Engine Replacement, The Full Story.

G70LEbyAdoom

1000 Posts Club!
Joined
Apr 25, 2021
Messages
1,785
Reaction score
1,367
Points
118
Where do I start? Well, I guess I will start from the beginning. If the first parts of this post seem familiar, its because I had posted this 2 months ago, and saved a copy of it before I had the admins here remove it. Note, it will be adjusted slightly due to the time that has passed.

So starting sometime in the early winter, my car had been losing heat intermittently when it comes to a stop (red light, drive-through, ect)

The first time I noticed it, my car was running a Lozic tune on it, so naturally, I switched back to the OEM ECU and could not replicate the issue. so I reached out to Lozic, and he reassured me that his tune does not tamper with anything in the cooling system. (The Tune has NOTHING to do with the issue, just making sure I include all the details in the story)

So I switched back to the tune, ran it for a week, and the issue came back. so naturally, I switched back to the OEM ECU for a few days, and the issue went away. I let the car sit for a weekend as we got snowed in, and come Monday morning, I was in the Dunkin's drive through and the issue returned with the OEM ECU in the car. I brought it to my local Kia dealer and left it with them for a couple hours. (Now, for context, their service department has, and still are, Treating me AMAZINGLY well even though I did not buy the car from them) They unfortunately could not get the car to recreate the issue, and told me to come back if it kept happening. (This is early February of 2022 for context)
Fast forward 2 weeks, and the issue had been getting more and more regular, to the point where other people in the car with me would notice the issue more than once. Now, in the meantime, The LED in the passenger side mirror decided that it wanted to break all the known laws of electricity, and somehow work in the exact opposite way was it is suppose to (Lit all the time, except for when a car is my "Blind Spot" and then come back on when no car is there) which of course, throws the BLMS light on the dash on, so I bring it to the same dealer to get the mirror replaced. They ordered a replacement after a 5 minute diag, so that's no problem. I tell them that I am going to be going on vacation in a week in a half, so they can keep the car for 6 days to replace the mirror, as well as check out a small laundry list of other issues, including the heating issue that is the root cause of this post.

I drop the car off on march 1st, and leave for vacation early the next morning. literally 10 minutes after I land, they tell me that they now have experienced the heating issue and will cover whatever the cause is under warranty. Great!
a week goes by and I get back from vacation, reach out to them, and they give me a loaner car because the issue is "More complex than originally thought, but we are working with Kia Corporate to fix it for you"
No biggie to me cuz I trust this dealer. I go to pick up the loaner, and I talk with the tech that is working on my car, and the TLDR they give me is that "They have never seen this issue before, and even Kia is not sure what to do yet" which at the time was worrying, but I know that they planed to make it right no matter what, So Shit happens.

Well, I went to go to work the morning after I got back from vacation, and the loaner said it was low on washer fluid. So I stopped by the dealer to get it topped up, but its on my route so no big deal. WELL, am I glad I stopped in, cuz no sooner than when I got out of the car, did the tech that's working on my car walk out and say he was just about to call me and ask me to come in, because "it would have been difficult to explain over the phone"
So we walk into the garage, and my car is the first car in it, but the engine bay is basically empty. The engine is torn apart in the bay next to it, and he said that "Kia had reached back out 10 minutes after I left, saying to completely tear apart the engine to run several tests, so that they may further attempt to figure out what the problem was. in the meantime, they authorized a new engine as a replacement, so they can ship my (Now) old engine to corporate so they can put it back together and diagnose it in their lab, because they want to personally figure out what happened to it, and study how to stop it from potentially happening to other vehicles. Kia instructed the tech to do a full inspection of every single part of the motor, including voltage testing of all the electrical bits, and according to the tech, Literally EVERYTHING on the motor is perfect. No damage anywhere to any parts.

They say it should take about two weeks between getting the new motor in and installing it. (This is where the previous post ends)

Yeah. It took longer. Two months longer.

