[KIKI]

I have a 2014 Kia Cadenza Limited with the 3.3 liter V6, 6000 miles. The car performs wonderfully; however, my MPG (all highway) is a bit over 25mpg and I have black soot coming from the exhausts that discolors the rear bumper with soot. It has not been in for the first service yet.
Any experience with this? will it go away and the mileage pick up a bit?

 

[Don]

seems to be something we will have to live with. I've tried several things, cleaner in the hole area, painting, nothing changes it. I wipe them down every fill up. Rain makes it worse.

 

[sh30469]

I think I would get that checked if I was you. I have 0 nastiness around my exhaust pipes and soot coming out sounds like you are out of spec for emissions. Also, being a Cadenza owner you should be getting the 3yr/37mo maintenance for free, there is no reason for you to wait 6k-7k miles for an oil change. From what I understand we don't use syntheic oil (correct me if I'm wrong someone) and dyno is lucky to last 5k, 7 is pushing it. My dealer told me 5k-7k but I told him I will do mine every 3k miles to make sure it was good, they don't like doing it because it costs them money, but I told him I will be within warranty specs. My dealership here in the area extends the drivetrain warranty to 20yr/200k miles as long as your vehicle has been serviced properly and can prove it. Also your mileage sucks for highway. I did a 60ish mile trek (small hills, nothing big, fairly straight highway) 2 ways and got over 31mpg both ways, including some city/street driving mixed in. I would take your vehciles in, both KIKI and Don, neither should be doing that.

 

[sh30469]

I also want to ask what gas you guys are using, that may help. If it's a low grade gas like from your Walmart or something that may have something to do with it. I use a "premium fuel" (not E91) like Shell or BP (supposedly a higher grade fuel) at the recommended E87. I also have to say, with my old Nissan Rogue, going from cheap fuel (Walmart) to Shell I did see a SLIGHT increase in fuel economy. Also, does your station implement ethanol in your fuel? Unfortunately the closest station to me that is pure gas is over 30 miles away and I'm never near that side of town.

 

[Don]

First off I do lots of highway driving, lots. Under those cases very little soot unless it rains than soot. In the city both cars we have here get soot. Makes sense. Soot is only on chrome around tail pipe. Not all over back end of car. My car was completely gone over by dealer so I know it's running correctly. 24-26 mpg city drive like I don't care AC on all the time. 29-31.? mpg hwy 75 mph again drive like I don't care. Cheap gas is used 87 and oil changes every 5000. 7500 way too long 3000 old school way to soon. 5000 just right last three cars 200,000 before getting new one and never any oil lose.


1. I believe it's the decorative way the tail pipe is done that traps carbon
2. It collects the soot and moisture or rain brings it out.


Premium gas has a cooler and longer burn to it. When used in engines that don't require it worse fuel economy may occur because the engine was not designed for it. Higher octane is to control gas from pre detonation beyond that it's usage is a waste of money. Per the oil company's.
However it sure seems to me I don't smell much alcohol being put into it?

 

[Swive]

Very little soot on mine: 80/20 highway/city driving, 5500 miles so far. 1st oil change was at 1500 w/ synthetic. About to do 2nd, will use synthetic again. Have also run 1 bottle of Techron through the fuel system. I get some soot in the inside of the tail pipe, but that's about it.

 

[Yooshaw]

I haven't has much soot, but can tell you that Azera owners complain about this on their forums as well. Seems to be relatively common in our GDi engine.

 

[Zigen5]

You can't do anything about the soot. It occurs no matter what gas you put in. To get the tail pipe shiny, I use a eagle on metal polish. The maintenance free is a promotional package that does not come with the Cadenza. The first oil change is at 7500 miles.

 

[bob61]

I think I would get that checked if I was you. I have 0 nastiness around my exhaust pipes and soot coming out sounds like you are out of spec for emissions. Also, being a Cadenza owner you should be getting the 3yr/37mo maintenance for free, there is no reason for you to wait 6k-7k miles for an oil change. From what I understand we don't use syntheic oil (correct me if I'm wrong someone) and dyno is lucky to last 5k, 7 is pushing it. My dealer told me 5k-7k but I told him I will do mine every 3k miles to make sure it was good, they don't like doing it because it costs them money, but I told him I will be within warranty specs.

The promotional offer for complimentary maintenance is based on Kia's scheduled maintenance requirements, not when you want and the Uvo is supposed to notify you of the need for service and help with scheduling the appointment.

The program covers the first five factory service appointments. Several sources you can reference, here's one, here's another and here's mention on a dealer site. Also found this on Kia's Media site.

Unless your dealer is generous, you'll be eating the cost of the oil changes past the first 5.

