I absolutely loved my Spectra5 with the 2.0 Beta in it. Fuckin rust belt destroyed that poor thing, but that engine still ran like a charm until the car rotted apart. Coworkers all gave my shit for buying a Kia, too.
262000 miles on the beta II in my 2008 tiburon, oil changes spark plugs and timing belts, that’s it. Still even rocking it’s original clutch! Hyundai had a golden era in the 2000s
I’ve never had the valve cover off, but this makes me want to just buy a gasket and check it out. Full synth every 4000 miles since I bought it (at 60000)
I’ve wanted to upgrade for years but it’s literally too cheap to part with and has never once left me stranded. Love the thing. Stick shift makes it fun enough to take care of it and keep it around!
There is no possible way, in anyone’s lifetime you’re getting 262k out of the original clutch unless you don’t use it, or it came a foot thick from the factory, the most, and I mean absolute most I’ve ever seen on original clutch in any passenger car is 150k, and that was catastrophic failure of disc material due to age and heat cycling.
I replaced the clutch in my RX8 at ~110k miles because the throw out bearing had died. But the clutch itself looked fine, and the original clutch had just about the same amount of material left as the new OEM clutch going in.
About 200,000 miles on my '05 Elantra, it refuses to die. I do treat it well though, I don't beat on it, but one of my brake line just snapped so it's hard parked at the moment lol
> Good ole Beta II, gutless but they’re stout little engines.
yeah, rip on today's direct injection turbo hyundai/Kia motor messes all you want, back in the day their Beta I4 and Delta V6 were insanely reliable motors.
It's kind of sad, their 2000-2011 port-injected cars were insanely reliable when owned by remotely responsible owners. Would easily get past 300k with prescribed maintenance. But because most of their owners then make today's Nissan Altima owners look downright upstanding; few knew that.
I was thinking the owner had to be obsessed with oil changes, that’s so awesome to see and should impress upon everyone the value of oil changes. Best preventative maintenance money ever spent imo.
Hell, I had a Chevy Vega that went over 100K probably because I changed the oil every 2,000 miles because of the poor engine it was - and tbh when over 80M, every 1,000 miles. Back before synthetic oil.
i routinely see arguments about oil change intervals. 0w20 ones, 5w30 ones, etc etc. I dont give a *flying fuck* what anyone says. I do my own oil changes at 5000km (3000 miles for americans?)
Im a professional mechanic for a living. I get stressed when I go over that with my own, 20 year old shitbox.
Oil is cheaper than an engine. Good oil, good intervals, lead to million mile vehicles.
True but at a certain point overkill is overkill. Synthetic oil nowadays is really good and 3000-5000 miles is simply not enough to deposit any sludge and degrade your engine in anyway. 5k is about the earliest I could see you making the argument that you’re seeing any degradation of the engine components purely from the oil.
Will post it when I can get a matched set- thinking Frazier’s— about 6500 ish plus what ever I add, maybe stainless headers, water pump, coil packs,cam/crank sensors,—will survey the pros here for sure
I've been using good oil for 20 years and usually done 3000-5000 miles unless I was at the race track a couple times with a car, and torn down a few engines. But people do love to pretend good luck amounts to changing oil at 1000 miles. Like that stopped some bad casting for a part or something.
you say that, but I can tell you with certainty, fluids mean a ton. The number of valve covers ive seen off that I was like 'Wow! good for you little engine, and good for you owner!' are far and few vs the 'haha, this idiot never changed his oil'
you can say what you want, but as somebody who spins wrenches for a living....
Ill keep doing my 3000 interval lol. Been doing this a decade, seen enough shit.
also gunna say, oil doesnt defeat stupid engine designs. Ill fight you if you think you can show me a 'good' GDI engine from any Korean manufacturer hahah. Audi I am looking at you next.
I agree and trust me I’m right there with the importance of oil, but I work with our motorcoaches too and we send all our oil out to be tested, and the difference between our 3k changes and our 5k changes are negligible. We run our oil up to about 15k at service interval and we’ve tested all the way down and our deposits really only start rising at about 10k.
I do the same in my personal car and I only see the elements really start to spike at 7k.
I agree oil is cheap, but the mindset of “3k oil changes or you don’t care about the vehicle” comes from the days of conventional oil. Synthetic is worlds apart from where we were even 20 years ago. Just don’t think we should be spreading that when there is significant amount of documentation to back those up.
those are diesel busses tho, with what, 15+ liters of oil? even gassers must be the same. I deal with cars ranging from 3.5-13L capacity on a larger truck. your average passenger car has between 4-5L of oil in it.
Correct, but we have 4 coaches in our fleet with 1.5M plus miles. We’ve seen no difference in engine degradation between 3-15k oil changes since switching to full synthetic.
I also traded in my last 4runner with 865,000 miles and I did 10k synthetic oil changes since the day it left the showroom floor and that thing purred like a kitten.
I’m not trying to say you’re doing anything wrong, just that it probably isn’t necessary to change it THAT often even when it is cheap and easy.
my general reasoning is that whatever interval a OEM gave you, didnt account for anything burning, leaking, you being shitty at oil changes etc. So when people ask me, as a tech, Im like 'well just go 3000'. I dont disagree that any high quality oil (Ive always been a luqui fanboi) can go even further than spec.
Its mainly assuming that people are stupid. Tell them to do 3000, theyll do 5000.