Fast forward to May 2nd, and the car is finally ready. After Countless days of just waiting on parts, everything that ended up being needed finally arrived, A new motor from Korea, (sorry random 22 stinger owner, I stole your motor from you off the assembly line and the wait is going to be a bit longer for you) gaskets apon gaskets apon gaskets, and many, many, many more parts, It is all put back together and running correctly. The dealer was extremely communicative with me and was more than happy to keep me updated constantly. Id say about 90% of the time that it took to get the job done, was just waiting on parts. Kia cooperate is also going to be reimbursing me for my time without the car, so that's a nice bonus too. As soon as I got the car back yesterday, I brought it to have its new wheels put on it, then I replaced the Hood, Installed the revised 1.4bar Lozic Tune, as well as my JB4 for logging. I did NOT re-install my air intakes because I have decided that I am going to work on a more custom solution.

while it was not listed on my sheet, the total cost of everything was just over 14,500 USD. All covered under warranty due to an amazing dealership team.
I really only had a couple downsides to my experience, and most of them are completely understandable.
For my own sake, I am not going to post the "What we did" sheet that all dealers give, as that would effectively be Doxing the shite out of myself.

1. The time. Two months without my car felt like an eternity.
2. The Tech who did the entire engine teardown and replacement thinks that of all things, the Oil from my K&N intakes is what caused whatever issue happened internally to warrant all this, as he has had experiences with the oil they use causing similar strange things with other vehicles. He recommended the filters get replaced with either the Non Oil based K&N Filters or AEM Water cleanable Filters when they get put back on the car.
3. The tech unfortunately cracked my engine cover during the process, but the dealer got me a new one under warranty. (Ordered a new one, then took a cover off of an unsold 22 on the lot and gave it to me so I did not have to wait)
4. While I was provided a loaner car, it had issues of its own even though it was a brand new 2022 Sportage.
5. Kia Cooperate stated that he must use new spark plugs in the engine, so unfortunately he had to get rid of the set of HKS plugs I have and replace them with the OEM stinger plugs. I already have another set of HKS plugs on order.
6. At some point in the process, some kind of tool must have grazed the rear bumper on the drivers side, as there is a pretty noticeable V shaped mark on it. I mentioned it to the service manager of the dealer and they are going over the security footage to see what happened, and plan to remedy it one way or another.




Edit - corrected a part to make it sound less dick-ish to appease @Ohiocruiser
 

Attachments

  • 20220309_133753.webp
    20220309_133753.webp
    163.7 KB · Views: 100
  • 20220408_163807.webp
    20220408_163807.webp
    225.3 KB · Views: 103
  • 20220408_163857.webp
    20220408_163857.webp
    323.8 KB · Views: 101
  • 20220408_163859.webp
    20220408_163859.webp
    264.1 KB · Views: 104
  • 20220420_161224.webp
    20220420_161224.webp
    221 KB · Views: 100
  • 20220420_161242.webp
    20220420_161242.webp
    129.2 KB · Views: 97
  • 20220420_161252.webp
    20220420_161252.webp
    129.9 KB · Views: 97
Last edited:
"So I stopped by the dealer to get it topped up cuz it should have been full" Really??? So you are getting your engine, that should have not been tuned, replaced under warranty, and still being cheap a.. for spending $3 for washer fluid. WOW!!!!
 
Wow
 
______________________________
"So I stopped by the dealer to get it topped up cuz it should have been full" Really??? So you are getting your engine, that should have not been tuned, replaced under warranty, and still being cheap a.. for spending $3 for washer fluid. WOW!!!!
I'm gonna be completely honest here, I changed the wording around because the original post would not make sense with the wording it had, and I completely missed that line. as for being a cheap ass, Its not my car. its part of the dealers responsibility to keep whatever they have relatively maintained. I was not, and have never, ever been an a**hole to my dealer. I love them, to the point where I even bought the service department lunch during this whole process, which I left out of the write up because not only is it not related to the car, but also because after everything they where doing for me, it was the least I could do.

but if you want to come at me, then by all means bring your unnecessary titanium bolts and your straight out of the home depot dumpster exhaust tips with you.
 
