The Sportage has seen more than its fair share of timing belts. We had our own subzero weather in the Inland Northwest last month. I know not to head into winter with a dying battery, so I'd replaced it early. The Sportage will tick right over no matter how cold it gets. My wife used to ***** about the cost of servicing and repairing my Sportage. However, the wealth of information on the internet has made it possible for even me to quickly perform most of the work at a much lower cost. Even good used parts are available inexpensively at a local salvage yard.

I installed an electrical junction box in my engine bay with the following items plugged into it.
-Battery Warmer
-Oil Pan Warmer
-Tranny Warmer
-Engine circulating pump.
Then the cord out runs to the front of my truck and hangs out so I can plug in when its cold out.
We have had over 14 days of -50 Below weather in a row up here in Fairbanks Alaska. Good Luck Bro.

Hey, I thought that GLOBAL WARMING was in full force....somebody better call Fat Albert and tell him it's going the wrong way...were getting colder. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />

Let's see...minus 50...that's cold enough to make you realize men have nipples too <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />
Everet

yea we had a -14* the other day, most days now they are 20* and low 5*, yepper warmer days, good old global warming lol, doesn't take -50* for men's nipples, lol

2002 Kia Sportage
Yea, Like a dip$h!t. I got home after work last night and forgot to plug in my truck. Almost froze the radiator. (Severe damage due to cracking can occur). It was -40 last night and tonight is the same. So I whent to crank it over, and nothing. Not even a burp from the starter. So I had to haul it into the garage, plug in the power cord, recharge the battery and let that sucker thaw out. I was so pissed. I stayed at my mother-in-laws last night so I had to wait for her to move her car out the garage first, then I busted my booty for 30 minutes pushing my truck by hand into the garage. It was sitting right in front of the darn garage but the tires were frozen square. They wouldn't roll for nothing. (Tougher in Alaska) Or just stupid. I won't make that mistake again for a long time.

I don't know how you guys do it. -50 makes winter here sound like a Mexican vacation. Actually, I like the cold weather as long as it's above zero. It's the filthy foot of snow that lasts til April I can't stand.

Hiya Sporty! Round two is coming up. Check your Flintstone tires and make sure you've got around 40 psi in them for this. Had to bump mine up that last cold snap about 5 psi; quite helpful.

www.arh.noaa.gov

Be careful on charging/jumping batteries that might be frozen; they'll explode on ya dude. Just a heads up for that.

SpokaneKia, you ever get over to Spaldings across from Pull-n-Save? Those are my two favorite shopping places down there (family out in Greenacres). NAPA should also have most of that stuff Sporty put on his rig to winterize it.

Yes Lynx, Spalding is the first place I look if I need a part. I'm about a 5 minute drive away. Parts are getting harder to come by even there, though. Since they are one of the last, large salvage yards anywhere, people everywhere have been using them as a parts source even more than usual as the economy has weakened.

GEGkia, you might also check www.car-part.com as well. I get a lot of parts for my older Yotas out of Lewiston and Boise. Spaldings has sent me trannys and I've shopped for junker parts all online. They've sure come a long way in the past 5 years.

Sporty, if you ever need anything big sent up from the '48, www.lynden.com is the cheapest way to get it here. If you want more info, shoot me a PM.

Thanks for all the heads up guys/gals. This site is by far the best for the Sportage hands down. People will be using you'alls tips and tricks for time to come.