So shortly after purchasing our 2016 Kia Sedona SX in July of 2015, I noticed a noise coming from the right rear. As I am not the regular driver of the vehicle, I picked up on the noise when my wife would have me drive it on weekends when we were running errands. It was extremely annoying for me, particularly because she could not hear it and to me it was like someone was tapping the back of the van with a tiny hammer. So I forgot about the noise every time I would return to my daily drive and get pissed with the noise whenever I was back in the Kia and so nothing was reported to the dealer until I checked into it more.

My dealer's service department is not open on Saturdays so it's a major pain to get the van in to be checked let alone get old changes in there. Just this past Saturday, I had my uncle drive the van while I checked the rear seats, belt buckles and so on to make sure it wasn't something simple before I called the dealer. I knew in my heart and soul that the noise was coming from the suspension because I have 17 years experience working in a garage but there was no harm in checking. The noise is most certainly there, my uncle confirmed it. It's been getting progressively louder since I first thought I heard it back when the van had only about a 1000 km on it. Now it has a little over 12000 km on it and I can reproduce the noise by grabbing the roof rack and rocking the van side to side.

The dealer has been notified now and I have a March 3rd. appointment so hopefully they will track down and repair the issue that day. I'm not an expert but it appears to be the shock. The shock seems to be 'thumping' when it changed direction of travel as indicated when I had my uncle rock the van side to side while I investigated further. Other than that, we have not had any issues so far.

Update from Mar 3, 2016: The van was in for an appointment today to check out this noise as well as an axle problem. The dealer call us back only 2 hours after the van was dropped off to tell us that there was nothing wrong. When I got in there I couldn't reproduce the rear noise because it was simply too loud to here it. The busy streets and loud garage area makes it just about impossible to hear but it is there. The noise is really prevalent on washboard type road surfaces but is only coming from the right side. The dealer is suggesting that I wait until it gets worse. It is very aggravating to listen to when driving on such road conditions.

Update from Mar 25, 2016: An update on my 2016 Sedona SX rear noise problem.

I got the van back from the dealer yesterday after dropping it off the day before and the problem was found but I have to bring it back when a part comes in. The rattling or knocking noise that I said was the right rear shock, turned out to be correct. My description to the dealer was that the shock was making a knocking noise when rapidly changing direction of motion, like on washboard type road surfaces. The second technician discover that the shock was defective on my van as well as other 2016 Sedona vans on their lot. The shock was ordered as it was not deemed a safety issue like the front axle problem. I thanked the technician for his thoroughness and for a job well done. I plan to let the service manager know that the technician deserves credit for a job well done as the first technician could not find, nor did he appear to care about the issue. As he indicated that the noise was normal, he clearly did not know what he was doing. The van currently has 14,600 Km on the odometer.