2020 Kia Forte GT 6MT Maintenance/Build Thread: Into The Unknown

A couple of quick updates:

-The brakes I put on this car recently... not great. At first everything felt good, but now that I have put a few miles on them, things have taken a turn for the worse. The pads are awful with no bite and mushy feel, and I am pretty sure the rotors are already warped. Really disappointed. On both sets of wheels I have, I am getting shaking at highway speeds and severe pulsations coming down from highway speeds. It's doubtful that it's a wheel balance issue, as both sets are doing the same thing. When I get some time, I may pull everything apart again to see if a caliper hung up and caused one to warp. There's no indication that happened; no extra brake dust, bad smells, etc., but who knows. 

-When I got to work today after sitting in over an hour of traffic, I parked my car and heard a really loud noise like a fan whirring overtime. As I walked toward the front of my car, it got louder. With the car off and the car locked/powered down, the electric fans were going full speed. I've never had a car do that when it's completely powered down before. I sat there for a few minutes, and they eventually turned off. Not sure if this is a feature or a flaw, but it was weird. I'll keep an eye on this. 

I know a lot of people swear by them but I've never been impressed with powerstops. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Around the same time I did these, I put Dynamic Friction brakes on our 2023 Mazda CX-50, mainly because that's the only brand RockAuto (or anyone outside of Mazda) carried for the car. Those have completely knocked my socks off. That car had poor brakes from the factory, and installing pads and rotors from them fixed any complaints I had. I almost want to scrap what's on my car and get those. 

I put some EBC pads on mine a few thousand miles ago and have been pretty impressed. They are just the Red but they are a good upgrade over stock. DP31809C  is the part number for the pads, I found mine on Amazon.

In reply to Jon883 :

I think when I do upgrade, I'll do the XG calipers and 12.6" rotors like I did on the Tib. 

Speaking of the brakes... They just keep getting worse and worse. 

I have to do an oil change in the next week, and when I do, I plan on rotating the tires and taking a look at what's going on with these. The vibration on the highway and severe pulsation when braking on the highway is getting beyond annoying and borderline dangerous. Either I have faulty rotors, pad issues, or a caliper is hanging up. I'm hoping it's something simple. If I can't solve it, I'll have to replace the brakes again, which I really don't want to have to do. 

After talking about the brake situation with some friends, we came to the consensus that it's very likely the pads I used. I ended up using Power Stop pads, mainly because they were free to ship with the RockAuto order I had going at the time. From what I hear, these specific pads are notorious for leaving deposits on the rotors and causing awful vibrations. Sounds familiar! 

I ordered up some Raybestos Element 3 pads, and I'll scuff the near-new rotors (or get them cut if necessary) and pop them in. I have had these pads on a ton of vehicles over the years, and I should have just paid the extra shipping when I did the brakes to get them. 

I have also been reading up on the "National brake mod" which increases the rotor size 20mm and adds dual piston calipers up front, but I will save that for later down the road. Looks like an easy, worthwhile upgrade. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

the brake mod is what I had on Tubey the Tiburon. late XG calipers, rotors. Pad options out the wazzoo. The two pistons basically equalled out to the same volume as the single larger piston of the stock caliper so brake bias/feel was uninterupted. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Yeah, I am thinking I'll be doing this later down the road. Seems fairly simple and affordable. Might even be able to grab some junkyard calipers if I wanted to in order to make it mega cheap. 

This time around, I'll be happy if I can just get them to stop pulsating and feeling warped.

When I did the tib, I waited and shopped and ended up with two new calipers for $110 shipped. 

I must ask basically nothing of the brakes on my Elantra GT sport.  It has 105k miles on the OEM pads.   But I am paying attention to your struggles for when it is time to do the brakes..  whenever that is.  

Thanks for posting this thread!  Google just sent me here and I read it through from page 1.

I have a 2021 Forte5 GT 6MT that I initially leased for 3 years in Jan 2021, and subsequently bought out this past January.  I had a habit of flipping cars (usually at a loss) every 6 months to a year, so a 3-year lease seemed like a good option to keep me in a car for longer, but have the option to move on in three years if I wasn't happy.  Fortunately, I'm still happy with it!

The 6MT GTs may be uncommon in the US, but they're downright rare in Canada.  The manual transmission was a 1-year-only option (2021) here, and only on the hatchback (which the US didn't get).  There were about 160 total brought to Canada.  My 128i was costing me more per month in maintenance and repairs than the monthly lease payment on this, so it made sense for me to ditch the BMW frustration and get the Kia.  This fortunately occurred at a time when the 6MT was new and available.

I'm currently about 3.5 years in and just about at 55,000kms (34,000 miles).  The car has not had any major issues, and just a few small ones.  I was searching for info as this morning I depressed the clutch, heard a twang, and felt something land on my foot - looks like the clutch pedal return spring broke.  The pedal still functions fine but seems to have a bit more play at the top end - I'll take it in to get replaced, which I expect will be under warranty.

I've not experienced any seat wear issues like you have, but I have worn away a bit of the leather on the steering wheel where I often hold it.  I also get a seat squeak sometimes when depressing the clutch pedal, but it usually just seems to be in the winter.  I assumed it was cold materials rubbing against each other, but I'll look under my seat to see if it has done the same yours did.  Also dealing with a persistent rubbing-type of rattle which seems to be coming from the back of the headliner just before the hatch...driving me nuts and I'm going to have the dealer check for that as well.

I've been running 91 octane from new, and have not experienced any of the throttle issues you've reported.  I do also clearly notice the lack of boost when the engine is cold, and power dropping off hugely after 5500-6000rpm.  I have had a very difficult time shifting smoothly since day 1 - could very well be user error, but other manual cars I've had in the past have not been this way.  Going to try driving with TCS off later to see if that helps as was suggested, but I've been chalking it up to terrible throttle mapping.  Seems 80% of the throttle is mapped to the first 20% of travel, which makes feathering difficult, and I also find a very abrupt difference between throttle-on and throttle-off.  Wondering if a tune could help with that.

Fuelly tells me I've averaged 29.77 mpg, and that includes me warming it up for 5-10 minutes every morning in the winter, because I'm a wimp that hates the cold.

My last provincial safety inspection in Jan showed the front brakes nearing replacement time, which surprised me.  I have heard a very faint, very high-pitched noise on occasion from new, so I'm wondering if mine are dragging a bit too.

Fortunately, my dealer is great.  I have the impression that Canadian dealers are just more helpful than US dealers in general, but I'm also well aware I get special treatment - I worked there for over 5 years, nearly 3 as sales manager, and left on good terms.  Everyone there always seems happy to help.

Anyway, thanks for all the info and updates!

In reply to markmitchellbro :

Glad you found the thread! As you may (or may not) know, we don't get the hatchback variant of the GT in the US, so it's cool to see them when they pop up. Seems like your ownership experience is going well so far! 

Last week, I mentioned that I decided to order some different brake pads and try scuffing up the rotors if they had pad deposits. I had the day off from work last Thursday and wanted to take a break from the never-ending unpacking of boxes post-renovation at my house, so I decided to get the car up on jack stands, do the brake stuff, do an oil change (the car has just shy of 50k miles on it now), and do something I've wanted to do since day one: paint the calipers red. I know it's dumb, but I figured with all the other red accents all over the car, it would look RIGHT. 



I also checked to see if the tires needed a rotation while everything was in the air as well. 



These brakes have been on the car for roughly 6 months and 9k miles, and they are not holding up well at all. There were LOTS of deposits on the front rotors. As a reminder, I used Power Stop Evolution ceramic pads and Raybestos coated "high carbon" rotors all around. The pads were glazed and you can see what's going on here; lots of pock-marks from pad material stuck in the rotors. I figured scuffing these and trying a different pad would help. Well, the problem with that is that the Raybestos Element 3 pads that RockAuto sent were WRONG. The ones they list for a Forte GT are in fact for a non-GT that has smaller brakes. I checked the Raybestos website, and they only list the one part number for ALL Fortes, which is incorrect, so stay away from Raybestos brake pads for our cars. Also, it doesn't help that they were bought by Centric recently, and I have had zero luck with their parts over the years, so maybe I'll be staying away from them altogether in the future. It's a shame, because I've had great luck with their stuff for years. None of the parts stores in the area had any pads in stock, so I scuffed up the Power Stops and threw them back on. I didn't really have much of a choice. 

And then, there's this:



Something is definitely wrong here. I made sure the slides were lubed (as I always do) and the pads could move freely, but I'm not sure if this is a metallurgy issue or a caliper/pad issue happening here. The rears are in fact doing brake things, and only the passenger side rear rotor looked like this, so I'm not sure what's going on here. I scuffed as much of the scale off as I could and put it back on. 





I ended up using one of those Dupli-Color paint kits for the caliper painting project. They turned out "good enough". It was in the 90's, and even in direct sun all day, two coats took about 4hrs to get to the point where I could go near them without getting paint everywhere. Definitely far from perfect, and probably a waste of time since I have been pondering doing the big brake mod up front, but it made me happy. 





Why they didn't just do this from the factory, I'll never know. It looks so much better now. 

With all the rotors/calipers reassembled, I followed the bedding procedure again and was greeted with the same results as before: around town they are good once you get some heat into them, but highway speeds mean lots of wheel vibration and shaky stopping. I think I'm going to have to replace everything again soon. Wheels are balanced perfectly, and suspension components all feel tight, so I don't know what else it could be except bad brakes. Really disappointed, but it's less the car's fault and more the manufacturers of brake components that failed here. I'll just have to try something else next time. And next time will likely be sooner than later. 

Hey, at least it looks great! 

