2015 KIA Forte ESP

545
Driving your vehicle
Adjust your mirrors to reduce theglare from other driver's head-
lights.
Keep your headlights clean and properly aimed on vehicles not
equipped with the automatic head-
light aiming feature. Dirty or
improperly aimed headlights will
make it much more difficult to see
at night.
Avoid staring directly at the head- lights of oncoming vehicles. You
could be temporarily blinded, and it
will take several seconds for your
eyes to readjust to the darkness.Driving in the rain
Rain and wet roads can make driving
dangerous, especially if you’re not
prepared for the slick pavement.
Here are a few things to consider
when driving in the rain:
A heavy rainfall will make it harderto see and will increase the dis-
tance needed to stop your vehicle,
so slow down.
Keep your windshield wiping equipment in good shape. Replace
your windshield wiper blades when
they show signs of streaking or
missing areas on the windshield. If your tires are not in good condi-
tion, making a quick stop on wet
pavement can cause a skid and
possibly lead to an accident. Be
sure your tires are in good shape.
Turn on your headlights to make it easier for others to see you.
Driving too fast through large pud- dles can affect your brakes. If you
must go through puddles, try to
drive through them slowly.
If you believe you may have gotten your brakes wet, apply them lightly
while driving until normal braking
operation returns.
Driving in flooded areas
Avoid driving through flooded areas
unless you are sure the water is no
higher than the bottom of the wheel
hub. Drive through any water slowly.
Allow adequate stopping distance
because brake performance may be
affected.
After driving through water, dry the
brakes by gently applying them sev-
eral times while the vehicle is moving
slowly.
1JBB3303

69
What to do in an emergency
It is possible that some tires, espe-
cially with larger punctures or dam-
age to the sidewall, cannot be sealed
completely.
Air pressure loss in the tire may
adversely affect tire performance.
For this reason, you should avoid
abrupt steering or other driving
maneuvers, especially if the vehicle
is heavily loaded or if a trailer is in
use.
The Tire Mobility Kit is not designed
or intended as a permanent tire
repair method and is to be used for
one tire only.
This instruction shows you step by
step procedure to temporarily seal
the puncture.
Read the section "Notes on the safe
use of the Tire Mobility Kit".Notes on the safe use of the
Tire Mobility Kit
Park your car at the side of theroad so that you can work with the
Tire Mobility Kit away from moving
traffic.
To be sure your vehicle will not move, even when you're on fairly
level ground, always set your park-
ing brake.
Only use the Tire Mobility Kit for sealing/inflation passenger car
tires. Only punctured areas located
within the tread region of the tire
can be sealed using the tire mobil-
ity kit.
Do not use on motorcycles, bicy- cles or any other type of tires.
When the tire and wheel are dam- aged, do not use Tire Mobility Kit
for your safety.
Use of the Tire Mobility Kit may not be effective for tire damage larger
than approximately 6 mm (0.24 in).
Please contact the nearest Kia
dealership if the tire cannot be
made roadworthy with the Tire
Mobility Kit. Do not use the Tire Mobility Kit if a
tire is severely damaged by driving
run flat or with insufficient air pres-
sure.
Do not remove any foreign objects such as nails or screws that have
penetrated the tire.
Provided the car is outdoors, leave the engine running. Otherwise
operating the compressor may
eventually drain the car battery.
Never leave the Tire Mobility Kit unattended while it is being used.
Do not leave the compressor run- ning for more than 10 min. at a time
or it may overheat.
Do not use the Tire Mobility Kit if the ambient temperature is below -
-30°C (22°F).

621
What to do in an emergency
Do not take this vehicle through anautomatic car wash while the com-
pact spare tire is installed.
The compact spare tire should not be installed on the front axle if the
vehicle must be driven in snow or
on ice.
Do not use the compact spare tire on any other vehicle because this
tire has been designed especially
for your vehicle.
The compact spare tire’s tread life is shorter than a regular tire.
Inspect your compact spare tire
regularly and replace worn com-
pact spare tires with the same size
and design, mounted on the same
wheel.
The compact spare tire should not be used on any other wheels, nor
should standard tires, snow tires,
wheel covers or trim rings be used
with the compact spare wheel. If
such use is attempted, damage to
these items or other car compo-
nents may occur. Do not use more than one compact
spare tire at a time.
Do not tow a trailer while the com- pact spare tire is installed.

Maintenance
Engine compartment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3
Maintenance services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4
• Owner’s responsibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4
• Owner maintenance precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5
Owner maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6
• Owner maintenance schedule. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6
Scheduled maintenance service. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8
• Normal maintenance schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10
• Maintenance under severe usage conditions. . . . . . . 7-23
Explanation of scheduled maintenance items . . . 7-25
Engine oil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-29
• Checking the engine oil level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-29
• Changing the engine oil and filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-30
Engine coolant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-31
• Checking the coolant level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-31
• Changing the coolant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-33
Brake/clutch fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-34
• Checking the brake/clutch fluid level . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-34
Washer fluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-35
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-35
Parking brake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-35
• Checking the parking brake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-35
Air cleaner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-36
• Filter replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-36
Climate control air filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-37
• Filter inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-37
Wiper blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-38
• Blade inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-38
• Blade replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-38
Battery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-\
41
• For best battery service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-41
• Battery recharging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-43
• Reset items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-43\
Tires and wheels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-44
• Tire care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-\
44
• Recommended cold tire inflation pressures . . . . . . . 7-44
• Checking tire inflation pressure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-45
• Tire rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-46
• Wheel alignment and tire balance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-47
• Tire replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-48
• Wheel replacement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-49
• Tire traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-49
• Tire maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-49
• Tire sidewall labeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-49
• All season tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-55
• Summer tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-55
• Snow tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-\
55
• Radial-ply tires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-56
• Low aspect raito tire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-56
7