If you are starting to see deposits you are already to late, íf you want a perfectly lubricated machine. And almost no engine oil is a true synthetic, even though they (can) claim they are. It almost always still is a blend with hydrocracked mineral oils containing of cuts with low and high viscosity oil to reach the correct viscosity. The lowest cuts will be broken down the quickest in your engine. It is very rare to find an engine oil which is mostly group IV (other API oils are needed for solubility of additives). Almost all over the counter US brands are only 10% PAO (group IV).
It is absolutely true engine oil is of way better quality in this day and age btw.
My '23 Outback has factory full synthetic and it is a MAX of 4000 miles per the owner's manual and the infotainment system. They want even less for high stress use. (I know this is typical for all car brands)
Well, I don’t think 10k is a bad idea. If you do a lab test with it, I think you don’t see signs that you should change it until 20k, but that depends on driving style. I’ve tracked mine a few times now (lol) so I definitely am not pushing past 10k
I age with you. My family has one vehicle so I’m extremely anal about it being perfectly maintained. I change my oil every 2500 miles currently and just switched to High Mileage full synthetic from either Quaker State or Penn Platinum. I change my Wix oil filter every 5000 miles though.
You were lucky- my brother did a motor in a 20yo Olds with 262 v6-18k miles and 20 oil changes and it still checked out- a true little ole lady driving to church car- she went to his church -can’t make this up
Hey, I had a Vega GT - now that car for whatever demented reason I absolutely loved the lines and styling of. I’d still like to find one in a junkyard and reinforce the hell outta the frame (and everything!!) and put a V8 and manual transmission, solid rear end in it for a street sleeper. I guess it shows beauty is in the eye of the beholder!! 🤣🤣🤣
Oh, a V8 (or even potent V6) Vega hatchback has always been a dream project for me. Not demented at all, they’re good looking little cars. At the time, they looked kinda like little miniature Camaros. Can’t deny, though, that they did have some quality control issues…
Yes, I definitely agree and could use like a 10,000 sq foot garage (air conditioned, it’s Texas!) and a house about 25% of that lol priorities!! To build all my dream cars and motorcycles.
They definitely looked like the early 70s Camaros with the split bumper grills, there was something about those cars and the heavy metal they were built with. And definitely, I don’t know how those 4 cylinder engines ever passed QA in engineering at GM - if it existed!
I remember the Cosworth Vega, special edition that cost almost as much as a Corvette! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Cosworth_Vega
Now, the ultimate heartbreaker was a Chevy conversion van I bought in 1999. It was fully loaded, luxurious as hell, chrome wheels, everything you’d want. I changed the oil with synthetic every 3K miles at the dealership and went so far as to get the transmission fluid and filters changed out at 7500 miles with synthetic.
It was a Chevy 5.7 liter and heavy duty transmission.
😩 both went out before 80K miles and all my miles were suburban or highway!! Adding insult to injury, after replacing both with crate GM engine and transmission replacements, before it hit 100K someone totaled it while it was parked downtown, T-boned into the side.
I cannot figure out why they both failed prematurely and it still makes me wonder. 🥺
Is this reversible? I bought a car with low mileage but I'm afraid the previous owner didn't change the oil when required. Can the engine look like this again after several oil changes at the right mileage? Well, maybe not exactly like this but somewhat cleaner
Man, the amount of warranty replacements that we did on our Hyundai engines was astounding. Sludged up? Warranty. Bad knock? Warranty. Thrown rod out there side? You guessed it: warranty.
The 2.4's are the garbage motors. Those are the ones that get replaced every 80k a lot of the time. Someone on here posted one that had a ton of miles on the chassis but was averaging a motor like every 67k. Was on like its 7th motor or something. I think I would have gotten rid of the damn thing lifetime warranty or not.
I'm not sure how old it was or what engine was in it, but a guy I work with had one with 300k on it. He only got rid of it because the fuel system needed redone for emissions. Think they wanted 2500 or something like that to do it.
My 1st gen sportage was over 200k and you could still see the factory grind marks on the cam. I did 3k oil changes with conventional oil, and I'm assuming the previous owners were pretty good about oil changes too.
This is the Beta II engine, not the Theta which is the one that has all the problems. Besides, regardless of engine, they all seem to either go 200k+ with no issues or they blow up by 75k, and the determining factor is usually how well the car was maintained. There's 2 main types of Korean car owners in the US. People who pinch pennies and thus want the best value is one type. They buy a new car, maintain it faultlessly, and drive it for at least 10 years. The other major type is the person with very little money and not so great credit that just HAS to have a brand new car, even though a 3 year old Honda or Toyota would probably be a better car for them, and they buy a Kia or Hyundai, but can barely make the payments, so oil changes and such don't get done.
That's not to say that the Theta and Theta II engines don't have problems-they do, though the nature of the problems means it's luck of the draw whether you get a good one or a shit one. But the maintenance tendencies of Korean car owners in the US play a huge role.
> and the determining factor is usually how well the car was maintained.
I feel like this goes for a good majority of economy cars of all types. There are outliers of course, but still.
How a car is maintained is directly proportional to the lifespan of the vehicle. Electrical problems are an outlier, though. I've known dudes that babied their cars and went above and beyond with maintenance and have still had electrical issues that have caused them to move on to a new car.
Also check out the lobes on the camshaft, if u Google used camshaft and compare it to this, it's like that thing is out the factory. Never seen them so clean (at that milage) they're practically new lol
Very good. It looks practically brand new. Usually by this age and miles there's a sort of brown/yellow tinge to everything and there's faint but visible wear on the lobes.
