIN.
Other symptoms on the 2003 Kia Spectra
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