What a saga! The surprising thing is that all of this warranty work was in spite of the intakes easily being pointed to as the blame. A local guy had his engine simply shut down, and after much disassembling and Kia Corp. involvement, he was denied warranty because he had installed his own intakes. The universe is in balance, then, I guess: and you are the beneficiary. :thumbup:
 
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
What a saga! The surprising thing is that all of this warranty work was in spite of the intakes easily being pointed to as the blame. A local guy had his engine simply shut down, and after much disassembling and Kia Corp. involvement, he was denied warranty because he had installed his own intakes. The universe is in balance, then, I guess: and you are the beneficiary. :thumbup:
My local dealer loves modded cars, and has several modded stingers of their own, which I think is the reason this all worked out. Unfortunate to hear that a local of yours was not as lucky. Sorry to hear that.
 
My local dealer loves modded cars, and has several modded stingers of their own, which I think is the reason this all worked out. Unfortunate to hear that a local of yours was not as lucky. Sorry to hear that.
Dealerships are as variable as the seasons. When you're taken care of by a good one, that is good: but when you get one that likes modded cars, that is as good as it gets.
 
I'm gonna be completely honest here, I changed the wording around because the original post would not make sense with the wording it had, and I completely missed that line. as for being a cheap ass, Its not my car. its part of the dealers responsibility to keep whatever they have relatively maintained. I was not, and have never, ever been an a**hole to my dealer. I love them, to the point where I even bought the service department lunch during this whole process, which I left out of the write up because not only is it not related to the car, but also because after everything they where doing for me, it was the least I could do.

but if you want to come at me, then by all means bring your unnecessary titanium bolts and your straight out of the home depot dumpster exhaust tips with you.
Edited:And you trying to attack me just proves my point. As far as my home depot "mods" go, trust me i take 100% responsibility for it. Matter of fact, the reason i keep my engine stock is because i don't wanna pay for replacement. But you, my friend, enjoy your new engine.
 
Last edited:
What a saga! The surprising thing is that all of this warranty work was in spite of the intakes easily being pointed to as the blame. A local guy had his engine simply shut down, and after much disassembling and Kia Corp. involvement, he was denied warranty because he had installed his own intakes. The universe is in balance, then, I guess: and you are the beneficiary. :thumbup:
It would be interesting to see the result, if he had noted the dealer about his lozik tune.
 
______________________________
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
It would be interesting to see the result, if he had noted the dealer about his lozik tune.
You think he wasn't telling me the whole story, then? :D Possibly not.
 
I always say,if you have nothing to say just keep your mouth shut. And you trying to attack me just proves my point. As far as my home depot "mods" go, trust me i take 100% responsibility for it. Matter of fact, the reason i keep my engine stock is because i don't wanna pay for replacement. But you, my friend, enjoy your new engine.
That is really, really solid advice, maybe you should have considered following the advice yourself considering your self righteous first comment and very clear ignorance on how warranty claims work.
It would be interesting to see the result, if he had noted the dealer about his lozik tune.
I don't know, maybe I should ask the dealer owner? Oh wait, I did, and his Lozic Tune is just fine. It would have been covered regardless.
You think he wasn't telling me the whole story, then? :D Possibly not.
Just the part where I bought lunch for the entire service department, because I did not think it was a necessary part of the story to mention until tweedle-dumb over there got hostile for no reason.
 
That is really, really solid advice, maybe you should have considered following the advice yourself considering your self righteous first comment and very clear ignorance on how warranty claims work.
You tune the engine-you loose the warranty on it. Am i getting something wrong here? Seriously, if it's not the case, i will apologize for previous post. And also wich part of my own advice, i am not following?
 
Last edited:
You tune the engine-you loose the warranty on it. Am i getting something wrong here? Seriously, if it's not the case, i will apologize for previous post.
In that case, let me explain. In a perfect order of things, yes. you are correct. HOWEVER, nothing is perfect in this world. In the united states, for a warranty to be voided, there has to be a legally sound justified reason, with proof that an external factor, like a tune, caused the issue. In this instance, there was no proof of anything. the engine just stopped producing heat for reasons that Kia STILL cannot find, and even today, that engine still runs properly minus the heat issue. Nobody could find a hint of damage anywhere in the motor in any regard. Kia cooperate stated to me on the phone that because there is nothing at all that they could find, that they are going to replace the entire motor so they could take my old one back to their lab for further diagnostic, so that they may use whatever data they eventually find to strengthen the build process for future engines, and offer a recall for other cars if deemed necessary. The thing with tunes, is that if they are the cause of an issue, the issues tend to be very, very obvious. Not that it matters, but on the phone it was also stated by them that this is the first stinger motor that was brought to them that was not immediately obviously blown up, and they wanted to jump on that opportunity. They effectively traded me a new motor for my old one so that they can study it.


