2001 Kia Sportage running rough after overheating

I have a problem I have not been able to find in any post. The vehicle overheated yesterday while my wife was picking my son up from school. The first thing that happened was the A/C stopped cooling. I am assuming there is a safety built in to protect at overheat. She said then it just died and wouldn't start. History - 115,000 miles, changed timing belt, spark plugs, fuel filter, air filter at approximately 102,000 miles. Has run great ever since. We waited until vehicle cooled and refilled coolant yes it was dry and do not know why either, no visible leak or puddle was ever noticed. Would not start at this point, battery died trying. Towed it home and charged the battery. Continued trying to start with no luck. Tried starting fluid and everything. I know it sounds weird but, I disconnected both pos. and neg. from battery, waited a minute, reconnected and the vehicle finally started, with charger still attached. Now it will start, not as easily as it always has in the past, it takes longer - more rotations, but does not want to idle at all and when it is put in gear it dies. I can hold down both brake and throttle, put it in gear and work the vehicle into movement by giving much throttle and slowly releasing the brake. All is well while it is moving, it responds just like it always has. The problem comes at stopping, it dies. It will restart, not as easily as it always has, and move but you have to do the brake / throttle trick to get it to go. Could use a little help on this one. I don't just want to start replacing parts and hope to get lucky. For now I am going to clean the Crankshaft Position Sensor, the Throttle Position Sensor, the Idle Air Control Valve and the EGR Solenoid (if possible). One post you mentioned the coolent temp. sensor but I don't know where that would be located. I am not very confident in any of these fixes though since this happened after an overheat. I just feel that is something else. Could the plugs or wires & coils have been damaged due to heat? But the car runs fine after you get it moving. I am trying a common sense approach to this problem but I am not having the results that you have on your responses. Sorry for the wordiness but I wanted you to have all of the information. Also, it was about 88 deg. F. today if that helps at all. I think I have given all the information I know. I would sure appreciate your expertese on this problem.
Sincerely,
Brett Clancy

Sorry, left out a couple of items. There is no check engine light and never was during this whole ordeal and I have no codes. I will go to Autozone, have them read the codes and post them.... sorry.
BC

Darn it... sorry... and the A/C does now cool. I'm guessing maybe a safety switch or something switched back to normal operating condition??
BC

Quick update: I took my son to school today. We went out and the car started, it was a rough start... many revolutions. Did the brake / throttle trick and we were on our way. We turned a corner about a mile away and it died. I was unable to restart it. I went to get a code reader and will post codes as soon as I have them.
BC

Don't know if they're helping but here's another update if anybody is out there reading this and willing to impart their knowledge to this problem. After all that happened, the only code I was able to pull out was a P1614. I spoke with one of the Kia dealers here in the Kansas City area and the service manager told me he didn't know what the code was. He told me to go to the fuse block under the hood and tap the relays, that sometimes they get stuck. Thought this was nonsense coming from a service manager but I tried it anyway. Imagine my suprise to find that it didn't help at all. The parts guy told me the code meant excessive voltage. That would make sense since I had it hooked up to a battery charger, set on 50 amp engine start setting to try to start the vehicle. I read in the book that P1614 means Manufacturer Control, Auxiliary Inputs, Auxiliary Outputs. That means nothing to me. Parts guy also suggested I reset the ECM. I disconnected the battery again, reconnected and it started. It took a long time to start, many revolutions, but it did eventually start. I tried the AC to see if it was working and it was cooling. I turned off the AC and it died. I was unable to restart. I still have the battery charger hooked up and it is keeping the battery from draining. The starter will get the engine turning fast enough that it almost starts but not quite. There is a fuel smell in the air, so I am not worried about the fuel. I am going to try a couple of things on my own since I can't get any answers from the dealer. I understand the mentality... why should they tell me how to fix the problem when I can pay them to do it for me. It really does make sense but I don't want to pay them, I would rather keep the money in my pocket. I am going to change the plugs and wires just in case they got too hot. I am also going to check both coils. While I have things somewhat apart, I am going to go ahead and go further into the teardown and check to see if maybe the timing belt slipped. Please ad anything you can if you are reading this and are familiar with what may be my problem.
Thanks,
BC

