KIA Sedona making whining/groaning noises at idle but mostly only when cold out

[Destinyplayer]

Bought a 2015 Sedona about a year ago, has 70,000 miles on it now. A couple months ago when temperatures here started getting into the 30’s(Fahrenheit) I started noticing groaning noises coming from the front end when coasting at low speeds. Sometimes it seems to get worse on uneven roads or when turning but could be coincidence .Then when temps starting dropping into the 20’s it started making fairly loud groaning noises when idling at start up and for about 15-20 minutes after while coasting until everything warms up. Oddly at first the noise seemed to be worse when idling in reverse or drive. Now lately the groaning is worse when idling in park or neutral When giving it some gas it either stops or is drowned out by the engine/road noise. On days when the temperature is 50+ the groaning mostly goes away and is replaced by a bit of whining/humming noise that you probably wouldn’t notice if you weren’t listening for it with the radio and fan turned off. On these warmer days it usually only lasts for a few minutes at startup then mostly goes away. I tried giving it a bit of gas sitting in neutral and the whine seemed to increase with the engine. Otherwise again when actually driving it either stops or gets drowned out. The transmission seems to be performing fine, no slipping or issues shifting.

Mostly making the noises only when cold out is making diagnosing difficult. I took it to the local dealer who claims they don’t hear anything. Went to another highly recommended local mechanic, they said they think it might be transmission whine but can’t say 100%. The previous owner had a drain and fill done at 60,000 miles. Though from the receipt it was at a small local shop that only charged $100 so not sure what fluid they used, didn’t change the filter. The shop I took it to says they probably wouldn’t bother changing the filter either. Said they can try doing a drain and fill, run it a bit then drain and fill again to replace most of the fluid but would be around $350 and they don’t know if it will help or not.

It has electric power steering so it’s not a noisy power steering pump, the front rotors and brake pads were replaced recently(after the noises started). Searching around I did find some posts from owners of 2015-2016s that the engine mounts are going bad already and making buzzing/groaning noises, but doesn’t explain the whining noise and the mechanic says they checked that and the engine doesn’t appear to be moving when shifting.

Does this sound like a transmission issue or could it be something else like a noisy pulley or water pump. Possibly some transmission whine and something else as well?

 

[Propflux01]

Sounds like a pulley bearing. V6 or 4 cyl? .

 

[carviewsonic]

Sounds like me when I get up in the morning

To start with, I would take the belt off, and turn each pulley by hand to see if any feel rough.

 

[Soft Cars]

It could be an alternator bearing too.

 

[Destinyplayer]

Sounds like a pulley bearing. V6 or 4 cyl? .

V6. Would a pulley or water pump/alternator bearing noise change when shifting from park or neutral to drive? Or when letting off the gas and coasting to a stop?

The second shop said they were kind of scratching their heads partly because of it only making the noises when cold. Sounded like they mostly came to the transmission whine conclusion because they ended up googling common issues and supposedly the transmission noise is common with the Sedona. From what I can find front end noises in general seem to be a pretty common issue with the Sedona.

Most of the local mechanics are booked full a week or two in advance, having trouble getting parts, etc., and seems like no one wants to bother with tracking down a noise.

 

[Soft Cars]

Try running the engine with the belt off on a cold start. Get your serpentine diagram ready beforehand.

 

[Deleted member 89374]

Sounds like arthritis.

 

[ls1mike]

V6. Would a pulley or water pump/alternator bearing noise change when shifting from park or neutral to drive? Or when letting off the gas and coasting to a stop?

Yes, engine speed changes when you do all of those things.

 

[Propflux01]

V6. Would a pulley or water pump/alternator bearing noise change when shifting from park or neutral to drive? Or when letting off the gas and coasting to a stop?

The second shop said they were kind of scratching their heads partly because of it only making the noises when cold. Sounded like they mostly came to the transmission whine conclusion because they ended up googling common issues and supposedly the transmission noise is common with the Sedona. From what I can find front end noises in general seem to be a pretty common issue with the Sedona.

Most of the local mechanics are booked full a week or two in advance, having trouble getting parts, etc., and seems like no one wants to bother with tracking down a noise.

The mounts move when engine produces torque, and negative torque. When they move, the harmonics often change allowing vibrations, like that of a bad bearing, to be transmitted through the block and frame. Even though your mounts are good, change them out and I guarantee the idle will be smoother and less noisy.
As was suggested earlier, remove the serpentine belt and see if the noise remains under the same conditions. If you no longer hear it, then you’ll know. start there first.

