My daughter recently purchased a 2003 Kia Spectra, she drove it a total of 80 miles, and started noticing the AT transmission was not shifting properly. The salesman said that they had noticed the same problem when they first got it, but their mechanic found the Throttle Position Sensor had come unplugged, and when they plugged it back in, the problem was corrected. I looked under the hood and found not only that sensor, but another sensor unhooked, and the 2 wires stuffed behind another wire. The second sensor was located directly behind the TPS. How do I go about hooking these sensors back up, and why would they have been unhooked? Could they have done this just to fool the buyer?

 

Did she get car from one of those tote the note places? sounds like there are some issues with the Kia and they just wanted to sell it fast and your daughter being a girl is gulable.
Go back tell them to fix the wires and go from there. You might have opened a can of worms.

 

Might want to go by Auto Zone or similar and see if they can get any codes out of it. With sensors disconected, the check engine light should have been on [unless IT'S disconnected, too; does it come on with all the other warning lights when you turn the key on?]

 

She borrowed money from the bank to buy it. The lot is not returning our calls, and of course, car was sold as is. When she picked the car up, check engine light was not on. But the next morning, it was. Auto zone could not read codes on their machine. But will try another place. She has to pay for this vehicle, so, we have to get it fixed. What are symtoms of a bad Throttle Position Sensor? Is there a website that allows trouble shooting, so we would have a better idea of what is going on. They did sell the car without an inspection sticker, and I've been told that legally they can't do that. But they have transferred vehicle into her name, and even sent tags already. So, I don't know if that is a way out or not?

 

There are lemon laws but I dont know if they are only for new vehicles. If they wont return your phone calls...go there in person. Maybe stop by the district court and pick up a small claim form and shove it in the dealers face. They could have cleared the computer codes just before you bought it. Then hope you didn't notice. Dont dealers at least offer a 30 day warrantee anymore? I would take it and get it state inspected again by a mechanic that would find the slightest thing wrong, and man would that dealer be in trouble if anything failed...he might even be suspected of optaining illegal inspections and that is jail-time. I would fight this dealer tooth and nail. I'd go as far as telling him I'll run an add in the paper calling you a crook, stand out front with a sign saying "don't buy these lemons". Let them know you ain't going away!!! They know they ripped you off...they should have fixed the car before selling it. I hate dishonest mechanics with a passion+

 

Car was sold "as-is". Dealerships/mechanics are not responsible if it breaks down 80 miles down the road. It is up to the future purchaser to get the car inspected by a reputable mechanic PRIOR to sale.

There will be no lemon with this vehicle unless there are major repairs within a certain timeframe of date of manufacture.

She probably signed a few documents releasing the stealership of any liability as well.

 

I am thinking that she/you might be stuck with the car... BUT
there are always things that you can do. Yes, get a detailed list of what is wrong with the car in writing, yes, go to the owner/mgr of place of purchase and show them. Explain the situation in calm, clear, diplomatic terms: listen to the response (bring an un-biased witness).
Call the BBB, or go on-line, get copies of like cases. Go to local court recording office and check prior law actions against said company. Informatiion is power, knowledge is how you get it.
As to the specific issues of the vehicle, I don't have a clue; but, I too HATE dis-honest businesses. Good luck.

 

Agree with the other posters. "As-is" unfortunately means "as-is". I suspect Homeowner is right about the check engine light. Pretty good chance they reset it knowing it would reappear. The good news is that it MIGHT not be an expensive fix once you track down the problem. Problem is, you MUST get it scanned to retrieve the stored codes just so you have a starting point. Check around some more and see if you can get it done for free somewhere (they hope you'll buy the repair parts from them, of course). Finding on-line data for a car that recent may be tough so you might try checking the library, bookstaores, or auto parts places to see if they have either a Chilton or Haynes manual for it. Or even better, buy a one-year subscription ($24.95) from Alldata (alldata.com). You'll get much of the same repair info that professional garages use and could quickly pay for itself if it solves your problem.

Hopefully she got a good price on the car?

 

We live in a very small town, and the library doesn't have those manuals. She gave $2500 for the 2003 Kia Spectra, with 75,000 miles. We did run carfax before she bought it, and there has never been any reported problems with it. The motor is exceptionally quiet, and the fluids clean. The alldata option, sounds like a good one.
Thanks ever so much.
Wldnd1drfl

 

Not a bad price and I'm still leaning towards it not having any fatal illness. Try the Alldata; if you can't fix it's problems with the amount of info you'll get there, it'll be time for a professional.

If/when you can get it to spit out some codes, post back so we can see what's up.

 

Drained 3 quarts of transmission fluid, just to bring it down to cold level. Bought a scanner. Unhooked both cables from battery and let sit for 30 min. Hooked up TPS sensor, and rehooked battery cables. Plugged in scanner, turned key on... came back no codes. Drove the vehicle about 5 miles, ran and shifted great. Then the motor raced and tranny didn't shift. Rehooked scanner.... codes were P0123, P0741. Looked under hood and the sensor had come unplugged again. This scanner can read the codes, and also erase the codes. Does this mean that I don't have to continue unhooking the battery to read codes?

 

Why unhook the battery? If your scanner clears codes like mine battery is never unhooked.
I do it like this plug in scanner turn on key but dont start, scanner reads codes, then asks if you want to clear codes press yess and it is a done deal.
No battery involved.

 

P0123 APP/TPP Sensor Switch High Input - Circuit A.

The throtle positioning sensor code no doubt

P0741 Torque Converter Clutch Circuit Performance or Stuck Off

The tranny problem.

Question: Your tranny was 3 quarts overserviced?

 

Yes, fluid was far above the mark for a cold tranny. We did not add any fluid, since we've had it. I feel possibly, even if sold "as is", the responsibility of this problem, should be on the car dealer since they serviced the vehicle prior to the sale.

 

My suspicion would be that they tried a little extra fluid to correct the tranny problem, but I think you're p'ing in the wind on trying to get anything out of the dealer since they can hide behind "as-is".