I had the 2011 Kia Rio for about 5 years. I had the oil changed every 3 months the whole time I had the car. I probably replaced the coils 10 times, 2 at once the first time. The engine light would come on, engine would fail and you better pull off the road fast. Each time this problem occurred, I would have to pay a couple hundred dollars. I found that to be the majority of all problems with this car.
I would like to start off by saying that this problem and the problem listed as "Engine Light Came On, Running Rough" are the same issue. It seems to be the only real consistent issue with these cars by the looks of the rest of the complaints on this site.
Now, yes, this issue is annoying, I agree with the other commenters on this site. However, I also believe that this is being blown absolutely out of proportion. What causes this problem, obviously, is a weak coil. We bought a Kia, that's life. We bought a Kia because it's a cheap, reliable form of transportation. Nothing fancy. However, an informed buyer knows that when you buy a car like a Kia, the reason they are economical is because they are made economically. They are arguably the lowest priced cars in the American (or in my case, Canadian) market and they use low-cost parts. Something like low quality coils are to be expected. Just be thankful that they didn't cheap out in area where it really matters, on parts that cost a lot of money and in areas that are hard to get to.
I drove around with a weak coil for a long time, because it wasn't really causing me any real problems. Most days, I don't even notice it. You do have to adjust your driving style to accommodate it. What happens is when you're driving around, and you try to apply too much throttle in too high a gear (and thus your RPMs are too low) the coil seems to give out and you lose spark to that cylinder, thus causing a misfire. Annoyingly, once the computer on your car detects a misfire, the car begins to run rough until it is restarted. As long as you don't apply a ton of throttle and try to keep your RPMs above 2000 when you are accelerating, you're never even going to have a problem. I drive a manual transmission and I understand that it may be easier for me to do that than cars with automatics. And those to those of you who think 2000 RPM sounds high, these Kia/Hyundai 1.6L engines love to rev. Anyone who drives these things knows you need above 2000 RPM in lower gears just to get moving and they tend to rev around 3000-3500 on the highway. Constantly. It can be a bit nerve-racking.
Anyway, once I noticed that the engine was misfiring (the check engine light starts blinking when you're misfiring) I went on Amazon and bought a OBD2 scanner which connected to my phone via bluetooth. It cost me $16. It told me which cylinder was misfiring, and after switching around the coil and spark plug to other cylinders I confirmed that the problem was the coil. I just ordered the coil off ebay. It cost me $12. It's even cheaper if you order them in packs of 4 (which you can do if you don't know how to determine which coil is giving you a problem and you just want to change them all). It takes less than 5 minutes to change and all you need is a single socket wrench.
The other commenters on here who are paying hundreds of dollars for diagnostics and replacement coils, I want to say that you might be getting ripped off. It might be a good idea to take it to another mechanic next time for a different opinion. If you're looking for a car which will never give you a problem, you might be barking up the wrong tree. However, if you're in the market for a no frills, reliable means of transportation at the right price and the right year (which for us in the north means the right amount of rust... none) then this may just be the car for you.
The first time my ignition coils went bad it was in Sept of 2015 the car started knocking the engine light came on and the code for spark plugs and misfire showed up on the diagnostic machine. I changed my spark plugs and for about a week my car was fine. Then the knocking came back and the engine light back on and in the middle of lunch hour traffic my car cut off and would not work for a month! I had people telling me the engine needed replacing, but after changing the ignition coils my car was up and running again. Replacing all 4 coils cost me about $400.Now it's August 2016 and again my engine light came on and showed a misfire code. I once again changed the spark plugs but this time the engine light did not go off and my car is still knocking. I looked up some other reviews and found out that this problem is common with the Kia Rio 2008-2014 but I guess there aren't enough complaints to have a recall.
In Sept 2014 after weirdly locking my keys in the ignition. Had to get the car toad to Gadsden 30 mins away to the Kia mechanic where they charged me $430 to fix which by the way is still acting up and when I told someone at the Gadsden office the problem they laughed and asked me who fixed it. I replied you did and the man got quiet. Needless to say I will never buy another Kia!
We got the car back from having 2 coils replaced from Kia Sat afternoon, and Monday it started again... they replaced yet another coil... now I am waiting for the last one to go bad... seriously, 3 coils in 1 week??? This is ridiculous!
Engine light came on two weeks after the first ignition coil was fixed. I've lost confidence in my car. I feel its a lemon. The mileage is too low for these problems to keep occuring.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I had the 2011 Kia Rio for about 5 years. I had the oil changed every 3 months the whole time I had the car. I probably replaced the coils 10 times, 2 at once the first time. The engine light would come on, engine would fail and you better pull off the road fast. Each time this problem occurred, I would have to pay a couple hundred dollars. I found that to be the majority of all problems with this car.
- susun, Melrose, US