Here is an update. I decided to take the car to the dealer to have it fixed because after doing some more research and reading, decided it was something I didn't want to tackle and didn't really have time to do.
I had inquired at four places about getting this repaired. One said they didn't want to do it. Another shop didn't return my two messages about getting this done so I assumed they were not interested as well. A third shop wouldn't let me use my own parts and was going to overcharge me for parts so I settled on the Kia dealer who said they would do it for $380 in labor and I could supply my own parts.
Since my ex-wife was going to pay for part of the repair, it made the decision easier for me to not do it myself. After today, I'm glad that I did not do this one myself.
Before I explain why, there was some miscommunication between what I wanted done and what was actually done. I had told the lady that made the appointment that I only wanted the water pump, timing belt, belt tensioner, and idler pulley replaced. This was not relayed to the service adviser or the tech doing the job.
The kit that I bought and provided them, included the cam and crank seals as well as all of those other parts I mentioned other than the water pump which I ordered separate. So in addition to replacing the things I wanted to be replaced, they also changed out these seals which generated more labor charges which were way higher than what I was originally expecting to pay.
Of course I was not happy about this and told them I did not authorize the replacement of these seals even though they did say they were also leaking. Who knows if that was true or not. Anyway, after some negotiating, they agreed to lower the total cost to $617 which included the purchase of one of the seals in the kit that they said did not fit. I was still not that happy with this but they said that since I had included these seals in the kit, they assumed that I also wanted them replaced.
In part of their defense, they did try to contact me at work about the wrong seal and a sprocket that they broke trying to remove it but could not get through the switch board which is a common issue so they left a message on my cell phone which I did not get until I got off of work since we are not allowed to have our phones at work.
Now to the reason I'm glad that I didn't try to do this job myself. The person that had done this job before when I first bought the car, had broke off one of the mounting bolts for the water pump in the block and had used sealer to try and seal everything up. This is why that repair did not last. They took me out to the car to show me the old pump and to show me everything torn down. Since they had to order the sprocket and seal, they did not finish the car that day.
Today, they tell me that the car is almost done and that they are test driving the car to make sure everything was okay. I drive 35 miles to go pick up my daughter whose car it is and we go to the dealer. They tell me it will be about 30 more minutes because the timing is off by one tooth and so they have to go back in and fix that. After about an hour wait, the service adviser comes out and tells us that a dowel pin that is somehow related to the timing is loose and that they ended up tearing into the car for the third time before they discovered why the timing would not stay where it was set. They were in the process of replacing the dowel pin but the car would not be ready until tomorrow since it was so late in the day. The service adviser said that they would honor the price that he and I had agreed to yesterday even though they have a lot more labor involved in this thing now.
I'm not at all familiar with how the timing is set on this engine or about this dowel pin but hopefully this thing will be fixed tomorrow without anymore issues or that they don't try to stick me with more labor charges. My service adviser is off tomorrow but he already has the agreed upon ticket ready for tomorrow when we pick the car up. We shall see.
Wayne