Well another chapter to my story. Last night I checked the timing belt, it was on correctly and had not slipped. I changed the plugs and wires just in case, I checked the 2 coils one read 17.5 ohms and the other 18 ohms. I pulled the radiator and soldered the cracked rib and I put everything back together. No change. I even cleaned the the air valve. The hold light is now flashing and the check engine light is on. I was able to start (very hard start) it and drive about 3 miles today until it died and I couldn't restart it. I could use some help.
BC

Had compression checked to find that there is very little.

Sounds like you have a ground problem. Sportages are known for this problem. You need to trace the grounds on the car starting with the main ground cable off of the battery where it attaches to the car (not the battery) and go from there . There are some grounds hidden in the right and left kick panels ETC.

brettclancy Hi, I couldn't believe what i was reading in your forum. it was the identical problem that i am having with our 2002 Sportage and it also started from what at the time seamed nothing. My wife was driving to work fine when the sportage overheated because of a leak in the radiator. she pulled over and stopped the car, she could not restart it we towed the car to the house and after much persistence the car started but ran ruff and stalled / stopped all the time, when ever I slowed down or put it on reverse. It ran fine at faster speeds but put your foot on the brakes and it dies. we, like you ran code reader to find out why? And started changing sensors so far nothing has worked after changing radiator,throttle position, air flow,iddle position sensor, spark plugs car still runs ruff. at least now it doesn't stop all the time. We also did the foot on brake and gas at the same time deal. Now it starts after many revolutions but starts easier if you can share any information it will be greatly appreciated thanks.

It is in the grounding of the connectors in the car. This is common. There are grounding posts behind the kick panels on both right and left sides near the floor. There are many other grounds that can also be bad. I have fixed 4 Sportages just by cleaning up the ground connections and making sure they were tight. Good luck.

I had a starting issue a while ago and finally traced the problem to a main engine ground. The wire broke off at the crimped connector. I put another connector on and have had no problems since. I will check the grounds behind the kick panels, however, I seriously doubt that is the problem. I can't imagine that a ground problem would show itself at the same time as an over-heat. I do appreciate the input though. Any more would be appreciated. Hello Fresco, I believe we are both in the same boat and we have no paddles. I did a compression check and found only 45 pounds in 2 cylinders. I believe what happened is that the engine got so hot that the rings lost tension and who knows what else may have happened to the cylinder walls. I believe I am looking at a rebuild. I hope you are more fortunate than myself. I have come to this determination after many conversations with Kia dealers and many shops. I am still looking for any other information that may be out there. I am now also looking for any help on removing the engine. I have heard that it needs to come out the bottom of the car. Does anybody know if this is true? Does anybody know a good source of information for removal and rebuilding?
Sincerely,
BC
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Brettclancy ,don't give up on this engine just yet know how you feel, At first I couldn't even get the sportage started and my wife needed the car to go to work. Boy that feeling really sucks, after many hours at the libery and 4 sensors later not to mention spark plugs and coils replaced, it started to run better not good but better. now it starts every morning (after many revolutions) and doesnt die at stop lights . the problem is as i see it these vehicles have lots of sensors and all of them send info to the computer with the overheat some of them may have been damaged causing it to run like crap or not even start. There's a crank sensor and, transmission input sensor, and output sensor. where i am looking next. Also thanks to HVAC1000 for the tip on cleaning the grounds I"ll try it. nothing to loose it is also possible that one of the pistons is misfiring giving poor compression I know mine has it too. Hopefully i can do this soon.

Had compression checked to find that there is very little.
How much is little? THis alone can explain a lot of symptoms but it needs a cause. You say timing belt is OK.... do you have to add coolant ?

I have been having the same exacty problem with my 2002 sportage for the past couple of weeks. It was fine when I'm on the gas but as soon as I break it doesn't want to accelerate again. Just today it finally won't start at all. The engine is turning over but the car just doesn't wan't to go anywhere, I really need to get to work too. Arrgghh! I guess I'll have to get someone to look at my ground connections. If you find out anything else please let me know!

