Should Kia reimbursement me for the starter after engine seized

If the warranty does not cover it then it is not covered. Abusing the starter is not their fault. You are getting a new engine so I would not complain too much.

Okay, but if the engine hadn't seized up, my starter would have been able to crank the engine. So the siezed engine caused my starter to burn up during normal operation of the vehicle

It's not abuse to the starter by pressing the start button to start your car

Oh, and yes I can complain about getting a new engine. I would have been much better off if my kia optima engine hadn't seized up. So far it's cost me $768.94. plus towing and the inconveniences of having someone else pick me up 1 1/2 hour away, and take off work 1/2 day to get everything taken care of, and now I have to consult an attorney to have Kia reimburse me for my starter to burnt up in lieu of my engine siezed up

KIA's are crap. I would never buy one. Their low quality is well known. If you want to rant, then rant on.

Incidentally a starter is hardly a cause to hire a lawyer. You could try small claims court.

One kia service department told me yesterday that they are having to replace 5 out of 7 starters on kia engine replacements for the same reason and kia is paying them to replace the starters. But told me no. Ha !!

Call KIA corporate and complain. Maybe they will help you out.

Question is, why did the local mechanic install a new starter on a motor they knew was seized? If motor seized while you were driving, then that had nothing to do with the starter. Installing a new starter on a seized motor and then grinding it into dust isn't going to hold up to well in any claims department. I feel your pain but this part doesn't make too much sense.

When I tried to restart the engine after it stalled driving down the highway. I saw a cloud of smoke come from the hood. That's when I believe the starter burnt up cause the engine was siezed. Mechanic made a proper diagnosis of starter and replaced it. I have the old starter with me at home now. They offered to replace the engine and quoted a price. I remembered taking my car in to get serviced under a recall and looked it up to refresh. I decided to tow it to a dealership for diagnosis of engine failure. It qualified for replacement

I'm sorry to rant about it, but I seriously don't believe I would be paying to have my starter replaced hadn't the engine seized and since the engine was unable to turn over my starter burnt up costing me $768.49

The actual problem was you replaced the failed starter with an aftermarket one and the dealer is not entitled to replace it unless they, Kia replaced it. So if it was the original, you might have gotten that replaced without spending any money. Chalk it up to a lesson learned, no reason to get stressed about it. I want to know how many times did you crank the engine till the starter failed? But $768.49 is not a bad price to spend for a reman engine in a 7 year old Kia.

Yes, your probably right about a learning experience. I believe I only tried to restart two, maybe three times at most until I saw smoke come from under the hood. Perhaps that is when the starter burned up or maybe the mechanic tried it some more trying to diagnose. However, I do believe that the starter burned up and was the cause of the smoke I saw, in lieu of the engine seizure. Dealerships is also telling me the battery needs replaced. I just replaced it just over a year ago. So I'm thinking that while trying to crank the engine when it seized caused a serious draw on the battery and much strain on both the battery and the starter causing both to become defective now. I didn't know the darn engine was seized at this point. I think anyone would try to restart their car if you broke down on the highway, ya know. All lights came on, and I pulled off the road and shut it off. Then tried to restart it, but it wouldn't restart..... until I saw smoke come from the hood.

Thank you for your answers. Ill consider each one as I form my opinion on the matter. It could always be worse is how I survive in this world. Lol. I am grateful that Kia is replacing the engine and providing a rental car at no extra cost. I thank Kia for that !!! That starter was the original so who knows how much longer it would have lasted starting a new engine with new compression again. Haven't really had any real major parts to be replaced since owning the kia optima, so I'm grateful for that too. Again, thank you for your opinions. I value them !!

Yup. Trying to force a seized engine to start would burn up the starter which is why I called it abuse in my first post. I hope it all works out for you.

It's not abuse if you don't know the engine is siezed and you simply press the start button to see if your car will start after you shut it off. That's normal, that's how you are supposed to start your car. The abuse is what I had to go through because of the faulty engine that won't allow my starter to spin and burned up my starter and cost me $768.49 to have replaced because the engine was faulty since the day it was manufactured . The starter was working fine until the moment the engine seized up. At least now I have a new starter on my car. However I also need a new battery that the siezed engine abused. I just replaced that 1 year ago

Jim, wish I saw this post 2 months ago. Don't listen to these guys, they have no clue what they are talking about and apparently don't know the dynamics of a motor seizing and how it WILL ALWAYS take the starter with it. And that there is already a class action lawsuit on this issue and Kia is NOT going to fight over a $200 starter. I had pretty much the exact same scenario as you. Motor seized doing 90 on the freeway/towed to dealer and they were closed/towed to my house/called Repairsmith to change the starter which was wishful thinking/still no motor turning obviously seized. I only spent $320 changing the starter from Repairsmith BTW. I spent another $95 for the tow for a specialized hinged flatbed as my car is lower than stock. I explained everything to the dealer and told them NOT to try to start the car as the motor is seized and that the starter WILL burn up and possible fire. Long story short, the starter was replaced for free and it even listed it on the bill as "Collateral damage due to engine seizing". I am also being reimbursed for the flatbed to get to the dealer. The only money I'm out is the $320 to change the starter, but if the dealer hadn't closed early that day, it would have never been towed back to my house and cost me nothing from the whole incident.

I had the exact scenario happen to me, car died, towed to mechanic , he tried changing the starter, didn't work then we took the car to KIA which in turn asked me for the OG starter so they can list it in the engine change bill. all I had to do was change my alternator ( 7 years old ) and paid around 500 CAD. in return got myself a new engine , new starter , and well of course, the alternator which I paid for. side note: my stereo system was not working ( no camera as well obviously) KIA fixed it somehow lol. they also flushed my coolant because my new engine was overheating, and they fixed my AC which was only blowing cold when I press the pedal before I changed the engine I personally am very happy with my OPTIMA and also to be honest, happy with the service I was provided from both my KIA dealership and KIA in general sorry for this 2 year later answer but just wanted to throw it out here in case someone is reading. one thing about dealers is that you have to show some knowledge when youre talking to them. dont go to them if you know nothing about cars in general, or at least your car and its parts.

Currently dealing with similar issue. Motor locked up while driving on the highway. Called dealership & got the run around. Replaced starter & nothing. Let car sit for about 2 years. Called dealership they said bring it in. A few weeks goes by & they called saying the starter was bad & a wire $1,600 repair cost ($800 for starter). A few days later they called back & said while they was test driving the car the motor locked up. They replace the motor for free but want to charge $1600 for starter & bad wire. I honestly don’t believe they test drove the car because the motor was already locked up.