 

[Redman71]

Just wondering if you ever solved this problem? I have the same make and model with exact issue that 2 mechanics and dealer can’t solve.

 

[Destinyplayer]

Just wondering if you ever solved this problem? I have the same make and model with exact issue that 2 mechanics and dealer can’t solve.

Not definitively. It’s been warming up here, once it got into the 50s-60s the noises mostly stopped. I had another mechanic take a look and they said they too hear a bit of what sounds like transmission whine at startup then didn’t really hear anything concerning after that. I am still sometimes getting a slight almost hydraulic sounding noise when coasting at lower speeds and slowing down to turn. The mechanics all said it sounds like a noisy power steering pump but I have electric power steering. Possibly something hydraulic in the torque converter or transmission that’s a bit noisy?

I’m having trouble finding it now but when I started searching around for the issue I stumbled upon an old review from one of the car review sites for a 2016 IIRC that said the new Sedona they were testing had some transmission whine. I haven’t been able to find much on people having actual transmission problems with the Sedona and it has pretty good reliability ratings so maybe the Sedona transmissions tend to be a bit noisy?

I do think at least some of the groaning noises at idle when it’s cold out are vibrations coming through from the transmission and/or the exhaust. Can mostly hear it inside the vehicle coming through the dash and floor. Can’t really hear that noise much outside the vehicle or in the engine bay. Before it warmed up I went around listening to what I could get to with the van on the ground with a stethoscope and I still couldn’t figure out where the noise was coming from.

Someone else who found the post did message me a few weeks ago. Maybe they’ll post on here but they said they were having what sounds like the same issue with their Sedona and even the dealer replacing the transmission with a reman didn’t get rid of the noise. They messaged me again a couple days ago saying they took it to another mechanic who replaced the transmission mount and it fixed the problem. Said the mount seemed to hold everything in place well enough but the rubber was worn/stiff enough to let vibrations and noise through and the cold likely stiffens it up more.

Having all 3 engine and transmission mounts replaced with OEM isn’t cheap but I may try just replacing the transmission mount and see if that helps. Or can have the mechanic jack the transmission up just enough to take the weight off the transmission mount and see if it still makes the noise at idle.

 

[KCJeep]

We had a 2012, it was an idler/pulley as mentioned. Symptoms were similar but not identical to yours. That and the oil pressure sending unit were the only repairs made on that engine now at over 130k (my daughter is still driving it).

 

[Destinyplayer]

We had a 2012, it was an idler/pulley as mentioned. Symptoms were similar but not identical to yours. That and the oil pressure sending unit were the only repairs made on that engine now at over 130k (my daughter is still driving it).

Part of the problem is at this point it isn’t loud/consistent enough to say for sure where it is or isn’t coming from. Haven’t completely ruled out a loud pulley but I couldn’t find anything obviously bad or noisy in that area either.

Out of curiosity how often did you change the transmission fluid? Searching around I found some older posts about 2005-2010 or so Kias and Hyundais claiming that the “sealed” transmissions need the fluid changed every 30K miles or else the filter gets clogged and causes whining. However I’ve had several Kias and Hyundais now and I’ve never had a dealer say anything about changing the transmission fluid until 60K. The manuals don’t even have intervals for changing the fluid. I asked both mechanics I took it to about that and they both said the filter should be pretty much just a screen and it’s pretty hard for it to clog up.

I’ve thought about having the dealer change the transmission fluid since I’m not sure what the previous owner’s mechanic put in when they did the drain and fill. The dealers all want to do a flush though and not sure if doing that at 70K with only one partial fluid change is iffy or not.

 

[Redman71]

Same here with the temps warming up to 50’s and 60’s during the night, I live on a steep hill and every bump coming down sounds like a hydraulic cylinder groaning, but since warmer weather it’s gone.

I just was getting concerned this makes the second winter of it sounding this way and vacation and traveling season is upon us I just hated to travel a lot not knowing for sure what it is.

 

[Destinyplayer]

Same here with the temps warming up to 50’s and 60’s during the night, I live on a steep hill and every bump coming down sounds like a hydraulic cylinder groaning, but since warmer weather it’s gone.

I just was getting concerned this makes the second winter of it sounding this way and vacation and traveling season is upon us I just hated to travel a lot not knowing for sure what it is.

