Sportage questions

Hi Ian
I am not sure what you mean by Vacuum assisted hubs, never owned a Kia, But if you mean vacuum assisted 4x4 high/low as was the case with a 1994 Daihatsu Rocky one of which i had then yes i had a problem at Kulgera after a lot of travel in wet and muddy conditions in 1996 , what happened was the 2 little vacuum assisted solonoids attached to the gearbox and well out of reach got muck and dirt in the very small hole where the vacuum sucked ,[ it was sucked into 4x4 ] these things are about as thick as a matchbox and half the width and inside is a small brass like rod with a hole right down the center and when that hole got blocked it wouldn't go into 4x4 and if you did get in then it didn't want to come out of 4x4, well it cost me about $370.00 to have 2 new ones fitted , the old ones i wanted to keep for inspection, when opened i found that a needle down the hole , blow it out with air and it would have saved buying new ones, Hope that has been of help to you. I do not like all this press button stuff .

Doug

G'day Ian,
Not easy to tell without jacking a front wheel off the ground and spinning it to see if the front prop shaft turns with it.
If you pay attention to how the vehicle handles when it is in 4wd then you may notice when it the hubs aren't working.
Not sure how easy they are to fix, I know there were a lot of problems with them. They probably require seal kits put through them to fix.
And I don't know of any alternatives except the pre-2000 model had a auto locking system which may fit to later ones.

Cheers
Moz

The guy you need is Gary in Oz he has a KIA and has a huge knowledge on all things KIA.
I'm sure he will be along shortly to help.

Cheers

I have a 2000 long wheel base and a 1996 swb. neither had the vaccum hubs. I have changed both to manual hubs and they bolted straight on with VERY simple mod, only needed a screw driver.
I changed the hubs as they got full of muddy water many times and had to be cleaned and greased regularly with the off road (including beach) runs that I do.
They have a spring and a couple of small alloy locating lugs that could fail with constant pulling off and putting on again so I changed to manual operated hubs.
If you are doing mostly dry road work they prob won't ever need pulling apart.

Are the vaccum hubs held "in" or "out" by the vaccum ? If they are normally "in" with out the vaccum then the worst that can happen is they stay engaged when in 4wd. Just go back into 2wd to stop axle wind-up when on hard surface (sealed) roads.