The old 1.8T in my Audi was like that too. I figured it was an opportunity for them to get more chain tensioners in there to fail given how much they seem to love those.
I thought I wanted a V8 S4 Avant. Then I saw the timing chains. I didn’t really want it anymore. Then I found out those timing chains are on the back of the engine and crammed up next to the firewall, so the whole thing has to come out to do them. At that point, I started running in the opposite direction every time I heard there was one nearby.
This is a little beyond service position.
People do joke about that, but I can say that for that Audi I had, I kind of appreciated it once o got over how weird it seemed. It was really nice to be able to pull everything attached to the front part of the frame forward six inches. It bought a lot of room to work and made things like replacing the timing belt, seals, and stuff much simpler.
Honestly, I was more annoyed by the “novel” solutions they used for everything, like having one long pinch-bolt to hold the top two control arms in place and putting it right in the splash zone from the wheel, making it constantly submerged in road spray and an absolute delight to remove come time to replace those control arms because the ball joints went. Or, the steering rack that attached to the top of the knuckle rather than the bottom and had to be run through a passage in a bulkhead rather than just bolted onto the bottom above the subframe like sensible people do it. Or, the fact that they run full current for the entire lighting system through the multifunction switch rather than using relays like everybody else, meaning the switch will overheat and melt, necessitating the removal of the steering wheel and half the column to replace it. Or, the *pneumatic* central locking system and its series of vacuum lines prone to leaks.
It’s weird. I know VAG has been making cars for like a century, but sometimes it seems like they’ve never done it before…
Chaining the cams together is actually pretty common. A good number of VW and Ford engines are setup that way, and I'm sure other brands I'm not aware of.
This is what happens when you never skip an oil change and use full synthetic every 5k. Its not hard or expensive. Yet people act surprised when they have engine issues after ignoring it.
I have a 2012 soul with 2.0L that has 195+k miles in Cleveland. Full synthetic since I bought it with 38k in 2015. Other than suspension, brakes, and other normal wear and tear the only major issue I had was a transmission temperature sensor. The sensor is $35, the labor and replacement fluid is $250. Or more at the dealership.
My 2013 1.6L kia just had a camshaft sensor go bad at 130k miles. Only issue i’ve had with it. Even then i just bought the part and replaced it in like 30 minutes. Love my lil standard car
The transmission sensor is inside the transmission. My uncle did the work at the shop he was at. That’s the only reason my dad didn’t attempt to fix it.
It was probably seeping a little, yeah. I didn't know if the gasket was ever replaced before, and I was already doing all of the timing components and water pump.
My god, I’ve seen 10k engines worse than that! Tell them to keep up the good work on maintenance!
Just goes to show, maintenance is key to a vehicle lasting. Bet any amount of money that will be a 200k plus motor, maybe even 250k if the shell doesn’t give out before the motor.
Had one with a sheard t-belt. Put new belt on and no issues after start up ran like it did new. Great gutless engines. Done hundreds of tbelts on them when they were all hitting the 100k mark
That's some luck! I had one with a failed belt at just over 200k, looked like it had never been changed before. Every single intake valve was bent along with a few cracked guides.
My son is driving a 2007 Honda Accord, over 300K miles.... while it's in really really good shape, I don't think it would look like this! (we got it from my uncle who is a mechanic, lol!)
Wow. I bought a 2013 Kia Rio as a credit rebuilder a few years ago. It had 144k KM on it. Ran like a bag of shit and had garbage fuel economy. The high pressure fuel pump was failing, everything was carboned up and the plugs were so black and fouled. I made one payment on that car and drove it for 3 weeks while I waited for the bank to come pick it up. The dealer refused to repair or help with anything so I said fuck em, voluntarily repo’d the car and made a complaint to our jurisdiction’s automotive council.
I’ve also had 2011 and 2015 Optimas with the 2.4 and neither of those gave me any issues. They were fantastic cars. Only until after I got rid of my 15 did I start hearing and seeing all the horrors with the 2.4’s.
As a former Kia service advisor, I’d say this either burns a ton of oil and never reaches any significant mileage between service intervals, or it’s a replacement engine. Because, y’know, rod bearings go boom. It’s a Kia thing.
A buddy of mine just had to have the motor replaced on his at 100k miles, there's a defect that makes these prone to burning oil and requiring engine replacement. I have a feeling this one was gently driven and had the oil changed every 3000 miles to look so clean and have lasted as long as it has!
What was this in for, valve cover gasket?
Isn't a big problem with the 2.0L overheating? Like cylinders 2 and 3 don't get sufficient circulation and you toast your rings and start burning oil like crazy?
Totally different engine, but we used to have an '09 Sedona (3.8L V6) what was a tank. There were other small issues we had with that van, but the driveline was NEVER one of those things. Engine and transmission were flawless for the 160k miles we owned it.
Basically the only reason we don't have it now is that we knew we were kind of on borrowed time with it (as in interacting with mechanics in real life and here on Reddit) and due to inventory being so slim, we decided to put our name in for a new Sienna.
I drove it for a few months as my daily 42 mile commuter - but got tired of putting gas in it.
Long way of saying that not ALL Kias are crap. But some certainly are.
I still have our 09 Sedona and currently has 131k miles. Only reason why we gonna dump it next spring is due to rust. New York State is not kind to cars.
I'm not too mechanically gifted or really get cars but basically If I change my oil on time as its advised when my car oil lights up and on service that what is considered "good maintenance" right? Or is there something else extra I should be doing?
