Being owner of a vehicle is necessary, we often need it to get to work and for most of our daily trips. This important portion of our annual budget recurrently triggers us surprises, being aware about oil leaking on your car is one of them… In fact, an oil leak is not usually harmless and can quickly lead to the breakage of your engine if you don’t find it. If you are aware about oil leaking on your Kia Sorento, you have come to the right place, we will first assist you to uncover the origin of the oil leak and, additionally, we will help you to remedy it, if possible.

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Identifying the origin of the oil leaking on your Kia Sorento

If you see fluid leaking from under your Kia Sorento, the first move to make is to examine all of your levels (power steering, engine oil, brake fluid, coolant) to find out if any of them can quickly be recognized as the source of the leak. To limit the risks, it is really fundamental to examine your levels every 2 weeks to avoid any risk of engine breakage.
In our circumstance we will only be interested in circumstance you identify oil leaking from your Kia Sorento, as far as engine oil is concerned, the liquid will be quite viscous and in shades of brown to black and if it is gearbox oil, it will be rather in amber tones and will have a strong unpleasant smell.
It’s not actually easy to uncover the origin of the oil that leaks on a Kia Sorento because of the space in the engine block, nevertheless here are the guidelines to adhere to to uncover the origin of the oil:

  • Uncover the point where the oil falls, the place from which it spills onto the floor…
  • Go back up the route of the dripping oil to its basis, if the blot is too large, don’t think twice to clean the engine block and drive to be capable to situate it easier.
  • To help you, here is a list of the parts that mostly trigger oil to leak from a car: the drain plug and its seal; one of your crankcase gaskets; the oil pressure switch; the oil filter; the transmission drain plug; the transmission sealing rings.

Whenever possible, fix the part that created the oil to leak on your Kia Sorento.

Now that you’ve located the origin of the oil leaking, it’s time to get down to business. Naturally, for a while, you’ll be able to add more oil to top up the level, based on its severity, but be aware that this is not a long lasting solution and that the leak could become worse at any time. We are likely to show you the repairs that we think you can carry out on your own with some expertise, tools and according to the accessibility that you are going to have on your engine. Whatever the case, you should know that after repairing an oil leak on a Kia Sorento, you will have to swap your engine or gearbox oil.

Oil leakage from the drain plug and its seal on Kia Sorento

In this scenario, the procedure is very simple, you just have to lift your Kia Sorento, if you can totally horizontal, remove your drain plug, drain your engine oil, swap your drain gasket, tighten the plug to the perfect torque and examine the hot engine to make sure the leak has been repaired.

Oil leaking over from the oil filter of my Kia Sorento

In the case that your oil leak comes from your oil filter, you will basically need to replace it. To do this, take a filter wrench, remove the old filter, being certain that the gasket does not stick to the engine, set the new filter and tighten it moderately. Same test, hot check if oil is leaking from your Kia Sorento.

Oil leaking from the pressure switch of my Kia Sorento

To conclude, if it is your pressure switch that is the cause of your leak on your Kia Sorento, you can, based on its accessibility, reach it and swap it easily. To accomplish this, set a drain tray under the part, disconnect the electrical wire, remove the part, quickly reposition the replacement pressure switch, clean the assembly and do a hot test to validate that you no longer have any oil leaking from your Kia Sorento.

For any other type of leak, we suggest you to go to your mechanic because the repair necessitates too much expertise and tools to be conducted serenely alone.

If you want more tutorials on the Kia Sorento, go to our Kia Sorento category.