— A Kia Carnival sliding door recall has closed down a federal investigation into complaints about power sliding doors equipped with defective auto-reverse functions.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened the investigation in April 2022 following complaints about Kia Carnival sliding doors.
The 2022 Kia Carnival sliding door is supposed to stop and automatically reverse the direction of a closing door if it meets resistance from a person or object.
An anti-pinch sensor and the sliding door motor torque system should regulate the activation of the auto-reverse system.
But minivan owners complained about incidents and injuries to shoulders, hands and arms by Carnival power sliding doors.
Kia Carnival occupants also described being trapped against the closing doors while the sliding doors were traveling in the closing direction.
Owners of 2022 Kia Carnivals also claimed it took excessive force to reverse the direction of the closing power sliding doors.
The Kia Carnival Sliding Door Recall
NHTSA knew of 26 Kia Carnival sliding door complaints and 11 alleged injuries when the investigation was opened, but Kia had also received 36 customer complaints about the Carnival sliding doors.
However, the automaker also knew of 21 field reports, five warranty claims and 21 reports of alleged injuries. But Kia told NHTSA only nine injuries were confirmed, with most of the complaints related to arms and fingers.
Kia used it's own engineers along with third-party engineering experts who all believed the injuries were caused not by the sliding doors but by the people involved.
In April 2023, Kia announced a 2022-2023 Carnival sliding door recall of more than 51,000 minivans. Kia dealerships were told to reprogram the Carnival power sliding door control module with software that provides two warning chimes when the sliding door begins to close or open.
This will allegedly alert the Kia Carnival users the door is about to start moving, and the updated software will change the door speed to move more slowly as the door approaches its latching point.
NHTSA has closed its investigation based on the Kia Carnival sliding door recall.