Hopefully this answer is satisfying enough for you.
 
In that case, let me explain. In a perfect order of things, yes. you are correct. HOWEVER, nothing is perfect in this world. In the united states, for a warranty to be voided, there has to be a legally sound justified reason, with proof that an external factor, like a tune, caused the issue. In this instance, there was no proof of anything. the engine just stopped producing heat for reasons that Kia STILL cannot find, and even today, that engine still runs properly minus the heat issue. Nobody could find a hint of damage anywhere in the motor in any regard. Kia cooperate stated to me on the phone that because there is nothing at all that they could find, that they are going to replace the entire motor so they could take my old one back to their lab for further diagnostic, so that they may use whatever data they eventually find to strengthen the build process for future engines, and offer a recall for other cars if deemed necessary. The thing with tunes, is that if they are the cause of an issue, the issues tend to be very, very obvious. Not that it matters, but on the phone it was also stated by them that this is the first stinger motor that was brought to them that was not immediately obviously blown up, and they wanted to jump on that opportunity. They effectively traded me a new motor for my old one so that they can study it.


Hopefully this answer is satisfying enough for you.
Thanks for explanation. I am sorry, if my post got you upset. $3 washer fluid just looked silly to me. ;)
 
Last edited:
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
You tune the engine-you loose the warranty on it. Am i getting something wrong here? Seriously, if it's not the case, i will apologize for previous post. And also wich part of my own advice, i am not following?
this is kinda a crock of shit . if your motor blows up because of tuning you lose the warranty on it , not because it was tuned then there was a strange heat issue and the dealer wanted the engine back to study it . trust me i know the op personally and this whole rabbit hole he went down was not even his choice , it was a decision made by kia . and hey if they want to toss him a new engine so be it . are you just upset that you cant tune your car because it might break ? and you do not want to be responsible for the damage ? i understand that , but why give other people shit for there choices that don't effect you at all , one motor replacement is not going to set off a nation of denied warranty issues , and as far as oil from the filters causing this issue no way , no how not ever . maybe it would kill a maf sensor if oil got on it but we don't have maf sensors so that's out . either way settle down everybody and just enjoy your cars the way YOU want to .
 
______________________________
this is kinda a crock of shit . if your motor blows up because of tuning you lose the warranty on it , not because it was tuned then there was a strange heat issue and the dealer wanted the engine back to study it . trust me i know the op personally and this whole rabbit hole he went down was not even his choice , it was a decision made by kia . and hey if they want to toss him a new engine so be it . are you just upset that you cant tune your car because it might break ? and you do not want to be responsible for the damage ? i understand that , but why give other people shit for there choices that don't effect you at all , one motor replacement is not going to set off a nation of denied warranty issues , and as far as oil from the filters causing this issue no way , no how not ever . maybe it would kill a maf sensor if oil got on it but we don't have maf sensors so that's out . either way settle down everybody and just enjoy your cars the way YOU want to .
Hey, at least i learned more about how the warranty works. I am not upset. Like i sad, without detailed explanation about the warranty, small stuff like fluid looked silly.........anyway. let's just chill everyone :thumbup:
 
How in the world did oiled intake filters cause your issues?
 
My god, the f*cking irony in YOU typing those words... :laugh:

Keep giving him shit, @Ohiocruiser . Lmfao.
No no, I think I was able to legitimately help him learn something about how the warranty process works, Hopefully we have come to an understanding. if not, oh well. And yes, I do remember you.
Temper Temper.
 
From interior to exterior to high performance - everything you need for your Stinger awaits you...
Kia Stinger
Back
Top