I was driving the car home at night with my family. We had just gotten the car back from no fault accident repair, just external cosmetic damage. Upon accelerating from a stop sign, the car died in the intersection, and would not restart. No warning lights, no indicators that there was any type of problem. Inspection stated that the oil was low, and leaking, a lot of sludge. Never had any evidence of oil leaking in my driveway, I would have seen that. The engine was replaced, at a cost of close to $8400.

The oil was low, but there was still enough oil in it when my husband and his friend checked it on 7/17/24 [they planned to do an oil change on it during the upcoming weekend]. The next day, while driving my van I started hearing a loud knocking noise and the van had trouble accelerating during the last 10 minutes of my drive. Once I arrived to my destination, a friend of mine checked the oil and it was completely gone. I had it towed to a local auto shop, who stated the engine was shot and I'll need to replace it [which will cost $8980.82 according to them].

We were driving to the beach two weeks ago and my 2016 Sedona wouldn't accelerate after driving fine for approximately 25 minutes. Drove home couldn't go over 30 mph even with the pedal to the floor. Got home, checked oil and it was bone dry. Check engine light NEVER came on and the oil light NEVER came on. The check engine light only came on AFTER it lost power and went into limp mode. It wasn't grossly overdue for an oil change either. Oil was not leaking as I park on a concrete driveway and would have seen any leaks immediately.

$2,000 later at the mechanic (they replaced value covers and sensors) and the check engine light still wouldn't go off and the car continued to lose power after driving for about 20-30 minutes. I can turn the car off, wait a few minutes, turn it back on and it runs FINE for another 20-30 minutes. Also, the car runs absolutely fine until it loses power. No noises, no knocking, nothing to indicate there is an engine issue. Anyway, the mechanic who couldn't fix it after a $2,000 bill recommended, I take it to the dealer for a complete diagnostic workup. After a week at the Kia dealer with little to no feedback / info as to what was going on, I was given an estimate for $8,000 worth of repairs and told that still may not fix the issue as there could be internal engine failure because it ran out of oil. After a cursory google search, this appears to be a common problem with the Kia GDI engines. There were recalls and Kia extended the engine warrantees on various other models with the same engines due to the exact same issue, but they have not extended the same benefits to Kia Sedona owners. There was even a class action lawsuit regarding this issue but again, not with the Sedona.

However, upon doing more research, it appears to be such a common problem with GDI Sedona's, that replacement engines are either ridiculously expensive due to lack of inventory or simply unavailable. So, I am left with an expensive car that is in wonderful shape that I still owe money on and no way to fix it other than to spend at least $10,000 on a used engine - IF I can find one. I had a 2010 Kia Sedona prior to getting this one (2016) used in 2020. The 2010 Sedona was amazing. It had almost 300,000 miles on it when the problems just got to be too much to fix. Even then I sold it for $2,000. So, I thought getting another Sedona was a no-brainer since the previous one was so amazing. After this experience, as well as reading about all the other engine issues, I will never buy another Kia again.

The engine started making noise while my wife was driving it. Unfortunately, she did not tell me until a day later, when it got extremely loud. She got home, and I could hear the rods in the engine knocking very loudly. I checked the oil, and it was bone dry. I added 3-3.5 quarts of oil to it, as that was how low the engine was. The rods still knocked very loudly. Yes, we should have acted the day before. However, there was never an oil leak, as my wife parks in the garage every night and there is not one drop of oil. The oil light and/or engine light never came on for the problem. We were only a few hundred miles overdue for an oil change, and it had never had a low oil problem previously. There was never any black smoke from the exhaust, or anything unusual. The best I can tell, the car must have begun burning oil extremely quickly, as it went through 3-3.5 quarts in 3 months, but never showed any sign it was happening.

We have looked into getting a used engine, a new engine, and are looking into getting the current one rebuilt. Apparently, these engines do not last long so used engines are rare and very expensive (6-10 thousand dollars), not counting labor to replace the engine. The manufacturer does not make them anymore (probably due to being crappy engines). Most likely, we are just going to sell the car to a junkyard even though it is in great shape aside from the engine and we still owe 8000 on it. Between all the problems we have had with this 2016 Kia (and now the blown engine), and the problems we have had in the past with the local dealership, we will NEVER be buying a Kia again.