06 Rio cutting out on interstate

We have an 06 Rio. Its about a year old and has 18000 miles on it. A few months ago, it cut out while my wife was driving it. By "cut out" I mean the engine lost RPMs and the "check engine" light came on while driving on the interstate. It has now done this three times, averaging once every month or so. When it does this, it only lasts for five seconds or so then recovers and its fine. The first time it happened we didnt bother telling the dealer, we figured it was a one time thing. The second time it happened, we told the dealer and they scanned it for faults and there werent any. This last time, we told the dealer and they said there was nothing they could do if its not throwing a code.
Anyone have this problem? Is there a common issue we can tell the dealer to look for?

yeah actually I'm looking at a kia rio with the exact same problem. The Guy who owns the car has had it into 3 different shops including a dealer, had about 3 or 4 thousand dollars worth of work done on it, and its still doing it. Without sending any error codes. I can tell you this, he has had the ecm changed, and its still doing it. Unfortunately I'm in the same boat you are, but just thought you should know that there is someone else out there witht he same problem. Good luck, and let me know if you find anything, and I will do the same.
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cheers


Tom

yeah actually I'm looking at a kia rio with the exact same problem. The Guy who owns the car has had it into 3 different shops including a dealer, had about 3 or 4 thousand dollars worth of work done on it, and its still doing it. Without sending any error codes. I can tell you this, he has had the ecm changed, and its still doing it. Unfortunately I'm in the same boat you are, but just thought you should know that there is someone else out there witht he same problem. Good luck, and let me know if you find anything, and I will do the same.
'


cheers


Tom

Heres an update, for what its worth.
You want the good news or the bad news first????
Ok, the bad news is that we never found out what was causing it to cut off.
The good news is that it hasnt happened in nearly a year (15000 miles) now. So apparently, whatever the problem was, it came and went with no explanation.

hey thanks for your reply. I actually just fixed the problem yesterday. apparently Kia Mechanics = not the smartest people in the world. Basically they solved one problem after another but, in doing that they created new ones that didn't need to happen. I finally got a chance to look at the car a little less then a week ago. I pulled everything apart down to the tps sensor, and the throttle body. being an electronics guy. I figured that the problem was probably in the wiring harness. Sure enough I pulled the harness off the sensor, and its absolutely coated in some sort of an oil, probably a sort of contact cleaner, well they didn't clean it off and as a result it wasn't making proper contact to the sensor which was creating a resistance in the harness. solved that problem with some time and some compressed air. just as I was putting the harness back together I noticed something sitting on the starter. as I reached down to see what it is I moved it, and it sparked greatly shorting the positive terminal on the starter to the case. turns out it was a bolt sleeve that whoever was working on the car last dropped, and didn't bother to remove it. between the oily residue on the harness, and the metal sleeve grounding the starter out. It hasn't done it in about a thousand miles. so I think I resolved it. Sad thing is. it took me an hour and a half, and I'm just a weekend mechanic. it went through 2 dealerships, and 3 other mechanics before I looked at it. So heres hoping :)


cheers

Tom

P.S. Dump the Kia, get a toyota

I agree that the problem is sensor related. Being under warranty, I didnt mess with it.
Along the lines of "Kia mechanics not be the smartest" and also possibly the reason our problem hasnt reaccured, I took our kia in for its 30000 mile auto transmission fluid change. A few days after we got the car back from that service the tranny started whinning in first and would change gears slowly. My wife took it back in and explained what it was doing, they looked it over and came back at her with "SOMEONE put the wrong fluid in the tranny". She told the service writer to take a look at the maintenance records. When he came back, he said they would cover everything, no questions asked. They installed a brand new tranny, provided a loaner and were very humble. They may not be rocket scientists but I have no complaints on their willingness to cover issues.

wow thats amazing,


you found yourself an honest dealership thats for sure. they are few and far between. well good luck with it. If the problem happens again check for resistance in the wiring harness. if you don't know how to do that, your mechanic will. Or I should say....He should know.




cheers

Tom

I dont know if you are still watching this thread but our shifting issue returned. I took it into the shop, they had it for two days and replaced a sensor and cleaned the harness off, no more problem, yet.....