But, the brand new fuel pump assembly, required an Adjustment for the Float Lever sensor, in order to fuction properly, because it came from factory way too tight somehow; so I disassembled that lever sensor to check if it was alright and reasembled everything back, letting the lever arm to move freely as it should.

 

 

Here is a helping friend, holding the piece for the Photo

 

I am glad that you found the problem and that you and your family are ok!

 

1 minute ago, Crazyeights said:

I am glad that you found the problem and that you and your family are ok!

Thank you so much, my Friend!

I don't know how to embed videos here, in this Forum, yet.

https://i.imgur.com/t9RFYjq.mp4

Here you can see how free is the movement of the sensor arm.

Kind Regards.

 

The video looks good

2 minutes ago, Crazyeights said:

The video looks good

Thank You! 

Something pretty interesting, regarding the new fuel Pump assembly swap, is that, somehow the Low Fuel warning light, at the instrument cluster, came back again to function; because I've lost that warning light function when I did the instrument cluster Swap, years ago...

I did that cluster swap then, (without the need of changing anything on the wiring nor plugs), to gain Tachometer which the original cluster didn't have; and the only thing lost then, was the warning light for the low fuel.

Since such warning light came back to life Flawlessly with the new Fuel Pump Assembly, I believe that the wiring is different between the fuel pump assembly for the basic model and the fuel pump assembly for the luxury model... somehow.

So, the problems with the Fuel Pump and the non-functional low fuel warning light, were solved by changing the old one with the new fuel pump assembly; thanks to God.

In another Subject; as I wrote some posts ago, the plastic from the wiring terminals in this Sephia, are crumbling away, making connection problems in some sensors; the most recent fail was the terminal for the Knock Sensor, which crumbled away, letting the wiring to hang down disconnected...

 

So, part of the Box pictured some posts above, was a set of brand new Sensors, which came along the new fuel pump assembly, from RockAuto, including a new Knock Sensor:

So, I took advantage of a discount coupon at RockAuto and bought all the sensors I could, at once ...

 

 

Many plugs are experiencing this Plastic Crumbling on these Kias

Image scanned from the sales brochure of a first gen Kia Sephia, from a Dealer in USA.

 

https://imgur.com/gallery/B3FF7wK

Someone asked me This, in another Forum:

Quote

Thanks for all your recent postings here.....But is this due to sheer boredom from your area's Covid restrictions that you're posting so? 

No, it isn't due to boredom at all...

...in fact, this thread is a Binnacle to keep up with our "KiaStein" history; if you take a look, you'll see that this thread has kept updated for more than a decade so far. 

I've been posting, sharing my inventions, creations, adaptations, modifications, retrofittings, repairs, etc... online since 1999 also in some other web forums; the reason is to share ideas for all the people who might benefit from them.

Like me, there are many persons who also contributes with helpful ideas online, which had helped us a lot, so I wanted to do my part, because in order to find useful information, someone have to share it...

Finally there is another reason: This binnacle saves time, because if you want to find the proper part number for a repair, you'll find it written here, along with detailed photos of all the procedures.

I alredy received e-mails, private messages and posts with thanks from people that, after digging online, found the answer to their mechanical problems, on my threads, on different web forums... even on web pages.

That exactly is all I want, a simple thank. 

I don't want to sound arrogant, but here is an example:

https://jalopnik.com/this-honduran-subaru-nut-writes-awesome-how-to-manuals-429795764
 

Greetings from Honduras,

Kind Regards.

Glad to see you kept up the super sleuthing Jes.

Crosses my mind that if this was the only wiring burning, how did you smell it as it is inside a sealed environment?

Or was the external wiring also getting hot?

Have seen the cooked wiring loom of a German made cars fuel pump. Needed more expertise than a generic mechanic and a new pump

23 hours ago, Step-a-toe said:

Glad to see you kept up the super sleuthing Jes...

Thank You 

 

23 hours ago, Step-a-toe said:

...if this was the only wiring burning, how did you smell it as it is inside a sealed environment?  ...

Because the smell and the fumes were strong enough to be noticeable outside... maybe scaped from the filling tube cap?

That, plus the kind of fail that the car developed, made me search on that area...

Kind Regards.

Automatic Transmission Blues.

 

Our Kia Sephia was built in mid 1999 and sold as a 2000 model. Already has 21 years old, nearing 300,000 miles on its original automatic transmission and the sedan is running like new; however the worse part from these Sephias are their weak electrical system, needing new Relays installed outside the relay & fuse Box to properly function; and the dashboard rubber, it just plain Sucks... bending backward to the passengers; besides that it is an awesome small car with strong long lasting suspension, engine and rigid unibody with great performance.

However, their Automatic Transmissions, as they comes from factory, has bumpy shifts between first and second gear, they almost Jump backwards when engaging the reverse gear, and usually, the transmission feels slow to downshift; mainly noticeable during sudden emergency braking: the car almost stalls due to remaining in second / third gear while stopped and takes some seconds to get back to neutral, shaking the engine meanwhile due to the gear.

