Four problems related to suspension have been reported for the 2002 Kia Motor RIO. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2002 Kia Motor RIO based on all problems reported for the 2002 RIO.
My car pulls hard to the right when I press the gas pedal and I have to turn the steering wheel to the left to compensate for that. As soon as I pull my foot from the gas pedal, the car immediately goes to the left and I have to bring the steering wheel to the normal position. This happens 100% of the time. I feel this is a potentially dangerous situation since I have to pay close attention to the timing in order to keep the car straight at higher speeds. I am the first owner of the car and the car was properly maintained by my local mechanic (I have records of even oil changes) and even after alignment and tire change for the problem by a kia dealer, the problem is still there. I've been to 2 different kia dealers and I was told this is a "normal" situation in these kinds of cars and it happens to "all of them at high mileage". I also tried to reach the regional office and after numerous phone calls I didn't get a response from there yet. The car is at 98,000 miles and I've had the problem for about more than 3 months. I believe kia either should honor their 100k mile warranty or if it is happening to "all of them" and it is "normal" they should move their official warranty lower (for example 80k miles etc. ) or they should warn the consumer about this "normal" situation with big letters in their advertisements and manuals.
Consumer stated there was a whistling noise in the front end of vehicle and the steering would become loose at 55 mph.
The vehicle experienced intermittent stalling, the dealer replaced the vapor and service the fuel injection, but the vehicle continued to stall. The brakes were repaired and the vehicle pulled to the right when driving.
When driving 65 mph vehicle swerves from left to right. Vehicle is hard to control. Took to dealer and dealer indicated vehicle needed new bushings, front end alignment and tires. Consumer stated that the dealer has not agreed that any thing is wrong with the vehicle. But 9 alignments, 4 new tires and ball bearings were replaced at less than 2000 miles.