Hi,Just purchased a 2000 Sportage 4wd and I am trying to locate a owners manuel and maintance manuel for it.
I have been to Kia,s website and find it to be incomplete.
(The maintance instructions that is).Have any of you subscribed to AllData (website in US).What are there maintance instructions like.Any recommendations on where to find good maintance instruction beside the folks at this fine site.Traded my piece of junk Jimmy in on the Sportage plus we also own a 2003 KIA Rio. The sportage has 65000 kms on it. Found out the hubs have been permantly locked on it and that none of the service bullitens the have been issued for the vehicle have not been addressed so I am trying to get my service rep to address this issue seeing as the vehicle is off of warranty(I did purchase an extended warranty from them)Would like to convert to the Warn Automatics as my wife also drives the vehicle.Any way Thanks for readind and any suggestions for recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thanks from Manitoba Canada.
John

Sometimes you can find owners manuals on eBay. As for the shop manual, talk to Axe Man, hes the guy that can help you out there. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

- T

I'm not sure how yours are locked in for good but let me tell ya ..... If you go with the automatics, you'll find that you will be without 4wd more than you have it. I would go with the warn manuals and just show the little lady how to get out and lock the hubs in. Just mu .02.

Well Thanks for the replys so far,as for the hubs,I should rephrase what I said, after reading through the forums here I discovered that because there was so many proplems with the vacum hubs sealing especially in our cold temps in the winter up here that some of the sportages had their hubs locked at the factory,A Canadian conversion I guess to speak of. I could dissasemble them and unlock them my self but I need to know in which order to reassemble them.As I said before I am contemplating converting to the Warn autos because my wife drives the vehicle to and from work also.I don,t plan on doing really heavey 4 wheelin like some of you are doing but I still like to get out and run the back trails every now and then, along with our snowfalls that we get up I sure don,t want to give up the 4wd capablity,thanks for your replies so far.
John

Warn will no longer sell their automatic locking hubs to the public, only manual hubs, you will have to go through the dealer and that might be expensive, haven't checked those prices in a long time.

You may be able to scrounge an owners manual and shop manuals here. http://www.helminc.com

If you can't get the shop manual then e-mail me at mjats@juno.com and I can help.

If your Canadian Sportage still has the vacuum hubs reversed so they are locked in all the time you MAY still qualify for the free mechanical autolocker install. I would suggest contacting Kia Canada customer service first before contacting the dealer. The dealer may not be aware of any special policy regarding these hubs.

Auto hubs or new vacuum hubs? The only problem with automatics is that they should be disassembled and greased every year or so if the car is used off road in water or dusty conditions. If the car stays on the road, they can go years without being touched. I bought my '96 a few months ago and everything points to the fact that the chick who had it before me probably didn't know what the transfer lever was, but the auto hubs work every single time. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Now the vacuum hubs are a pain in the back bumper, but we all know about that.
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/barf.gif" alt="" />
Don, y'all
.

Yes, agreed. The mechanical hubs do require maintenance. But the autolockers installed by Kia Canada are not the same hubs used on 1995 - 1997 Sportages. The older autolockers are not "shift on the fly". They require an initial low speed or stopped engagement. And a backup in 2H to release them. The Canadian hubs, which used to be listed on the Warn website, are a mechanical design but have a true "shift on the fly" capability. These hubs were installed by Kia Canada as a warranty replacement for the vacuum hubs. Kia USA did NOT go this route. Kia USA decided to stick with the vacuum design and keep trying to fix it. We all know that didn't work.

We all forget something. That its possible to forget to lock manualy the hubs. Happened to me once, a few days after the big snow threre were some snow patches on my job's parking. A car had stuck and i had to manoever the rig so that I coul winch it out. I engaged 4wd I manouvered the car on the snow were the other was stuck ( about 5-8 inches) thought that it slided a bit but I sail it was icy and then I found that I had forgot to lock the hubs... stupid of me but it happend.
and in case you wonder I winched him out with 1st on four high ( Yes I have locked the hubs <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" />)

Thanks for the reponses folks,am definatly bring this up with my service rep,he already told me that there where 5 service bulletins on this issue which have never been addressed so hopefully I can get some satisfaction out of them.(would be nice).My other question was about Alldata and their info that they have on the Sportage,anyone familar with the site and what they list or don,t list or cover for maintance and tear down procedures?.
Any opions or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks John