Hello fellow Kizashians. My 2013 AWD driving better than ever. 60k on DIY transmission over 5 years ago. My daughter just got her license, and we got her in a 2012 AWD since she loved mine. She couldn't be bothered coming and having me check the car. Didn't change the oil even though she was driving it a lot. I got a call she was broken down and I get there, and the car was running but was holding up traffic, so I just rolled it off the road. It never started again. It basically won't crank and when I try to turn the crank it won't budge. The motor is toast. When I drained it was a couple quarts low.
When I replaced my CVT I removed everything from underneath. Was not too hard but it was a 5 year old car. Now here I am needing to replace an engine in a 13 year old car which I already know will be harder than the first one. I am evaluating how I can pull this motor out the top and was hoping that it's been done. I did a Honda CRV out the top and was told it couldn't be done. The car still ran when it was junked 100k miles later. My concern with the Kizashi is will there be enough room to move everything over so I can access the torque converter stuff. I am excited to hear what the consensus is on this. Either way I need to do it just hoping to not need a lift this time. Thanks! Chris
You definitely can just pull the engine out of the top although you must get the engine to turn so you can get all of the torque converter bolts out. The biggest problem for most is getting the converter to slide back and stay with the transmission. The torque converters nose is a little bit longer than it needs to be and gets easily bound up. You really need the torque converter to stay put why during this procedure of removing the engine. I recommend leaving 2 adjacent bell housing bolts in place and backing them out a 1/4 " at a time keeping engine/ transmission gap even and walking back converter . Don't pull those bolts until you have freed converter. When reinstalling make sure torque converter, bolts do not get substituted with any other bolts. They are a special length and the other bolts will damage the converter thus damaging your transmission. There are five silver bolts and one black one you'll want to start with the black one as it has a centering taper on it.
This is great news! And once again Old tech with the never-ending knowledge of this car. I very much appreciate it and will follow your guidance once again on this one. Let me know if you need anything from the old motor. The heads and cams appear to be fine, not sure if that is something people even do on these cars. It's hard to find any engine parts since most motors are sold whole. I couldn't even get valve cover bolts I had to makeshift them for my other Kizzy car. peace
Ready with this little project, finally got a decent motor. old tech, I am realizing the since the motor is seized and won't budge at all, this may impact the job. In my brain it seems the torque converter will have to come out with the engine. I know I have seen this before with Subaru motors but imagine something different here. Any wisdom on the seized engine and CVT guidance is appreciated. I could always take the head off and bang some cylinders around to move it, i hope if I need to.
If you can't get the engine to turn, you will have to drop everything out of the bottom. If you can get the engine to turn, then you can pull just the engine out the top but you must make sure the converter slides back before completely removing the last two bell housing bolts. When these engines are froze up, I find density rod bearings that have spun, causing it to be seized. If I didn't want to remove the transmission for any reason, but just the engine, I would pull the oil pan and loosen rod bolts