That’s pretty much how it started for me last fall. The front drivers side started getting a little klunky going over bumps then I started hearing an odd noise for a second or two when making a sharp left turn or driving over bumps and dips in the road when the front of the van drops a bit. Then I started driving around with the radio off trying to figure that noise out and noticed all the noise/vibrations at idle when it got colder out.

At first I thought it was the engine/transmission mounts because I found the posts of others having the same noises and that’s what the problem was. But the first mechanic said he was pretty sure it was a combination of transmission whine and loud/weak struts/strut mounts. The second mechanic said he didn’t really hear anything that sounded like the transmission mount or the strut and that the struts don’t seem that bad, at least when it’s warmer out.

I was going to replace the struts since they probably need replaced soon anyway and see if that helped, but there don’t seem to be any decent aftermarket struts available for the 2015+ model. The dealer wants a small fortune to just replace the shock part and swap all the other parts over. Plus a couple hundred more to just replace the mounts to make sure that isn’t the problem.

Think I’m going to start with replacing the transmission mount and see if that helps then go from there.

 

[KCJeep]

Part of the problem is at this point it isn’t loud/consistent enough to say for sure where it is or isn’t coming from. Haven’t completely ruled out a loud pulley but I couldn’t find anything obviously bad or noisy in that area either.

Out of curiosity how often did you change the transmission fluid? Searching around I found some older posts about 2005-2010 or so Kias and Hyundais claiming that the “sealed” transmissions need the fluid changed every 30K miles or else the filter gets clogged and causes whining. However I’ve had several Kias and Hyundais now and I’ve never had a dealer say anything about changing the transmission fluid until 60K. The manuals don’t even have intervals for changing the fluid. I asked both mechanics I took it to about that and they both said the filter should be pretty much just a screen and it’s pretty hard for it to clog up.

I’ve thought about having the dealer change the transmission fluid since I’m not sure what the previous owner’s mechanic put in when they did the drain and fill. The dealers all want to do a flush though and not sure if doing that at 70K with only one partial fluid change is iffy or not.

It’s never been changed. No issues or noises. The manual said it was lifetime fluid but you could change at 75k for heavy use like if you towed. We didn’t so I left it alone, figured I’d sell it at 100k anyway. Well we did but unexpectedly to my daughter and now it’s well north of 130k with no plans to sell. Wish I had changed it and my son in law is thinking about it, but I told him at this point I’d leave it alone.

 

[OilUzer]

Change the ATF if you have doubts about the levels or quality of the previously used ATF.

Can't be timing chain or tensioner based on what you are describing ... points more at the trans maybe the pump or torque converter?

 

[MV4S]

That’s pretty much how it started for me last fall. The front drivers side started getting a little klunky going over bumps then I started hearing an odd noise for a second or two when making a sharp left turn or driving over bumps and dips in the road when the front of the van drops a bit. Then I started driving around with the radio off trying to figure that noise out and noticed all the noise/vibrations at idle when it got colder out.

At first I thought it was the engine/transmission mounts because I found the posts of others having the same noises and that’s what the problem was. But the first mechanic said he was pretty sure it was a combination of transmission whine and loud/weak struts/strut mounts. The second mechanic said he didn’t really hear anything that sounded like the transmission mount or the strut and that the struts don’t seem that bad, at least when it’s warmer out.

I was going to replace the struts since they probably need replaced soon anyway and see if that helped, but there don’t seem to be any decent aftermarket struts available for the 2015+ model. The dealer wants a small fortune to just replace the shock part and swap all the other parts over. Plus a couple hundred more to just replace the mounts to make sure that isn’t the problem.

Think I’m going to start with replacing the transmission mount and see if that helps then go from there.

@Destinyplayer, did you end up replacing the transmission mount? I have the EXACT same set of symptoms you described with my 2017 Sedona.

 

[DragonKing]

@Destinyplayer, @MV4S, did either of you get yours working? My 2016 Sedona SXL has had this exact same issue for a couple years now. Our warranty is through the dealership we bought it from, but they aren't a KIA dealership, and haven't been able to figure out the issue so far. The other things I find online are all about the timing chain rattle, which I don't think is what this is. Here is a recording of the issue I'm experiencing. I should get a recording of what it sounds like from the engine bay, but we're always rushing off somewhere when we experience it.

 

[Propflux01]

If you're putting it in gear and it stops, chances are its a mount going bad, or an exhaust hanger.