Despite that, their Automatic Transmissions are designed by Jatco (Japan Automatic Transmissions Company) one of the best auto trans makers, worldwide, and performs nice, making a great use of the engine's powerband rpms and helping this cars to feel fast and peppy; featuring an awesome overdrive which you can turn off / on by the simple press of a secondary button on the shifter, which changes the overall behaviour of the car.

We accustomed ourselves to live with the occasional rough changing transmission and its sudden bumps for no reason from time to time; because the thing never failed in our daily drives nor long trips, and the bumps were not constant; sometimes it shifted smooth as silk.

This transmission even survived the abuse from the previous owner of the car and her racing / bad driving habits.

 

I've changed the Differential long years ago...

 

...also I found a broken teeth on a gear in same time...

 

so I also changed that; but the Behaviour of the Transmission never changed...

...until mid 2018 when my Wife and I, noticed that the "KiaStein" lost the grip inside the Automatic Transmission, while climbing on steep hills, and Honduras is the most mountaineous country of Central America; so we're plenty of steep hills on our roads and offroads... so the "KiaStein" felt just like revving up the engine while loosing speed; like a manual trans with a slipping clutch; somehow.

Anyhow, we continued driving it trying to not force much the car; meanwhile I started to reasearch regarding the situation, preparing myself for a major rebuild, or a transmission swap, in case of a fail.

What I found was two (2) pretty interesting things:

1) Kia Motors was completely aware of the situation of the rough shiftings and everything, just exactly as I described in my post above; they even emitted three TSB (technical service bulletins) only about these automatic transmissions, the newer superseeded the older TSB's.

Here I attach a copy of the last one: ~► https://www.kia-forums.com/attachments/tsb-003r4-pdf.116637/

Their  "KIA AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION PROGRAM"  found the culprit on the Valves Body and they were swapping automatic transmissions and sending the old ones (known as cores) to get their valve bodies serviced, for being used as future swaps.

Furthermore, I found that, despite of the fact that these Sephias are out of warranty, no dealer will fix the one on our Sephia and even worse being in Honduras... the valves body repair Kit, used by Kia, is still available and sold to service this transmissions, on repair shops with certified technicians.

This Transmission repair Kit, fixes everything related with the rough behaviour of the transmission, addresing some design flaws on the valves body. That's it, period.

2) The lost of grip inside the Transmission is another different problem, directly related to the normal wear of the transmission internals, due to age + mileage; more than 250 K miles and almost twenty years had the car when the loose grip started in mid 2018, but the car was still driveable...

So, we decided to continue using it, meanwhile I gather all the needed parts to do an automatic transmission overhaul.

First, I had to source the Valves Body Kit, which improves the Automatic Transmission's Behaviour, fixes rough shifting and hard downshifts among other problems.
 

I found it online at Rock Auto:

 

Here is it, upon arrival:

 

Next to the "KiaStein" ready to start working on it.

 

 

I must confess that I was really afraid to attempt this, because Automatic Transmissions are way more complicated than anything on a car, including engines and I am a self-taught man; but if I didn't success, I had a plan B: Swap the transmission with a used one from a junk yard in case of fail; but first I had to try to service the original transmission.

So I obtained the help of a gentle local friend mechanic who has a repair shop but none experience in automatic transmissions; who let me use his shop and gave me a helping hand.

Firstly, prior to start everything, I spent an afternoon reading and understanding the instructions attached in paper sheets, inside the Kit.

 

 

 

We lifted the "KiaStein" to drain the old ATF, remove the transmission's oil pan and gain access to the Valves Body inside.

You don't need to remove the whole transmission from the car to gain access to the valves body, only the crossmember thanks to God.

 

Here you can see the emptied trasmission bottom

Here you can see the valves body and the ATF filter removed, over the oil pan...

...next to the crossmember bolts.

The valves body is somehow a...

 

 

..three story building, stacked together,
with metal sheets as gaskets between each story.

We disassembled everything carefully on a big table, with eyes wide open...

 

 

...each level looked like a Labyrinth and there were five tiny plastic balls in certain openings which had tinier holes under them;

said balls acted like check valves, permitting the ATF to circulate flowing in only one direction.

There are sets of Pistons with Springs, on their sides;

each one belongs to a Speed gear, first, second, third, fourth, overdrive and reverse;

they had Locking pins which we removed to get each set out, one by one.

 

The Kit came with colour coded, new Springs' sets, which needed to be changed in the place of the old original Springs.

 

 

At first I thought that it only was to swap old worn springs with new ones, but I was wrong. Some of the new Springs were much longer, having more turns and being way softer than the ones which originally had from factory; while other new Springs were Stiffer and even Shorter sometimes.

I admired the profesionalism of the Kit, as each new Springs' set for a gear speed Piston, came packed inside individual bags with colour code, one set in one bag with one colour for each speed, so this thing is almost fool proof.

The instructions indicate that certain holes must be enlarged to prevent the ATF flow from getting clogged,

using the drill bits included in the set.