I’m the original owner of a well cared for 2000 Kia Sephia w/100,300 miles. It began vibrating and after a while I took in to my mechanic. He replaced the 4 motor mounts and 2 axles and it’s still vibrating. I paid him $880 and still owe him $440. I question paying him the remainder since it’s still vibrating. He also said the vibrating caused the axles to twist. Any comments and/or suggestions would be appreciated.
First you’ll need to describe the conditions under which it vibrates. E.g. at diel? high speed? low speed? both? only while accelerating? decelerating? always vibrating or comes & goes? where do you feel it? steering wheel? brake pedal? floor? seat?
What did the mechanic do to diagnose the problem before new mounts and axles? I.e. why were those targeted as the cause. Did s/he at least check the tires first for balance/uneven wear etc.? Check to see that the engine was running properly (e.g. no misfiring or anything?)
It vibrates when ideling in drive and it’s most prominate in the steering wheel however when the windows are down they will other areas around the dash. The mechanic said he did a test drive and he also had it on a pole checking from underneath. He said that he believed the car to be mechanically sound otherwise and if this is corrected I should expect at least another 50,000 mi. He did not mention anything about the tires. He also said he adjusted the idle and the fan belt because it was squealing. PS: I also had both axles replaced in 2007 because they were making a clicking sound when making turns.
sephiagirl - you need a new mechanic. There is no way on earth that a vibration at idle has anything whatsoever to do with the axles. Why were they replaced (yet again?) Did this mechanic know that they had been replaced?
The mounts might make more sense - BUT - I’m also not buying that either. You could have something as simple as a vacuum leak or a bad spark plug wire.
Say more about what the car does when you are driving it around. Does it hesitate? Accelerate more poorly than it used to? Stumble at any speed? Describe it as best you can.
If you already approved the work and had it done, you will be obligated to pay for it. If there are further problems that will have to be dealt with, but that does not mean you can decide to not pay for work done.
Good point and I agree with you. Thanks.
I’d like to know how the mechanic “adjusted” the idle, since idle speed is controlled by the computer using the Idle Air Control (IAC) valve. I’d suggest shopping for a new mechanic. The “twisted axle” story won’t hold water.
cigroller - an update since yesterday…the vibration continues so in preparation this morning to take the car back in to my mechanic, I’m taking notes on exactly the conditions associated with the vibration. I’m easing up to a busy intersection and all of a sudden I hear a loud grinding coming from under the hood of my car it sounds very bad and I immediately stop and put into park… Three angels suddenly appear and and push my Kia out of traffic into a nearby parking lot. A mechanic from the auto shop comes to investigate, he turns the car on, reves the engine, sounds ok, puts it into reverse, the horrible grinding again more horrible noises and the car wont move in reverse or drive. He says bad news, it’s the transmission. Like I said in my previous post and the mechanic who worked on my car confirmed when driving my Kia that it drove great and and he commented that replacing the mounts and axles would give me at least another 50,000 miles. What could have gone wrong while they were doing this work to make the transmission go?
unfortunately, there is almost nothing that they could have done to mounts or axles to create a total, sudden transmission failure. Sometimes S!$% just happens and this might be one of those times.
The only small possibility I could think of would be something that went wrong with axle installation. But the most likely possibility would be losing the differential while the axles are out in which case they never would have gotten it back together and on the road to begin with (as far as I know).
Is the mechanic who showed up from the shop that did the work? If so, I would try to get another shop to look things over and explain to you what happened. Then you can go back & talk to the original shop if relevant.
The shop just call and said they had to replace one of the axles they installed yesterday – driver’s side. Could the break down this am have caused any damage to my transmission or engine?