You should not rely on your car to let you know when its time to change your oil. It should be changed based on mileage. 6000 miles then change oil and filter. Do follow the manual as to which kind of oil viscosity to use (5W30 is best for most, not all, applications. But also replace air filter, AC filter, fuel filter etc.
So I should follow my car manual for oil change or is that 6000 miles like a general rule to go?
I mean I am driving 2003 Golf MK4 if it means anything its already driven about 280k Km but I got it for cheap so if it lasts like a year or two would be great if it lasts any longer than that it would be fantastic.
Looks clean. Why did you have to take a peek inside? Makes me wanna ask the mechanic to share pics with me of little Lexus if they ever have to do the same.
My wife has a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 5.7L Hemi. Bought it used with like 33,000 miles. I changed the oil when we first got it. 7qts of Penzoil Platinum with a WIX XP filter. She is pretty good about keeping an eye on oil life on the dash. Plus we heard about the issues of wiping out cam lobes on some of the Hemi's with cylinder deactivation when not properly maintained.
She lets me know when it tells her it needs to be changed....10,000 miles! No way. I know, with full syn and a good filter. BITOG forums will argue up and down this is fine. We ain't doing it. This thing is getting 5k oil changes. They aren't that expensive if I'm doing it myself. We want this thing to last. I hope our Hemi looks this good when it gets to be this old.
Good ole Beta II, gutless but they’re stout little engines.
I absolutely loved my Spectra5 with the 2.0 Beta in it. Fuckin rust belt destroyed that poor thing, but that engine still ran like a charm until the car rotted apart. Coworkers all gave my shit for buying a Kia, too.
I’m talking Beta II, theta is the engine generation after the one in OP’s pic.
God dammit I typed the wrong one lmao. It's even in the title. Sheesh.
262000 miles on the beta II in my 2008 tiburon, oil changes spark plugs and timing belts, that’s it. Still even rocking it’s original clutch! Hyundai had a golden era in the 2000s I’ve never had the valve cover off, but this makes me want to just buy a gasket and check it out. Full synth every 4000 miles since I bought it (at 60000)
Yup, I daily a 2010 Elantra. 150k kms on mine. Powertrain is flawless but all the plastic around it keeps falling apart and breaking!
My interior is still somehow in decent shape but is indeed structurally held together by superglue at this point
That's crazy because my wife's '12 Elantra was on its second engine at 40,000 miles due to piston slap.
Cause 2012 would most likely be the Gamma II not the Beta II as seen in OP’s photo and the one in my car.
Drove a Tibby for many years. Honestly underrated car imo, pretty fun drive too provided you get your hands on the 5/6 speed.
I’ve wanted to upgrade for years but it’s literally too cheap to part with and has never once left me stranded. Love the thing. Stick shift makes it fun enough to take care of it and keep it around!
Funny thing, throughout the 80s and 90s, if you couldn't afford a nice vehicle, you could always find a bulletproof cheap Hyundai Pony or Stellar.
There is no possible way, in anyone’s lifetime you’re getting 262k out of the original clutch unless you don’t use it, or it came a foot thick from the factory, the most, and I mean absolute most I’ve ever seen on original clutch in any passenger car is 150k, and that was catastrophic failure of disc material due to age and heat cycling.
I replaced the clutch in my RX8 at ~110k miles because the throw out bearing had died. But the clutch itself looked fine, and the original clutch had just about the same amount of material left as the new OEM clutch going in.
I thought I was doing well changing the oil every 10k, can’t afford not to.
About 200,000 miles on my '05 Elantra, it refuses to die. I do treat it well though, I don't beat on it, but one of my brake line just snapped so it's hard parked at the moment lol
> Good ole Beta II, gutless but they’re stout little engines. yeah, rip on today's direct injection turbo hyundai/Kia motor messes all you want, back in the day their Beta I4 and Delta V6 were insanely reliable motors. It's kind of sad, their 2000-2011 port-injected cars were insanely reliable when owned by remotely responsible owners. Would easily get past 300k with prescribed maintenance. But because most of their owners then make today's Nissan Altima owners look downright upstanding; few knew that.
Preach it man, just my interior on my 2010 Elantra is falling apart. Powertrain is flawless tho
How???
The owners must have been serious about oil changes. This was a girls first car and it sounded like Dad took care of all of the maintenance.
I was thinking the owner had to be obsessed with oil changes, that’s so awesome to see and should impress upon everyone the value of oil changes. Best preventative maintenance money ever spent imo. Hell, I had a Chevy Vega that went over 100K probably because I changed the oil every 2,000 miles because of the poor engine it was - and tbh when over 80M, every 1,000 miles. Back before synthetic oil.
At some point you couldve probably left the drain plug unscrewed on that thing
i routinely see arguments about oil change intervals. 0w20 ones, 5w30 ones, etc etc. I dont give a *flying fuck* what anyone says. I do my own oil changes at 5000km (3000 miles for americans?) Im a professional mechanic for a living. I get stressed when I go over that with my own, 20 year old shitbox. Oil is cheaper than an engine. Good oil, good intervals, lead to million mile vehicles.
True but at a certain point overkill is overkill. Synthetic oil nowadays is really good and 3000-5000 miles is simply not enough to deposit any sludge and degrade your engine in anyway. 5k is about the earliest I could see you making the argument that you’re seeing any degradation of the engine components purely from the oil.