How do you like the Goodyear eagle exhilarate tires? Any road noise? Complaints?

In reply to Lsxus :

They have been pretty good. Good grip and good in the rain for an all-season, and they seem to be wearing well so far. They are quieter than the stock Kumho Majesty Solus tires the car came with. I like them. 

I've learned that using same year Veloster Turbo for searches gives you more accurate options. It's like this car doesn't exist. 

markmitchellbro said:

I've been running 91 octane from new, and have not experienced any of the throttle issues you've reported.  I do also clearly notice the lack of boost when the engine is cold, and power dropping off hugely after 5500-6000rpm. 

I put a home made cone filter intake on mine and that was the biggest gain, power not dropping off a cliff at 5500, it kept pulling to the fuel cut. I later bought an aftermarket intake thinking it would be better, but it didn't work as well as just putting a filter on the end of the (fairly large) stock black rubber intake hose. I think I used a 45 degree 3" PVC elbow as an adapter.

I can't say I've felt the power drop above 5500. past 6200-ish yeah, it starts to drop off but not horribly so. But the 22-24 also have a revised turbo so that may be the difference and we have a tiny bit more peak boost. 

bobzilla said:

I've learned that using same year Veloster Turbo for searches gives you more accurate options. It's like this car doesn't exist. 

Wait... they used the same brakes? What years? 

All the aftermarket parts I put on my Forté were for a Veloster. 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

19-21 (they stopped making normal velosters after that). Find them for hte Turbo, not the r-spec IIRC

And yes, they're the same car. I30/Elantra/Forte/Veloster

More brake talk... yeah, I know. 

Things seem to be getting worse, and it feels like the front brakes that are causing most of the problems. All the shaking/pulsation can be felt in the wheel, and the car feels like crap to drive at highway speeds. As much as the "National" upgrade sounds like a cool mod, I think I'm better off sticking with stock sizes until it's out of warranty, just in case. 

I think I'm going to try some Dynamic Friction rotors and pads up front this time around. I'd love to find a better "performance" pad that's carbon metallic, carbon ceramic, or something more aggressive, but it doesn't seem like anyone makes them without spending nearly $200 for a set of pads, and that's dumb. I installed Dynamic Friction pads and rotors on our CX-50, and so far so good after about 6k miles. I was impressed by the overall quality, so hopefully they don't suck for our cars. 

That's unfortunate.  When I had my '17 Elantra Sport, I absolutely roached my stock brakes at a track day at Road America.  I got the Power Stop Z23 pads and (as I recall) Centric rotors (with the black powercoated "hats")--all for very reasonable cost, and kept those until the car was traded.  They were nothing super special, but were at least as good as the stock stuff for daily driving...and never gave me any concerns.

For what feels like the 15th time since I've owned the car, I got back into the brakes again. This time, I ordered Dynamic Friction front pads and front and rear rotors along with new front hardware; I had just replaced the rear pads a couple weeks ago. There was a snafu with the front rotors when RockAuto forgot to ship them, but they got them to me pretty quick after I pointed that out. 



Even after cleaning those pad deposits a couple weeks ago, they are not only back, but somehow worse. You can also see how pitted the rotors are, again with just 9000 miles on them. To say that these Raybestos "high carbon performance" rotors are a disappointment is an understatement. Complete and total junk. 



I went with the Dynamic Friction Geospec coated rotors and their 5000-series ceramic pads. I used these on my wife's CX-50 and they have been pretty good, so I figured I'd give them a try. Right off the bat, the pads and slides were of a higher quality and fit better in the calipers without having to file anything. Everything looked as it should and moved freely. 

Now, let's talk about the rears. 





Again, I just changed these pads two weeks ago, and you can see that something is wrong. This came off the inboard of the passenger side rear. Only the bottom half of the pad was making contact. After digging around, there were two reasons for this. One was the slide, even though it seemed to move freely, had debris in the caliper slide bore. I cleaned that out and re-lubed them again. The other is this:


On the left is the caliper slide hardware that was on the car. On the right is another design that came with the rear pads I bought. The left style is the same as what came on the car, so when I did brakes 9k miles ago, I used those. But, they never felt quite right, especially when I had things apart a couple weeks ago. I tried these "revised" slides and the pads moved much more freely. Not wanting to take any chances, I also filed down the ears a bit, so they shouldn't bind up.

After buttoning everything up, I took it for my usual test loop, this time incorporating a quick ride on the highway to see if the violent shaking went away. And I'm happy to say that the brakes work as they should now. There is still a very slight hint of a wheel shake between 70-80mph, but I'm thinking that could be due to weird tire wear from the rotors throwing things out of balance. Braking from that speed is no longer a white knuckle affair, and the brakes feel great around town as well. We'll see how they hold up over time. Driving the car is much more enjoyable. 

Moral of the story: Always pay attention to fit, make sure to pop those caliper slides out even if they move freely, and don't buy junk parts.