189 replies to this topic

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

You must consider that there are Two Problems with the Sephia's Brakes:

• Weak Brake Power.
• Front Rotor Warp and Premature Wear on Pads.

The Weak Brake Power has Two Causes

After I Disassembled almost everything on my Wife's Sephia, I Noticed that the Proportioning Valves, which are Located in the Firewall, behind the engine, has some sort of Design Flaw: Vertical Grooves.

Those Vertical grooves made the Proportioning Valves to Leak Brake Fluid while letting Air to get sucked into the System; you can see the Leaky vertical grooves on the Sephia's Brass proportioning valves, in the Following Photo:

Those were the Original (stock) Proportioning Valves, made of Brass... The Local Kia Dealer had the Replacement for those, but made from a different metal, which looks like Polished Stainless Steel with chromed tops, and Does NOT have the faulty Vertical Grooves, as you can see in the Following Photo:

This is their Part Number:

Think about this: Any Brake system that Loose Brake Fluid and gets air inside the pressurized lines, will have a Weak performance; isn't it?

The Leaky Proportioning Valves with Vertical Grooves will make the Brake System Weak, no matter how many times you Bleed the System, they'll let go fluid while suck air; So, I changed the original Proportioning Valves that had Vertical Grooves, with the ones with Newer design without the vertical grooves and new metal alloy instead of brass; the ones you saw in the Photos.

So, the faulty Proportioning Valves was the First Cause for Weak Brake Power.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

The Second Cause for Weak Brake Power is the Cause of the Second Problem itself: Warped Rotors and Premature Pad Wear.

The Cause for Premature Front pad Wear and Warped Rotors, was Not on the front Brakes themselves, (Calipers, Front Wheel Cylinders, Pads, etc... ) No. I Found the Problem that lead to the Front Brakes to have such Premature Wear, and believe me or not, the Culprit is on the Rear Brakes! ... ... Let me Explain:

The Rear Drum Brakes has a Self Regulator that Moves the Rear shoes towards to the rotating Drum as they wear, in order to maintain the same distance between shoes and drum, that keeps the same travel on the Pedal before the Shoe touches the Drum, even if the shoe is worn.

But since the Rear shoe Regulators fail to adjust the Shoes towards the Drum, the Rear wheel brake cylinder has to move its piston in a longer travel before the shoe touches the Drum, because the Shoes are "Far Away" deregulated.

That means: When anybody pushes the Brake Pedal, the Front Pads will engage pressing the rotating Disc, while the Rear Shoes are doing almost Nothing to brake the Car, due to the "Far Away" deregulated Shoes, they barely touches the rotating Drums.

So, the Front Disc Brakes will take the 90% of the Braking effort, while the Rear Drum Brakes will rotate almost freely...

You Notice that your car has "Far Away" deregulated Shoes on the Rear drum brakes, if:

• You Need to Pull up the parking brake lever handle to the Top to hold the Car.
• The Brake Pedal feels too Low or it goes Deep before really braking the Car
• You have to push even "Deeper" the Brake Pedal while going in Reverse.

So Basically talking, with those Faulty Rear Shoes Regulators, you have a four wheel car, being stopped -almost only- by the two front wheels, that Really leads to an extreme Heat working conditions on the Rotors, for their extra effort; so that explain the Warped Rotors and the Premature Wear on the Pads; isn't it?

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

First, I changed the Rear brake shoes and manually regulated the Brakes to the Top; the Pedal was stiff and Brake power good; while the Parking Brake Lever had enough power to Hold the car in the first two or three tooth. ... ...

After three weeks of everyday use, the Brake Pedal got Lower, while the Parking Brake lever needed six or seven tooth to engage. ... ...

After two Months of Use since the first regulation, the Rear Wheels' brakes where doing nothing, because the wear on the brake shoes was not compensated by the faulty self adjusting regulators, so the Shoes where too far way to let the rear wheel cylinder brakes do enough pressure to stop the car with the Brake Pedal, also the Parking Brake became a li'l less than Useless. ... ...