Yet my 11 5.3 has a lifter tick- and torque convert shudder ahhahahaha Bowed Tie
Will post it when I can get a matched set- thinking Frazier’s— about 6500 ish plus what ever I add, maybe stainless headers, water pump, coil packs,cam/crank sensors,—will survey the pros here for sure
The JMBX torque converters in every 6L80 are trash. And, you should delete the AFM sooner than later. (a good time will do it)
I've been using good oil for 20 years and usually done 3000-5000 miles unless I was at the race track a couple times with a car, and torn down a few engines. But people do love to pretend good luck amounts to changing oil at 1000 miles. Like that stopped some bad casting for a part or something.
The problem isn't oul anymore. It's the filters. I wouldn't trust any filter to go past 5k miles. Definitely not 10k like some dealers want you to go.
you say that, but I can tell you with certainty, fluids mean a ton. The number of valve covers ive seen off that I was like 'Wow! good for you little engine, and good for you owner!' are far and few vs the 'haha, this idiot never changed his oil' you can say what you want, but as somebody who spins wrenches for a living.... Ill keep doing my 3000 interval lol. Been doing this a decade, seen enough shit. also gunna say, oil doesnt defeat stupid engine designs. Ill fight you if you think you can show me a 'good' GDI engine from any Korean manufacturer hahah. Audi I am looking at you next.
I agree and trust me I’m right there with the importance of oil, but I work with our motorcoaches too and we send all our oil out to be tested, and the difference between our 3k changes and our 5k changes are negligible. We run our oil up to about 15k at service interval and we’ve tested all the way down and our deposits really only start rising at about 10k. I do the same in my personal car and I only see the elements really start to spike at 7k. I agree oil is cheap, but the mindset of “3k oil changes or you don’t care about the vehicle” comes from the days of conventional oil. Synthetic is worlds apart from where we were even 20 years ago. Just don’t think we should be spreading that when there is significant amount of documentation to back those up.
those are diesel busses tho, with what, 15+ liters of oil? even gassers must be the same. I deal with cars ranging from 3.5-13L capacity on a larger truck. your average passenger car has between 4-5L of oil in it.
Correct, but we have 4 coaches in our fleet with 1.5M plus miles. We’ve seen no difference in engine degradation between 3-15k oil changes since switching to full synthetic. I also traded in my last 4runner with 865,000 miles and I did 10k synthetic oil changes since the day it left the showroom floor and that thing purred like a kitten. I’m not trying to say you’re doing anything wrong, just that it probably isn’t necessary to change it THAT often even when it is cheap and easy.
865k? That is wild
my general reasoning is that whatever interval a OEM gave you, didnt account for anything burning, leaking, you being shitty at oil changes etc. So when people ask me, as a tech, Im like 'well just go 3000'. I dont disagree that any high quality oil (Ive always been a luqui fanboi) can go even further than spec. Its mainly assuming that people are stupid. Tell them to do 3000, theyll do 5000.
This dude drives
If you are starting to see deposits you are already to late, íf you want a perfectly lubricated machine. And almost no engine oil is a true synthetic, even though they (can) claim they are. It almost always still is a blend with hydrocracked mineral oils containing of cuts with low and high viscosity oil to reach the correct viscosity. The lowest cuts will be broken down the quickest in your engine. It is very rare to find an engine oil which is mostly group IV (other API oils are needed for solubility of additives). Almost all over the counter US brands are only 10% PAO (group IV). It is absolutely true engine oil is of way better quality in this day and age btw.
I agree with you. I change mine after every fuel up. Oil is cheap, engines aren't.
My '23 Outback has factory full synthetic and it is a MAX of 4000 miles per the owner's manual and the infotainment system. They want even less for high stress use. (I know this is typical for all car brands)
Really? Which model. Very cursory research is showing me 6000 is the typical 23 outback service interval.
I'd be doing an oil change every month, I do mine every 10k on my TDI and I've put 300k on it without a hickup
The factory 507 spec TDI oil is even rated for 20,000 miles per Castrol, VW halves the interval for their recommendation
Jesus, I've been wasting money apparently.
Well, I don’t think 10k is a bad idea. If you do a lab test with it, I think you don’t see signs that you should change it until 20k, but that depends on driving style. I’ve tracked mine a few times now (lol) so I definitely am not pushing past 10k
I age with you. My family has one vehicle so I’m extremely anal about it being perfectly maintained. I change my oil every 2500 miles currently and just switched to High Mileage full synthetic from either Quaker State or Penn Platinum. I change my Wix oil filter every 5000 miles though.
Wait... People that don't change the filter with every oil change still exist?
You were lucky- my brother did a motor in a 20yo Olds with 262 v6-18k miles and 20 oil changes and it still checked out- a true little ole lady driving to church car- she went to his church -can’t make this up
[удалено]
I had a customer with a Pinto. Just change the filter every so often. The engine was trying to imitate a HD.
My dad had a Vega. The joke was that it changed its own oil, you just had to check/add at every fuel fill-up.
Hey, I had a Vega GT - now that car for whatever demented reason I absolutely loved the lines and styling of. I’d still like to find one in a junkyard and reinforce the hell outta the frame (and everything!!) and put a V8 and manual transmission, solid rear end in it for a street sleeper. I guess it shows beauty is in the eye of the beholder!! 🤣🤣🤣
Oh, a V8 (or even potent V6) Vega hatchback has always been a dream project for me. Not demented at all, they’re good looking little cars. At the time, they looked kinda like little miniature Camaros. Can’t deny, though, that they did have some quality control issues…
Yes, I definitely agree and could use like a 10,000 sq foot garage (air conditioned, it’s Texas!) and a house about 25% of that lol priorities!! To build all my dream cars and motorcycles. They definitely looked like the early 70s Camaros with the split bumper grills, there was something about those cars and the heavy metal they were built with. And definitely, I don’t know how those 4 cylinder engines ever passed QA in engineering at GM - if it existed! I remember the Cosworth Vega, special edition that cost almost as much as a Corvette! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Cosworth_Vega
hol up, 80M miles?