47
MAINTENANCE SERVICES
You should exercise the utmost care
to prevent damage to your vehicle
and injury to yourself whenever per-
forming any maintenance or inspec-
tion procedures.
Should you have any doubts con-
cerning the inspection or servicing of
your vehicle, we strongly recom-
mend that you have an authorized
Kia dealer perform this work.
An authorized Kia dealer has factory-
trained technicians and genuine Kia
parts to service your vehicle proper-
ly. For expert advice and quality serv-
ice, see an authorized Kia dealer.
Inadequate, incomplete or insuffi-
cient servicing may result in opera-
tional problems with your vehicle that
could lead to vehicle damage, an
accident, or personal injury.Owner’s responsibility
✽ ✽NOTICE
Maintenance Service and Record
Retention are the owner's responsi-
bility.
You should retain documents that
show proper maintenance has been
performed on your vehicle in accor-
dance with the scheduled mainte-
nance service charts shown on the
following pages. You need this infor-
mation to establish your compliance
with the servicing and maintenance
requirements of your vehicle war-
ranties.
Detailed warranty information is
provided in your Warranty &
Consumer Information manual.
Repairs and adjustments required as
a result of improper maintenance or
a lack of required maintenance are
not covered.
We recommend you have your vehi-
cle maintained and repaired by an
authorized Kia dealer. An authorized
Kia dealer meets Kia’s high service
quality standards and receives tech-
nical support from Kia in order to pro-
vide you with a high level of service
satisfaction.
Maintenance

75
Maintenance
Owner maintenance precau-
tions
Improper or incomplete service may
result in problems. This section gives
instructions only for the maintenance
items that are easy to perform.
As explained earlier in this section,
several procedures can be done only
by an authorized Kia dealer with spe-
cial tools.
✽ ✽NOTICE
Improper owner maintenance dur-
ing the warranty period may affect
warranty coverage. For details, read
the separate Warranty & Consumer
Information manual provided with
the vehicle. If you're unsure about
any servicing or maintenance proce-
dure, have it done by an authorized
Kia dealer.
WARNING- Maintenance
work
Do not wear jewelry or loose
clothing while working under
the hood of your vehicle with
the engine running. These can
become entangled in moving
parts, if you must run the
engine while working under the
hood, make certain that you
remove all jewelry (especially
rings, bracelets, watches, and
necklaces) and all neckties,
scarves, and similar loose
clothing before getting near the
engine or cooling fans.

Maintenance
50
7
2. Tire size designation
A tire’s sidewall is marked with a tire
size designation. You will need this
information when selecting replace-
ment tires for your car. The following
explains what the letters and num-
bers in the tire size designation
mean.
Example tire size designation:
(These numbers are provided as an
example only; your tire size designa-
tor could vary depending on your
vehicle.)
P205/55R16 89H
P - Applicable vehicle type (tires
marked with the prefix “P’’ are
intended for use on passenger
vehicles or light trucks; however,
not all tires have this marking).
205 - Tire width in millimeters.
55 - Aspect ratio. The tire’s section height as a percentage of its
width.
R - Tire construction code (Radial).
16 - Rim diameter in inches. 89 - Load Index, a numerical code
associated with the maximum
load the tire can carry.
H - Speed Rating Symbol. See the speed rating chart in this section
for additional information.
Wheel size designation
Wheels are also marked with impor-
tant information that you need if you
ever have to replace one. The follow-
ing explains what the letters and
numbers in the wheel size designa-
tion mean.
Example wheel size designation:
6.0JX16
6.0 - Rim width in inches.
J - Rim contour designation.
16 - Rim diameter in inches. Tire speed ratings
The chart below lists many of the dif-
ferent speed ratings currently being
used for passenger vehicles. The
speed rating is part of the tire size
designation on the sidewall of the
tire. This symbol corresponds to that
tire's designed maximum safe oper-
ating speed.
S 180 km/h (112 mph)
T 190 km/h (118 mph)
H 210 km/h (130 mph) V 240 km/h (149 mph)Z 240 km/h (Above 149 mph)
Maximum Speed
Speed
Rating
Symbol

Maintenance
52
7
7. Uniform tire quality grading
Quality grades can be found where
applicable on the tire sidewall
between tread shoulder and maxi-
mum section width.
For example:
TREADWEAR 440
TRACTION A
TEMPERATURE A
Tread wear
The tread wear grade is a compara-
tive rating based on the wear rate of
the tire when tested under controlled
conditions on a specified govern-
ment test course. For example, a tire
graded 150 would wear one-and-a-
half times (1½) as well on the gov-
ernment course as a tire graded 100.
The relative performance of tires
depends upon the actual conditions
of their use, however, and may
depart significantly from the norm
due to variations in driving habits,
service practices and differences in
road characteristics and climate. Tires degrade over time, even when
they are not being used. Regardless
of the remaining tread, we recom-
mend that tires be replaced after
approximately six (6) years of nor-
mal service. Heat caused by hot cli-
mates or frequent high loading con-
ditions can accelerate the aging
process.
These grades are molded on the
side-walls of passenger vehicle tires.
The tires available as standard or
optional equipment on your vehicles
may vary with respect to grade.
Traction - AA, A, B & C
The traction grades, from highest to
lowest, are AA, A, B and C. Those
grades represent the tires ability to
stop on wet pavement as measured
under controlled conditions on spec-
ified government test surfaces of
asphalt and concrete. A tire marked
C may have poor traction perform-
ance.
The traction grade assigned to this
tire is based on straight-ahead brak-
ing traction tests, and does not
include acceleration, cornering,
hydroplaning, or peak traction char-
acteristics.