This month, we're going to take a look at timing belt replacement on the increasingly popular Kia line of vehicles. Kia has made strong inroads into the market by offering high-quality vehicles at an affordable price. As underhood car techs, we're prepared to handle any of these cars: You have the required skills and, with service information that is readily available, there's no reason you shouldn't feel comfortable under the hood.

We find most belt replacements are done as a recommended service at 90,000 miles. This is a good opportunity to suggest additional service that is due at the same mileage. At a minimum, any accessory drive belts should be replaced, and it's also a good idea to suggest water pump replacement at the same time. Even if the pump looks good now, there's a good chance it won't last another 90,000 miles. Plus, it's not a hard sell once the customer is made aware of the labor costs and inconvenience involved in replacing the pump at a later date. The same can be said for camshaft and crank seals; any sign of leakage should initiate replacement.

For timing belt replacement procedures, we'll take a look at the popular Sportage model first, and then the more complex Sedona twin-cam V6.

Kia Sportage
Introduced in 1995, the first-generation Sportage was Kia's entry in the hot mini sport-utility segment. The vehicle was powered by a 2.0L inline, 4-cylinder engine, providing 130 hp. Interestingly, ...