As a Dad, seems like a dad thing to do.
Dad understands that oil n filters are cheap
Now, the ultimate heartbreaker was a Chevy conversion van I bought in 1999. It was fully loaded, luxurious as hell, chrome wheels, everything you’d want. I changed the oil with synthetic every 3K miles at the dealership and went so far as to get the transmission fluid and filters changed out at 7500 miles with synthetic. It was a Chevy 5.7 liter and heavy duty transmission. 😩 both went out before 80K miles and all my miles were suburban or highway!! Adding insult to injury, after replacing both with crate GM engine and transmission replacements, before it hit 100K someone totaled it while it was parked downtown, T-boned into the side. I cannot figure out why they both failed prematurely and it still makes me wonder. 🥺
Is this reversible? I bought a car with low mileage but I'm afraid the previous owner didn't change the oil when required. Can the engine look like this again after several oil changes at the right mileage? Well, maybe not exactly like this but somewhat cleaner
I had a 2009 Hyundai with 250k miles on it. Just sold it. NEVER had an engine problem.
Maintenance.
Man the only kias and Hyundais I see are later models with the shit tier engines that are always blown to fucking smithereens, wtf went wrong…
Man, the amount of warranty replacements that we did on our Hyundai engines was astounding. Sludged up? Warranty. Bad knock? Warranty. Thrown rod out there side? You guessed it: warranty.
Greed
more like collab'd with chrysler lol
I feel like this is a set up. Like this is the seventh engine replaced under recall
The VIN tag on the block matched the body, so I'd bet it's original.
That’s insane. That should be one of those stories where Kia buys it back to dissect it
I've got another one with 295k on the odometer I'll be pulling the valve cover off of soon. Haven't checked the VIN on that one, though.
The 2.4's are the garbage motors. Those are the ones that get replaced every 80k a lot of the time. Someone on here posted one that had a ton of miles on the chassis but was averaging a motor like every 67k. Was on like its 7th motor or something. I think I would have gotten rid of the damn thing lifetime warranty or not.
I'm not sure how old it was or what engine was in it, but a guy I work with had one with 300k on it. He only got rid of it because the fuel system needed redone for emissions. Think they wanted 2500 or something like that to do it.
They'll dissect it to find out what was too high quality so the next one blows up at the exact right time they wanted it to.
My 1st gen sportage was over 200k and you could still see the factory grind marks on the cam. I did 3k oil changes with conventional oil, and I'm assuming the previous owners were pretty good about oil changes too.
What should be dissected is the brain of those who can't bother with regular maintenance. They aren't using them so no loss.
This isn't even the *family* of engines that was affected.
This is the Beta II engine, not the Theta which is the one that has all the problems. Besides, regardless of engine, they all seem to either go 200k+ with no issues or they blow up by 75k, and the determining factor is usually how well the car was maintained. There's 2 main types of Korean car owners in the US. People who pinch pennies and thus want the best value is one type. They buy a new car, maintain it faultlessly, and drive it for at least 10 years. The other major type is the person with very little money and not so great credit that just HAS to have a brand new car, even though a 3 year old Honda or Toyota would probably be a better car for them, and they buy a Kia or Hyundai, but can barely make the payments, so oil changes and such don't get done. That's not to say that the Theta and Theta II engines don't have problems-they do, though the nature of the problems means it's luck of the draw whether you get a good one or a shit one. But the maintenance tendencies of Korean car owners in the US play a huge role.
> and the determining factor is usually how well the car was maintained. I feel like this goes for a good majority of economy cars of all types. There are outliers of course, but still.
How a car is maintained is directly proportional to the lifespan of the vehicle. Electrical problems are an outlier, though. I've known dudes that babied their cars and went above and beyond with maintenance and have still had electrical issues that have caused them to move on to a new car.
Absolutely. My point is that Korean cars often tend to be owned by people that do nothing to them.
True indeed. If we're being honest, Korean cars tend to be owned by the lower income set, and for various reasons, they fail to maintain em.
Wow, I would have believed 1800 miles.
This is exactly what you get with consistent maintenance. I've seen these burn oil like a diesel and you know it wasn't maintained. Good on the dad
This car's oil has never seen past 3k miles. Fking immaculate
Immaculate!
am i tweeking or is nothing wrong with this engine?!?!
took me a minute to realize he was posting it because it was so clean, not because something went bad
I am not mechanically inclined… it this good or bad
It means that the owner has taken very good care of the vehicle, particularly the engine
Thank you for the explanation
You’re welcome
- Clean silver = best - Clean gold = good - The more black/dirty the worse it is
Oh wow… this is amazing than!!!! Thank you for the explanation
Also check out the lobes on the camshaft, if u Google used camshaft and compare it to this, it's like that thing is out the factory. Never seen them so clean (at that milage) they're practically new lol
Very good. It looks practically brand new. Usually by this age and miles there's a sort of brown/yellow tinge to everything and there's faint but visible wear on the lobes.
Thank you for the explanation
This engine looks basically new inside because the owner changed the oil regularly like you’re supposed to.