Hello LMP, Thanks for checking out this problem. I hope you can assist. Well the vehicle did overheat due to lack of coolant and problems started from there. I pulled the radiator, put it under pressure to find the leak and then soldered it. I have not been able to keep the car running long enough to see if my repair worked or not though. I have not had to put anything in since I repaired it, reinstalled it and put coolant back in. I'm down to less than 40 lbs. I'm going to do another comp. check but before I do, I'm going to dump in a cap or 2 of oil to "seal" the rings for a revolution or two just to see if I have ring failure. Does that make sense? I'm not looking forward to rebuilding this engine. I have been told that the engine needs to come out the bottom of the vehicle. Is that true? If it is, is there any way at all around that. I don't have access to a lift. I sure hope you can shed some light.
Again, thanks for checking out my problem.
BC

Your head warped when it overheated. That is what is causing the low compression. These motors need about 130 psi to start and run, anything below that and you are in marginal territory.
When the head warps, the valves and seats do not seal, hence low compression.
There are a couple things you can do to further test this issue. Do a compression test and record the results, then put an oil cap full of oil in each cylinder and repeat the tests. See if there is any appreciable increase in the compression. No compression increase indicates valve leakage. Compression increase usually indicates worn rings.
Another test that can be done to verify damage before disassembly is the leak down test. Using a leakdown tester, test each cylinder with the piston at top dead center on the compression stroke. Listen for where the air is leaking to, you can hear it when it leaks into the intake and also when it leaks into the exhaust. Sometimes you can even feel it at the tailpipe. You can also feel it or hear it at the dipstick when the stick is removed if the pistons/rings are leaking.
I just finished a job just like this and found the center two cylinders to be leaking the most.....#1 cylinder/100psi...#2cylinder/50psi...#3 cylinder/50psi...#4 cylinder/100psi.
A remanufactured head or rebuilding of the warped head should resolve the problem along with solving the cause of the overheating. One note on rebuilding of these heads is that both the top and bottom of these heads warp, that is of particular concern, due to the fact that the cams sit in the top half of the head. The cams can bind if that issue isn't addressed during the rebuild. My vehicle had a bad radiator cap(wouldn't hold pressure) and leaking radiator.

That all sounds about right. I broke down and took it to the dealer. I did the cap of oil thing and got readings of 90, 90, 70 and 150 (front to back). I was able to start it and run it for about 10 minutes and couldn't restart it. They did comp test and got readings of 50, 50, 60 and 90 front to back this is after I burned the oil off. Looks like rings to me. They also said head and valve damage. Delicate engine!! I asked about rebuilding but they said they would rather put in a new engine for $1900.00 for the engine plus the labor probably another $1500.00. If this has taught me anything it is that I need to be a lot more dilligent when it comes to checking my wifes car. This is a very expensive lesson.

Brett Clancy

well after all that I went through with the overheating and then the sportage not starting and running rough bad idle no compression and a few Sunday mechanics not to mention buying all sorts of sensors. i took it to the kia dealership and after checking it for one wk. they replaced the valves and the car runs good thanks for the help. and i hope this helps someone resolve there car problems

Hey first time here...... I got a question, I have the same problem after overheating,I haved Change the radiator, Change cylinder head gasket, replace piston rings for new ones. the engine only has 77,000 miles. but you say that the cylinder head may be warped ?? each piston should have 130 psi ? I got the tool to check the pressure on each piston, but 130 psi comes after just one turn of the engine? or I have to spin it until the pressure stops building up on my gage?

It will not build up to more than the actual pressure. So let it turn a few times so it can make up for any loss due to unsteady application of tester.

Man I tried everything and the thing that saved me was that my sportage was under warranty. good thing for that 100,000 or 5 yr. and now any signs of over heating I will stop and have the car towed. Its cheaper in the long run. And yes sportage valves go bad with any over heating.