1998 Kia. 79k miles. Almost impossible to crank. Basically have to floor throttle and turn starter 20-30 seconds until it fires up. Running a little rough once started. Poor smell as well. Where do I start? IAC? Plugs? Thanks

FIrst and easiest and 0$: check for Idle AIr COntrol valve : remove and clean .
www.geocities.com/lmp4203/kiasport/IAC.jpg THIs becomes sticky and causes erratic starts and poor idle.
2nd: do you have the Check ENgine light ON?

3rd...Over 70,000 miles, Change timing belt (see adjacent thread) if not done yet ; timing belt slip is a common problem and will make it very hard to fire up and will lack power.
4th: Crank POsition Sensor happens to fail and cause poor starting and stops at traffic lights....
www.geocities.com/lmp4203/kiasport/cam_crank_sensors.jpg

Engine light is now on plus a HOLD light is shining. Kia told me to replace a couple of the sensors, fuel and one other. No change in the crank. Very hard to crank. Starter even sounds bad. Turns over and over and will finall crank, maybe. Have to floor the gas pedal until will crank. My mechanic says that the timing belt looks fine, but I don't think looks are everything. I cleaned the IAC, no change. What do my friends here think. I have purchased the timing belt and am willing to put it in. Please help. Thanks.

All info for timing belt here:
www.geocities.com/lmp4203/kiasport/TimingBelt.zip

Engine light is now on plus a HOLD light is shining. Kia told me to replace a couple of the sensors, fuel and one other. No change in the crank. Very hard to crank. Starter even sounds bad. Turns over and over and will finall crank, maybe. Have to floor the gas pedal until will crank. My mechanic says that the timing belt looks fine, but I don't think looks are everything. I cleaned the IAC, no change. What do my friends here think. I have purchased the timing belt and am willing to put it in. Please help. Thanks.


You may have a ECM communication problem with the coolant temp sensor. We do to fix this is remove the main connector from the ECM and apply stabilant to all the terminals. This normally fixes the communciation issues.

Without knowing what codes you have it would be difficult to diagnosis.