Re: Kia Soul Sputtering at Red Lights

I recently replaced our spark plugs and our car started sputtering.

My wife drives full time for Uber. Will it cause long term damage if my wife drive for Uber all this week and then get it looked at this coming Saturday?

Thank you.
Sean

I recently replaced our spark plugs and our car
started sputtering.

My wife drives full time for Uber. Will it cause long
term damage if my wife drive for Uber all this week
and then get it looked at this coming Saturday?

Thank you.
Sean

1. What model year, engine?

2. Did you correctly gap the new plugs? I found results of 0.040 to 0.044 inches gap, but double check with the information you find out in #1. Never never trust packaging that says “Pre-gapped”!

3. Always remove the wire from one spark plug at a time when replacing plugs, unless you are doing major work - like replacing the engine. Label each wire and plug location with a Sharpie black or metallic ink pen.

Parts places like NAPA and Auto Zone sell spark plug gappers cheap, or might give you a freebie. Keep in your glove compartment with your tire gauge.

Also be aware that Automotive Forums has subforums for nearly every vehicle manufacturer on Earth, including all Hyundai divisions. You might get more traction by posting in the Kia sub.

It sounds like you might be experiencing a misfire, and that could be due to a cracked/damaged spark plug, a bad ignition coil, or, like Riding mentioned above, severely improper spark plug gap or bad spark plug wires if your Kia does not use Coil on Plug (CoP).

Has the Check Engine light come on, or is it flashing? If so, then the misfire is bad enough that the PCM has recognized the misfire, in which case there is a pretty good chance that continuing to drive the Kia may damage the catalytic converter(s) if you continue to drive it. The excess unburned fuel in the exhaust due to the misfire causes the catalytic converters to heat up, which in turn can cause the internals to melt and restrict exhaust flow.

Was the car running fine before changing the spark plugs, or were you changing spark plugs to attempt to solve the same issue?

-Rod

Hey Rod.

The check engine light does come on.

Oh, okay. I think the catalytic convertor might be ruined because we have been driving it for about 5 days since it started.

I thought the car was losing power when climbing hills, but I wasn't sure. So I decided to replace the spark plugs. After I replaced the spark plugs, the problem happened.

If the check engine light is coming on, but not flashing, you may not have damaged the catalytic converter yet. Or, the catalytic converter may have been damaged already, causing the loss of power when climbing hills. Or there could be other issues causing the loss of power (air filter, dirty MAF sensor, restricted fuel filter, weak fuel pump, vacuum leak, etc.).

It's quite possible that you may have cracked a spark plug during the installation, or that a spark plug may have been cracked prior to installation. Since the check engine light has come on, there will be a diagnostic code stored. You really should pull the diagnostic code or codes to see which direction they point you in. If you do not have a scan tool or code reader, most of the chain auto parts stores offer a service to pull the diagnostic codes. However, they're not all good at providing the exact code number (request this if they don't volunteer the exact codes) or properly diagnosing the diagnostic codes, so my recommendation would be to share the codes on this forum to get, hopefully, some decent suggestions on next steps.

-Rod