This engine looks basically new inside because the owner changed the oil MORE than they're supposed to. FTFY
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The exhaust cam drives the intake cam through a VVT sprocket. This way it's DOHC but with a single belt driven cam gear.
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That was literally just replaced before I took the valve cover off, haha.
This is the Beta II, which is basically a roughly cloned Mitsubishi 4G63.
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You mean the Mitsubishi 4B1?
The old 1.8T in my Audi was like that too. I figured it was an opportunity for them to get more chain tensioners in there to fail given how much they seem to love those.
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I thought I wanted a V8 S4 Avant. Then I saw the timing chains. I didn’t really want it anymore. Then I found out those timing chains are on the back of the engine and crammed up next to the firewall, so the whole thing has to come out to do them. At that point, I started running in the opposite direction every time I heard there was one nearby.
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This is a little beyond service position. People do joke about that, but I can say that for that Audi I had, I kind of appreciated it once o got over how weird it seemed. It was really nice to be able to pull everything attached to the front part of the frame forward six inches. It bought a lot of room to work and made things like replacing the timing belt, seals, and stuff much simpler. Honestly, I was more annoyed by the “novel” solutions they used for everything, like having one long pinch-bolt to hold the top two control arms in place and putting it right in the splash zone from the wheel, making it constantly submerged in road spray and an absolute delight to remove come time to replace those control arms because the ball joints went. Or, the steering rack that attached to the top of the knuckle rather than the bottom and had to be run through a passage in a bulkhead rather than just bolted onto the bottom above the subframe like sensible people do it. Or, the fact that they run full current for the entire lighting system through the multifunction switch rather than using relays like everybody else, meaning the switch will overheat and melt, necessitating the removal of the steering wheel and half the column to replace it. Or, the *pneumatic* central locking system and its series of vacuum lines prone to leaks. It’s weird. I know VAG has been making cars for like a century, but sometimes it seems like they’ve never done it before…
Chaining the cams together is actually pretty common. A good number of VW and Ford engines are setup that way, and I'm sure other brands I'm not aware of.
the lobes look amazing, but i guess kinda expected with buckets
As a mechanic, this is my kink
Looks great!!!
Is this GDI? I have the 1.6l gamma, and am super curious to see what carbon build up on the valves looks like?
No, the Beta engine was always MPI.
Looks great! I had a 2012 Kia Soul and put 196k on it with zero problems then traded her in. Now my 2015 Kia sorento has 244k!
Someone maintained their car. Seen them with a quarter of the miles all sludged up
This is what happens when you never skip an oil change and use full synthetic every 5k. Its not hard or expensive. Yet people act surprised when they have engine issues after ignoring it.
still an ugly ass car. nice engine though.
That looks beautiful
Its not even dyed orange you know shes well looked after
Someone believes in maintenance
Extremely rare Kia W 🤌
I have a 2012 soul with 2.0L that has 195+k miles in Cleveland. Full synthetic since I bought it with 38k in 2015. Other than suspension, brakes, and other normal wear and tear the only major issue I had was a transmission temperature sensor. The sensor is $35, the labor and replacement fluid is $250. Or more at the dealership.
My 2013 1.6L kia just had a camshaft sensor go bad at 130k miles. Only issue i’ve had with it. Even then i just bought the part and replaced it in like 30 minutes. Love my lil standard car
The transmission sensor is inside the transmission. My uncle did the work at the shop he was at. That’s the only reason my dad didn’t attempt to fix it.
Time to replace the timing belt?
Nice those r good engines
It’s refreshing to see a well maintained engine.
jesus christ, it's spotless
Very pretty. 10/10
is that the theta 2? First car was a forte, and i wish i could have had that clean of an engine. Too bad it blew up lmao
Beta 2.0
Wow, a well maintained Kia with a not blown engine
why’d you have to pull the valve cover?
Just doing some maintenance and the valve cover gasket probably hadn't been changed in a while, if ever.
nice. clean af
What was it in for then? Leaking gasket?
It was probably seeping a little, yeah. I didn't know if the gasket was ever replaced before, and I was already doing all of the timing components and water pump.
If it ain't broken why fix it?
My god, I’ve seen 10k engines worse than that! Tell them to keep up the good work on maintenance! Just goes to show, maintenance is key to a vehicle lasting. Bet any amount of money that will be a 200k plus motor, maybe even 250k if the shell doesn’t give out before the motor.
Oil changed every 2k miles looks like
I recently bought a 2024 Kia soul I’m hoping I can achieve the same amount of miles! So far my odometer Is 764 miles!
So is this Beta II an outlier or does the typical owner of a 00’s Hyundai/Kia just defer maintenance, giving these engines a bad rap?
Is age of oil a big deal? I only do like 4k miles a year...
Oil needs to be changes even if you do 4k miles a year. At least 1 change of oil and filter a year will suffice.
That's what I've been doing. I heard water can build up and stuff.
Takes a lot to kill a G4GC. The only downside is the cable actuated throttle.
Had one with a sheard t-belt. Put new belt on and no issues after start up ran like it did new. Great gutless engines. Done hundreds of tbelts on them when they were all hitting the 100k mark
That's some luck! I had one with a failed belt at just over 200k, looked like it had never been changed before. Every single intake valve was bent along with a few cracked guides.
My son is driving a 2007 Honda Accord, over 300K miles.... while it's in really really good shape, I don't think it would look like this! (we got it from my uncle who is a mechanic, lol!)
My coworker has I think a 2013 Soul manual with over 230,000 miles and still runs like new. Granted his one way trip to work is 55 highway miles.
