Wifey is at the shop today having the front driveshaft replaced (under factory warranty) as the u-joint yoke has rusted to the point that it's cracked and ready to fail. The rear is almost as bad, and she's waiting for that shaft to come in to replace that as well.

This is a '02 2-dr. I know NY road salt is harsh, but Geez Louise!

Anyone else have this problem? Is it common? Wifey says she's never seen one come in like this before.

FWIW, we've had to replace the soft-top body rails, lower rear control links, and even the rear seat hinges, due to rust.

Are you sure you didn't get a flood recovery. They use a lot of salt on the roads here and the drivelines on my 95 are solid as a rock. I have never heard of anyone else have problems either.
Dennis

Yes, I have seen something similar. And it's due to failure to lube the slip joint on the front driveshaft.

Mine failed in a slightly different way but the result was the same. I blew the front pinion seal and was leaking gear oil. The reason the pinion blew was because the slip joint on the driveshaft had rusted solid. My fault because I never greased the slip joint. I'll bet your u-joint yoke cracked for the same reason. That slip joint needs to move alot as the drivetrain flexes.

Unfortunately mine wasn't covered under warranty. Was about $450 to fix. Needed new pinion seal and new front shaft.

And if you have manual hubs and leave them locked in, which I did often, it makes the problem worse.

Stupid thing to do I know. But I've driven my 02 2 door repeatedly through the ocean surf for cheap thrills. Only rust I'm seeing is on the welds in various places. also I wash out the underside upon leaving from dune playing. Oregon doesn't salt their roads here, They use some kind of sticky spray.

Well, that's the reason. Upon examination of the pics Wifey took on here cell, its failure to grease the slips. In the front, 90% of the slip is completely rusted off, and cracked all the way down to to the pinion flange. While the rear isn't as bad, it's close and causing driveline vibe.

Previous owner either a boob or a dipsheet.

Luckily, no pinion leaks. Shannon fortunately still has this under warranty sorta. When she got it as a result of a trade-in, she checked the Kia system and the last warranty claim was around 75k, but actual milage was SIGNIFICANTLY higher. She figures we can get 2-3 more years of warranty coverage, provided she continues to work at a Kia dealer.

As far as salt, as a result of lawsuits against NYState DOT for not doing enuff (due diligence) to keep roads from icing, they apply 100% pure rock salt, not salt/sand/gravel mix anymore. These rocks kick up from the tires, chip paint and coatings and start the rust. Rust blisters run rampant from there. As well, the salt dissolves and creates a "super-saline" solution that coats everything with a salt liquid many, many times more saline than the ocean, and can take days or even weeks to dry, all the while causing rust.

Many cars in NY have multiple locations of rust within 5 years, and cance riddled by 10.

I live in NYS too, remember? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> So I am very familiar with excess road salt.

I found the original thread. I had forgotten that my yoke coupling was cracked too. And I recall talking to the tech who worked on my Sportage and he said he had seen several like this. So it's not unique. The prevention obviously is to keep the slip joint greased and free.

http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showf...&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

It may not be because they are a boob or a dipsheet. Every time I would take mine to a lube shop like Jiffy lube or some other chain I would look at the reciept and under greese zerks they would put chassis sealed. I would have to have them go back under and greesed it. If a person didn't know any better they wouldn't know the differance. I'm sure my neighbors probably think I'm nuts but when I bring home a new vehicle I grab the creeper and camp out under it for a while to see how it is built.
Dennis

funny, around here, they just tell you did it when they know damn well they don't even know what you're talking about.

That does rank high on the dipsheet ranking system. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/lol.gif" alt="" /> No excuse for not reading the owner's manual front to back. When I first got my Samurai, that's how I new those were supposed to be greased often. It even said grease after "off-roading in wet environments". I'd always make sure the shop did it. Went as far as crawl under as soon as I picked it up, and more times than not, they didn't do it.




No, you were being smart. Too many people spend a lot of money on a car, and then won't even take an hour or two to read the manual cover to cover, let alone go over the auto bit by bit to see how it all goes together.

Some wouldn't even know what they are looking at.

Many times, it seems folks don't care enough to learn about thier auto, or think they are special and nothing will happen to their car. Too many folk believe that just because the service center said they did something, that means they did it. A good healthy dose of skepticism is a must when allowing others to work on anything of yours, be it a house, a bike or one's auto.

Shannon gets them all the time with these 100K mile warranty autos. They come in, motor rattling and ticking, oil level is off the dipstick, reminder sticker from JiffyLube says next change was 12,000 ago, they can't provide any proof that they changed the oil in the last 15,000 miles, but claimed they check the oil every fill-up. Of course, they can't seem to understand that Kia may deny the claim due to improper maintenance, and start screaming and carrying on that everything should be covered.

Same thing happens though with dash parts broken by hitting at 93K on the odo and they think that is covered as well.

As far as the driveshafts on the '02, I don't think they were ever lubed.

Ahh, you feel my pain. I'm becoming very, very attached to the product POR-15, and I'm buying it in ever increasing quantity. Best stuff since Wonder came sliced. No more rust! I'm becoming so anal-retentive about this that I'm POR'ing the head and nuts on bolts! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />