My 2016 Kia Optima sx engine lost significant power while on the highway at 65mph. Lost of power at highway speed was very dangerous. The engine suddenly ran increasingly rough, shaking the vehicle and drastically changing its performance. My girlfriend, myself, and other drivers on the highway were put at risk as I attempted to maneuver out of traffic and pull off to a safe area. Fortunately I was able to do this without collision or loss of control. I had my car towed to the dealership.

There was no warning or engine light on before the incident. The dealership has diagnosed lack of compression in cylinder 3 (“I swear it is always cylinder 3,” the technician confided as he went over my problems). They recommend a new engine. They do not know what caused this issue. The vehicle has about 78,000 miles on it. I am the second owner, out of warranty, and it is not covered under an active recall.

I have fought for them to tear down the engine and fully diagnose the cause. They won’t. I have fought for this to be covered under the rod bearing settlement. They won’t. There are obviously prolific manufacturer defects with these engines. Kia dealerships everywhere are swamped with engine issues and a lack of qualified technicians to work on them. It is a perfect storm that I am surprised has not garnered more media attention.

This is not to mention the horrible customer service and disorganization I have witnessed. I have spent countless hours over the last 7 months on the phone with the dealerships and on hold with corporate Kia.

My car has been at the dealership since October. Only in May did they call me with their final diagnosis and decision.

Kia’s stance is basically too bad so sad, you have to pay ~$8,500 for a new engine if you want this vehicle to run.

They don’t know what caused the engine to fail. They know that it’s because of a lack of compression. But they don’t know why and they won’t investigate further. My car is currently sitting at the dealership. I am hoping a new settlement will come out to cover the cost of repair.

We had broke down 3 hours from home. It was on the turnpike with cruise set and engine shut down. Had it put on a trailer and trailered to my local mechanic. He said cylinder 4 had a misfire and low compression. Local mechanic said he has seen 5-6 Optimas that blew engines ranging from 50k to 300k miles and Kia took care of it because it’s a known problem. We had it towed from there to Kia dealership we bought from.

Got a call from them 5/12 and they said it had no compression. They told me it was roughly $1000 tear down to see what the issue is. I told them to go ahead but asked why this isn’t a recall or anything on this. He couldn’t tell me why. It is frustrating to have these problems on my daughters car with this low miles. I have 4 Chevy’s cars and trucks with over 150k miles and never had any issue like this. I guess this will be the deciding factor on whether we ever buy another Kia again.