After Trying to Clean everything up in the Rear Brakes, also trying the Self-regulating procedures used in other cars (Such like Applying the Parking Brake while the car is Moving Forward / Backward with and without pressing the Brake Pedal, etc...) without any success, many many times, I ended doing the Manual adjustment every Month.

Tired of that Monthly rear drum brakes Disassembly / Cleansing \ Regulation; I went to the Local Kia Dealer to buy a pair of Brand New Rear drum brake self adjusting Regulators:

I Really Don't know why Kia named those as "Struts" ... ... Maybe I'm Lost in Translation again.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

So, the faulty self adjusting regulators for the Rear Brake Shoes, are the Culprit of the premature wear of the Front Rotors & Pads, plus they're culprit in part of the Weak Brake Power, because the deregulated shoes let the rear wheels to spin almost freely, while the front wheels take almost all the braking effort.

However, despite that I changed the Faulty self adjusting regulators, those are very Bad designed and are some sort of Lifeless Lump that does Nothing to adjust the rear shoes... The old ones and the new ones Never worked; that must be a major design flaw from Kia ... :-\ ... They're Completely Useless.

So, I'm somehow "Condemned" to do a Monthly Rear drum brakes disassembly in order to Adjust the Rear Shoes to compensate their wear. (Unless I swap Rear Disc Brakes there ) In that way, the Car's Brakes works Great.

______________________________________

So, the Sephia with Regulated Rear Shoes and the New Proportioning Valves has an Excellent Brake System with ABS in all wheels; the Brake pedal become way more Sensible since the car has the New Proportioning Valves, and the Brake Power is really Better than many of the other brands' Similar cars.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

I Never has to Touch the Master Cylinder, nor the Brake Booster or the Brake Lines; everything related with those were alright.

For those who has Weak Brakes and believe that by Changing to a Bigger Master Cylinder could help, Remember:

A bigger bore master cylinder will Not improve braking power; It will make the pedal engage higher and feel firmer, but the braking force at the wheels is reduced for the same pounds of pressure applied to the pedal. So you'll actually have to Push Harder on the pedal to get it to Stop as quick after "upgrading".

Master cylinder bore size is in balance with the Wheel cylinder bore size; Go too Small and the pedal will hit the Floor before the brakes are at maximum Clamping force. Go too Big and you'll run out of leg strength before hitting maximum clamping force. Simple hydraulics: the piston ratio between the master and the wheel cylinders gives you the mechanical advantage.

So, Forget about Changing the Master Cylinder for a Bigger one, that is in no way an "Upgrade".

Kind Regards.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

After I Solved the Mistery of the Weak Brake Power and Premature Wear on front Brakes' parts; Beside Changin' the Faulty Proportioning Valves and the Rear Shoes' Self adjustment regulators; I decided to Change the Front brake's Disc Rotors & Pads:

And I did the Best Brake Job I Could.




The Car does perform Flawlessly since then ... ...

Except that I need to do a Monthly manual adjustment to the Rear wheels' Brakes.

Kind Regards.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

Have you ever experienced a loose sunshade that falls down to the windshield and won't keep "up"?

The Passenger's side sunshade fell to the Windshield and it was completely Loose on my Wife's "KiaStein" ... it has broken its inner clamp that tightens the sunshade's oval shaft, so it will not stay "up".

An easy solution could be to go to a Junk Yard and buy one in better conditions, but believe me: Usually our Local Junk Yards (Called here "Yonkers") doesn't carry such cosmetic things... So we had to imagine a fix.

My wife was about to glue some velcro to the sunshade's top part and to the car's Roof... but I disliked that Idea. :-\

A friend of us in similar situation, has placed an old credit card between the door's top plastic and the roof's base, sliding the card's half in that area, lets the exposed part of it to hold in place "up" the sunshade, but I don't like the idea.

So, I decided to open the plastic wrap on the back of that sunshade, and place there a brand new steel clamp, over the Broken one...

...and "Voilá" ... ... Problem Solved.

