2001 Kia Optima LX from North America - Comments

I have a 2004 Kia Optima. It has almost 75,000 miles on it. I bought it used in 2005,it had 3600 miles on it. The only thing I have had to do is replace headlights once, and wiper blades once. I need to adjust the parking brakes on it now. Other than that you can bet if I buy a new car in the future it will be another Kia.

My wife and I have a 2002 Kia Optima V6, and I would have to say it is the worst car I have ever had to deal with. We have about 80,000 thousand miles, which is good, but getting there has been a pocket full of money.

The common door lock/unlock problem was fun, brake lights staying on with no one in the car and keys out, that was a blast, hmmm check engine was one of my favorites as countless amounts of sensors going out, smaller things such as window motors not wanting to go up or down.

Had to replace timing belt year after we owned it, here is my sign LOL; transmission stayed in 3rd gear, that was a wonderful feeling.

Don't get in a wreck, still can't get the airbag light to go out, this could be a problem, and last but not least, the brakes, you know the things that make you stop or in our case lock up and won't let you go. Replaced calipers, not it, brake lines, not it, checked relays and ABS, not it, only thing left is master cylinder or brake booster, and possibly the proportioning valve, still working on those.

In summary, will never own another Kia, and wish only the best of luck to current owners with similar problems...

Well this site is just amazing. I also am the owner of a 2001 Kia Optima LX 4 cyl. 2.4 litre displacement engine. I haven't had the best of luck with mine, but I do like it for the smoothness and sleekness of the car. I originally bought it in 2006 for a car to go away from home to college with. We bought a 2 year warranty for it too, and I did get SOME use out of the warranty. Anyways, ever since I had the car I've had problems.

So far:

About 3 months after buying it, I had to replace tires (dealer's fault), but also had to have the throttle body cleaned out because of excessive carbon build up (they thought it might of been the old guy who owned it before me never punched the gas, so it built up easily).

The reason I had that checked out and cleaned was because the car would seem to jerk slightly when accelerating. It never even fixed the issue.

Then at about 8 months or so, both of the fuel injector coils (no idea what those were), went bad. Mechanic said Kia's just go bad a lot, they also ended up ruining all 4 of the platinum spark plugs. The warranty actually helped and covered about 600 bucks of this 1500 dollar repair.

After that I had both of my CV boots go bad and strip the axles. Probably my fault for not checking sooner, but apparently Kia CV boots lose their grease fast and just plain suck =(

I have also lost about 4-5 headlights, and for no reason either. The paint scratches so easily on this car, and the chrome finish really sucks and the all weather rubber strips under my windows just peel off easily. I am sure I could have maintained them better, but didn't really have the time, means or motivation with all the other crap that happened.

Beginning of 2009, I had to replace the serpentine belt and some other belt.

My most recent issue was recently, now 2009, I was driving about 70 and the engine just shut off. Apparently a clutch sensor went bad, and Kia of course uses the worst kind out of the three types readily available LOL. It was kind of a blessing, because when I took it in, apparently I had a power steering leak that had leaked onto my newly replaced serpentine belts etc. and they all had to be replaced again, not 3 months after I had just had them done. Also, the timing belt was going bad (losing teeth), so I had to have that replaced.

So this recent fix cost me 1229 dollars for a timing belt, clutch sensor, serpentine belt (s), and a power steering hose (because it somehow had a hole the size of a pin head in it, and that's what was spraying fluid all over my engine.

I also just now replaced my brake pads and tires again (which is just maintenance stuff).

So here is my issue... LOL.

The car, after ALL of this, still jerks when accelerating and it is getting worse. It happens mostly when the car is just on and not warmed up yet. When I accelerate, I get jerks, or I am at 4-5 thousand RPM and the car is only going 20 mph. If I keep giving it gas or if I lay off the pedal and push down again, it usually engages properly. Three different mechanics can't figure it out from three different places (2 of which I trust a lot). There is no check engine lights that come on in this process. So I was just wondering, if anyone has had a similar issue and fixed the problem or had it at least diagnosed properly, could you please let me know?

Crud, also, I should say this too. I had a O2 sensor replaced, and keep getting a check engine light for a fuel bank lean saying either my 2nd O2 sensor or mass airflow is misreading. I did take out the mass air flow and clean it with the CFC MAF sensor cleaner, and it seemed to make the car perform a tad bit better, but errors still pop up. I can't afford to keep throwing money into this car for nothing, and my mechanic says it's probably not the O2 sensor or MAF sensor causing my acceleration problem, but that they may just make my gas mileage a little worse. It also has a small oil leak somewhere that one of the mechanics said isn't worth the labor to search for and fix, since it's not very much right now.

I could really use a happy ending to this story, Total I have spent 8.5k on the car in 2006, it originally had 36k miles with only 1 local owner. Since then, it now has 73k miles on it, I have done oil changes every 3-4k miles and put over 3k worth of money into it. I could have bought a brand new one for the amount I paid + warranty + crap that went wrong LOL. Any help would be so much appreciated, I am a very poor college student and need any help I can get! Thanks guys, good luck to all!

E-mail is captgeech21@yahoo.com just in case it isn't listed.

Ken.