For the second time, on Friday, April 19, 2019, our KIA Forte AGAIN hesitated while doing routine driving in Ocala, Fl and, this time, after many "hesitations" then COMPLETELY STALLED OUT as she entered our community. This was the second time we had a similar problem - the first, in mid March 2019 while driving to Tampa, Fl in I-75, when I hit the gas to maintain speed uphill and the car suddenly LURCHED as if downshifting but not shifting properly; it then ran after backing off the gas but at each stoplight after we got off the highway, the engine tried to "die out" unless I feathered the gas pedal while putting the car in neutral. When the stop light turned green, the car would not accelerate or shift properly until I manually shifted the transmission.

We took the car to Jenkins KIA Ocala Fl in mid March 2019, at which time they said they "...couldn't find a specific code..." or anything wrong, charging me $60 for 3 hours looking at it. Now, the situation re-ocurred once again but this time, the car completely died. My wife managed to restart the car and get it home, but nevertheless, SOMETHING IS WRONG with this vehicle, codes or not. I did run an OBD-II scan on the car and found no codes but this time it did indicate a yellow caution light indicating that "...several sensors not reporting..." which never resolved itself. I then moved the vehicle out of our driveway and it started fine, but when I shut it off a few minutes later, it shut down with vibrations sounding like "a big shaking jar of golf balls". Explain it to me.

We left the vehicle at Jenkins KIA on Easter Sunday April 21, 2019 for the appointment my wife made for Monday Morning April 22. In the first KIA service appointment where they found nothing wrong, they theorized that a "transmission temperature sensor" might be bad but could be replaced for $623...but that was not a definite conclusion. I elected to wait at the advice of the KIA service manager to see if the problem happened again. It did on April 19, and we again took it to KIA Ocala Fl and dropped it off on Easter Sunday morning to my great irritation. They still can't figure out the problem.

I warned KIA that this 2012 Forte has that damn recalled "Theta II" 4 cylinder GDI engine and if that's the issue it too should be replaced like the Optima and Soul engines were by KIA's recall (why didn't KIA recall Forte's too?). Anyway, there is something seriously wrong with this vehicle that Jenkins KIA Ocala Fl sold us just over 8 months ago. Whether is some transmission temperature sensor (theory) or if the Theta-II engine is failing as it has in the Optima and Soul for the same model years, something is wrong and needs fixing. One service guy at KIA even said "I'll tell you right now it's the catalytic converter..." without even looking at the car - in short, they are making things up as they go. I hope this posting and website might get into this and find a reasonable solution.

We are totally frustrated and considering whatever other action is necessary to get this resolved. Does anyone have any ideas??

high or low rpm's

Sometimes, but not always When starting the car the rpm's would go to 2000 and slowly drop to 700. Sometimes, but not always while driving and I come to a complete stop with car in drive the rpm's would drop to 500 then I would feel a slight vibration as if the engine was trying to cut off. After the oil change, I told the mechanic about it and he told me to open the hood. He cleaned the throttle body butterfly valve located between the air intake filter and the intake manifold. Problem solved!