The clamp does look Bigger and Uglier than it really is, but it was small enough to let me "Reseal" the plastic wrap with a small piece of duct tape, and since it is on the sunshade's Back, is almost unnoticeable, and the thing does work like new.

Kind Regards.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

When I purchased the new -to me- Low Mileage Kia Spectra Engine (third Gen T8D engine) to replace the original one which came damaged on the Kia Sephia (it was a Second Gen T8D engine) I noticed that the guys at the Local Junk Yard, did changed its oil pan with another one which had a worn thread for the oil Drain Plug, also, the Oil pan was missing two 8 mm screws X 2" (1.25 pitch) and two 8 mm screws X 5" (also 1.25 pitch) so, that oil pan was changed for sure... and it was the Lowest Mileage engine I could find (Around 63K) So, I purchased the engine like that and used Helicoil to fix that worn thread, also I placed New stainless bolts on the missing slots.

But the Helicoil didn't work well, so after six months of use (Leaking Oil) I decided to use the Old (second Gen) T8D Engine's oil pan on the New (Third Gen) T8D Engine; but beside they looked identical, I found that the Screws which holds in place the Oil pan, are Different in those engines.

The Older (Second Gen) T8D engine used 6 mm Bolts, while the Newer (Third Gen) T8D engine uses 8 mm Bolts; so I had to Drill the Holes in the Old oil pan to let the 8 mm bolts to pass.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

So, I Removed the Oil Pan from the Spectra engine, in the Sephia:





It is made of Aluminium, and had a worn aluminium thread for the Oil Drain Plug





The thread was so damaged, that certain turns of it, came along the Bolt:

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

Warning... the Following Picture is Disgusting!

The Engine's Block has certain empty splicing pilot holes, which does match with the pins in the Oil Pan; those serve as a Guide to place it right. The Holes in the Block are around an inch deep and doesn't go anywhere; the oil pan's pins are much smaller than the inch long, but they cap the holes, sealing perfectly them. Well, when I removed the oil pan...

...I found a Cockroach's Cadaver peering from one of those holes:

I guess that maybe the Junk Yard's employee(s) who swapped the oil pan, put that cockroach there before placing the oil pan... I don't think the cockroach get there by itself while the Junk Yard's employee(s) where swapping oil pans.

However, it was really "Toasted" by the engine's heat, in that "Capsule" ... ... I don't know what they was thinking / smoking when they done that... ...

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

I have tried in the past, many Silicones and Sealants; in many different cars / trucks.

Even OEM from many car brands, ...





... and from my own experience I have noticed that the one who works best,

does flawless seals easily and Outperforms the Rest

while being inexpensive, is the "MegaGrey" silicone, done by VersaChem.






The Package's Back has certain OEM Parts interchange Chart:




VersaChem claims this about their "MegaGrey" Silicone:




As you can Read / Download documentation in .pdf file format, ~► Here.

It is Vibration proof and 650º F temp is enough; also it bonds to surfaces with a Strong "Glue" Feeling in short time... I have even done an "Emergency" Repair once to a ford ranger pick-up, I had no time to finish and even only giving one hour to the Silicone to Seal, was enough: four years without a single drop of leaked oil so far... while I was thinking it would last only few months.

Edited by Loyale 2.7 Turbo, 12 October 2012 - 09:15 PM.
To Add more info.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

So, I Drilled the Holes in the old Oil pan from 6 mm to 8 mm, then I Cleansed everything,

and smeared enough "MegaGrey" silicone on its surface:




Then I installed it on the Engine:





Of course i take care about to not let Silicone to get inside the Oil pan,

but I let enough to get to the outer side.



Even , I used some Silicone on the Exhaust Gasket:

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

That repair was done long time ago...





...It still is Running Flawlessly without leaking a single drop of Oil.

Kind Regards.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

My Wife's car - the "KiaStein" - has been monitored with GPS without our permission! ... ...


Look ~► Here.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

Photos & Technical Details of the GPS + GSM Vehicle Tracking & Disabling Device I Found Hiding on my Wife's Car, at that Thread.

~► http://www.ultimates...ad.php?t=136810

Kind Regards.