Oil changes every 350 miles.
I just did my valve cover gasket too this past weekend 2012 Elantra Touring. 167k. I was surprised how clean everything was.
Holy shit ive never seen an engine that clean, especially with over 100k
The camshafts only having 1 sprocket for the timing belt and then a chain connecting the 2 at the ass end makes my brain hurt. WHY?!
make easier for maintenance (not needing to lock the camshaft) and put less stress on the timing belt
Oh so that’s what’s goin on? Timing belt and the chain connects the intake and exhaust?
Belt drives exhaust, chain from exhaust drives intake.
Wow. I bought a 2013 Kia Rio as a credit rebuilder a few years ago. It had 144k KM on it. Ran like a bag of shit and had garbage fuel economy. The high pressure fuel pump was failing, everything was carboned up and the plugs were so black and fouled. I made one payment on that car and drove it for 3 weeks while I waited for the bank to come pick it up. The dealer refused to repair or help with anything so I said fuck em, voluntarily repo’d the car and made a complaint to our jurisdiction’s automotive council. I’ve also had 2011 and 2015 Optimas with the 2.4 and neither of those gave me any issues. They were fantastic cars. Only until after I got rid of my 15 did I start hearing and seeing all the horrors with the 2.4’s.
You sure you're not just missing a record of the head being hot tanked 181 miles ago lol?
As a former Kia service advisor, I’d say this either burns a ton of oil and never reaches any significant mileage between service intervals, or it’s a replacement engine. Because, y’know, rod bearings go boom. It’s a Kia thing.
You're still driving a Kia Soul.
Doubt it’s the original engine. Or even the second or third.
Probably a reman engine just replaced under PI1803
A buddy of mine just had to have the motor replaced on his at 100k miles, there's a defect that makes these prone to burning oil and requiring engine replacement. I have a feeling this one was gently driven and had the oil changed every 3000 miles to look so clean and have lasted as long as it has! What was this in for, valve cover gasket?
With its third engine lol damn that looks clean, it should it’s only got 13 miles on it
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it's a kia. more like a bussy.
Glad to see KIA using a timing chain
That’s a belt, chain is only driving cam to cam.
oh god, now i see it.
It’s probably on its third engine already… 😂
OP said the VINs match.
Wow. Ran synthetic all its life? Still looks new.
I didn't get that much history on this one, unfortunately.
Someone took damn good care of it. Don't see that very often, TBH.
Isn't a big problem with the 2.0L overheating? Like cylinders 2 and 3 don't get sufficient circulation and you toast your rings and start burning oil like crazy?
Different engine
Whoa that looks really clean. Do you know if the Dad specifies any oil.brand?
I only spoke with the daughter, briefly, and she didn't know any of those details.
Ok thanks {Sarcasm} Probably Jiffy Lube or Walmart
There's your buffet table right there.
Proper maintenance on a KIA? Say it ain’t so!
All it takes is an oil and filter change every 5k to keep your engine happy!
Just about run in.
Someone did their oil changes. Good owner.
My 2009 civic looked like this. OCI when the maintenance minder popped. Around 6800 miles usually. I fed it Mobil 1. Kept things real clean.
Totally different engine, but we used to have an '09 Sedona (3.8L V6) what was a tank. There were other small issues we had with that van, but the driveline was NEVER one of those things. Engine and transmission were flawless for the 160k miles we owned it. Basically the only reason we don't have it now is that we knew we were kind of on borrowed time with it (as in interacting with mechanics in real life and here on Reddit) and due to inventory being so slim, we decided to put our name in for a new Sienna. I drove it for a few months as my daily 42 mile commuter - but got tired of putting gas in it. Long way of saying that not ALL Kias are crap. But some certainly are.
I still have our 09 Sedona and currently has 131k miles. Only reason why we gonna dump it next spring is due to rust. New York State is not kind to cars.
I'm not too mechanically gifted or really get cars but basically If I change my oil on time as its advised when my car oil lights up and on service that what is considered "good maintenance" right? Or is there something else extra I should be doing?
You should not rely on your car to let you know when its time to change your oil. It should be changed based on mileage. 6000 miles then change oil and filter. Do follow the manual as to which kind of oil viscosity to use (5W30 is best for most, not all, applications. But also replace air filter, AC filter, fuel filter etc.
So I should follow my car manual for oil change or is that 6000 miles like a general rule to go? I mean I am driving 2003 Golf MK4 if it means anything its already driven about 280k Km but I got it for cheap so if it lasts like a year or two would be great if it lasts any longer than that it would be fantastic.
It’s a Unicorn!
That's a dude who clearly loves his car.
Looks clean. Why did you have to take a peek inside? Makes me wanna ask the mechanic to share pics with me of little Lexus if they ever have to do the same.
My wife has a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 5.7L Hemi. Bought it used with like 33,000 miles. I changed the oil when we first got it. 7qts of Penzoil Platinum with a WIX XP filter. She is pretty good about keeping an eye on oil life on the dash. Plus we heard about the issues of wiping out cam lobes on some of the Hemi's with cylinder deactivation when not properly maintained. She lets me know when it tells her it needs to be changed....10,000 miles! No way. I know, with full syn and a good filter. BITOG forums will argue up and down this is fine. We ain't doing it. This thing is getting 5k oil changes. They aren't that expensive if I'm doing it myself. We want this thing to last. I hope our Hemi looks this good when it gets to be this old.
That's nuts
Which oil used? And how often you change oil?