 

[KIKI]

Many thanks for all your inputs. I did take the Cadenza to my local Kia dealer, they cleaned up the soot (with toluene) They also indicated; 1) that if the car was running poorly, the sensors would create a fault code; 2) the service manager has a Cadenza and is also getting about 25 MPG on the highway (80 MPH cruise Texas) and ; 3)he does not recommend synthetic oil till the engine is fully broken in (about 12K miles)


Furthermore, the car has almost 6500 miles in the first month of ownership and it is still flawless in performance. As the engine becomes more seated in, the scat factor increases.

 

[Unclassified]

I think I would get that checked if I was you. I have 0 nastiness around my exhaust pipes and soot coming out sounds like you are out of spec for emissions. Also, being a Cadenza owner you should be getting the 3yr/37mo maintenance for free, there is no reason for you to wait 6k-7k miles for an oil change. From what I understand we don't use syntheic oil (correct me if I'm wrong someone) and dyno is lucky to last 5k, 7 is pushing it. My dealer told me 5k-7k but I told him I will do mine every 3k miles to make sure it was good, they don't like doing it because it costs them money, but I told him I will be within warranty specs. My dealership here in the area extends the drivetrain warranty to 20yr/200k miles as long as your vehicle has been serviced properly and can prove it. Also your mileage sucks for highway. I did a 60ish mile trek (small hills, nothing big, fairly straight highway) 2 ways and got over 31mpg both ways, including some city/street driving mixed in. I would take your vehciles in, both KIKI and Don, neither should be doing that.

Dino fuel will last upwards 10k miles in the engines of today. The engines run cleaner, smoother, and more efficiently than the year prior. If you're changing your oil every 3/mo 3,000 miles you're not only going to end up wasting your money, but your time. 6/mo 5,000 is just fine, and 7,000 miles depending on your driving habits is not a risk.

The biggest thing to keep in mind with our cars service minders, they're mileage and time based, not driving habits. You can go in your settings and change when to be notified of a needed oil change or reset a pesky oil light. From the factory mine was set to 3/mo 3,000 miles but the manual recommends every 5000 miles.. So I set mine to 6/mo 5,000 miles.. I've changed my oil twice at 3100 miles I felt bad about my first oil change at 2000 miles because it didn't seem like enough time for the engine to clean itself with that first load of detergent oil from the factory.

Car runs fine, I get black **** around my mufflers that's why you clean your car.. Exhaust will leave grime on anything..

 

[FirstUSACadenza]

I have a 2014 Kia Cadenza Limited with the 3.3 liter V6, 6000 miles. The car performs wonderfully; however, my MPG (all highway) is a bit over 25mpg and I have black soot coming from the exhausts that discolors the rear bumper with soot. It has not been in for the first service yet.
Any experience with this? will it go away and the mileage pick up a bit?

I would have it check especially if the engine runs a little rough at start up. I had the same compliant and the they told me that it's very normal for the exhaust tips to look like that. But now my car has been at the dealer since June 26th. I did receive a call today and was told that it should be done tomorrow. They have done a lot of work to the engine to correct the black exhaust.

 

[Anthony Gregory]

I use top tier gas....Shell ot Mobil in my area. Don't have this problem. Google top tier gas.

 

[Scott]

Bringing an old thread back to life. With all the rain we have had (in Ohio atleast) the soot issue is more noticeable. My car being white it shows pretty good. I spent a fair amount of time washing the area last night and still not clean. For those of you have have had the problem, how do you clean yours?

 

[gene]

Mine is smokey blue and I use invisible glass cleaner, not sure how it will work on white. Best **** ever for windows

 

[Yooshaw]

I had some build up, and found that using a clay bar got rid if it. Took several concentrated passes in the area, but you can easily see your progress as the clay bar lifts the soot.

 

[sh30469]

I wash my car fairly often (or it's just been raining literally almost every day for about a month) and every time I do I will take a paper towel and wipe the chrome down around the exhaust. I did however notice a cloud of soot when I took off the other day. My bit of lane was running out and no one wanted to let me over so I had to floor it and left a nice little puff to get on their car I didn't realize it was going to happen but made me happy that it did, but can that really meet emission standards? I see diesels spew out less than that.

 

[MadMax]

Yeah, I actually cleaned out the entire inside of the chrome port, goes back about 3 inches or so top and bottom inside with some rubbing compound, got it all back to a metal look (it's not actually painted black it just looked that way from the buildup. Good thing is with far less in there, when it get's wet it doesn't spew out as much of the old stuff...but the new stuff appears over a short period of time.


On white, you can see it build up on the surface of the paint. Even with a good coat of wax, still have to rub it down with mild compound (other's suggested a claybar, probably safer for paint), then a good coat of wax again.


But yeah, a wet cloth about 1-2 times a week, i'll whip off what's going on there regularly.