[scanaloni]

Two days ago my wife arrived home in the car and wasn’t able to access our garage, so as we often have (in our two other ICE Kias), she parked up a part of our driveway which has an incline and a slight slope to one side (see photo).

She opened the boot (this is in Australia, so I’m using Aussie talk) using the powered tailgate open (this is an AWD GT-line spec). Got the shopping out. Pressed the button on the tailgate to close it.

Then walked off… and heard the car beeping. She turned around to see the tailgate coming back up. So she walked back and pressed the close button again – and was horrified when the tailgate came down and fouled on the passenger side rear plastic lamp bar assembly, and wouldn’t close.

She called me down from the house and we could see that on this double-angled slope, the tailgate alignment is so far out that on the passenger side, it fouls, and on the driver side there is a huge gap. Is this a chassis flex problem? See photos (below shows the tailgate manually lowered to just where it is about to foul on the LH-rear. It's lowered to the same height in both photos - we didn't move it - and you can see the massive difference in the clearance).

The only way I could fix this was to gently push the tailgate down manually to almost closed, but not touching anything. Then carefully drive the car a few metres along to a flat part of our driveway (with the car warning me the tailgate wasn’t closed!), at which point it closes correctly – albeit with different gaps on each side that the dealer commented on today.

Today the car went into the local dealership for them to look at a different issue with charging settings, and the excellent head mechanic attended to our car (we have about 1500km on the clock now). He wasn’t impressed with the tailgate fit (on the level surface). He looked at this, said he'd test different parking angles and called me later in the day and says there is a body alignment issue – it’s not correct – they can’t fix it and they will have to send a report to Kia. Whether this is torsion in the skateboard-style “chassis” or an issue with how the tailgate itself is secured, I don’t know (and the dealers couldn't provide any insights), but it is quite concerning from an overall build quality point of view.

Now we know not to unload the car from the rear if parked at an inclined angle…

As soon as I hear anything, I’ll report back. Not really sure how they fix it, if it’s a structural design issue

Wondering if anyone else has noticed anything similar?

 

[CalgaryEV6]

We absolutely need more owners to try this. Let's identify if this is a one-off or a ground floor design flaw ASAP.

 

[KiaevCan]

My parking spot isn’t as inclined as yours so I haven’t had an issue. Hopefully it’s a one-off. That is a terrible alignment issue.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

Hopefully just a simple fix.

 

[alexw]

Good lord, that's horrifying!

 

[scanaloni]

Yes, hopefully a one-off, thanks to all for replying. That incline isn't terrible either - our brand new Kia Cerato never had any issues - but either way, it shouldn't happen. I might see if I can make a quick video of it so others can check. And I do hope it's an easy fix...

 

[alexw]

Yes, hopefully a one-off, thanks to all for replying. That incline isn't terrible either

Ugh - I'm now really inclined to go park with one wheel up on the curb to see if I can reproduce it that easily, but I think I'll be devastated if I can, and I don't normally have to park on any twisted surfaces.

 

[tbalotte]

I don't have my EV6 yet but if someone wants to replicate this issue it would be awesome. I would drive the car up onto a brick or something to lift one of the rear wheels and check alignment.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

This is a brutal issue.

 

[Rog M]

Mm I just picked up the same model and colour in Oz. That is a worry. If I get a chance will test it..I haven't had to open on a slope yet. But good to know this could be an issue. Hope for everyone else this is a one off issue. But that would kind of suck if it is just a issue for you. Keep us posted

 

[NobodyInParticular]

Could you describe the slope conditions in more detail? I tried a few different orientations and was unable to see any distortion at all.

 

[scanaloni]

Could you describe the slope conditions in more detail? I tried a few different orientations and was unable to see any distortion at all.

Will do - it's multi-angled, in the sense there are two competing inclines. I'll try for a pic later today when it stops raining.

That part of my driveway certainly is awkward, so it's not as simple as only one wheel on a higher surface. Might have to get video of it to show

I also tried parking with the rear LH wheel up on a kerb while out today, and the tailgate didn't foul, but it was mighty close, and the gaps on each side are markedly different. It doesn't look like it would take much for it to foul. I took a video, can't upload that here, but there's a link to it below. I'll also try some other orientations of kerbs etc. when I get time later today.

Here's the kerb I quickly tried elswhere in the neighbourhood (it's higher than it looks there).

And here's the video:

IMG_5565.MOV

drive.google.com

 

[alexw]

Here's the kerb I quickly tried elswhere in the neighbourhood (it's higher than it looks there).

I guess one important takeaway of this experiment is that, after you parked on flat ground again (or differently-unflat ground), it un-warped, and no longer fouls in the same way?

I think I can probably tolerate settling into skew more than I can tolerate permanently skewing based on where you parked. But that lack of stiffness still feels suspect.

 

[Cnsheets]

Will do - it's multi-angled, in the sense there are two competing inclines. I'll try for a pic later today when it stops raining.

That part of my driveway certainly is awkward, so it's not as simple as only one wheel on a higher surface. Might have to get video of it to show

I also tried parking with the rear LH wheel up on a kerb while out today, and the tailgate didn't foul, but it was mighty close, and the gaps on each side are markedly different. It doesn't look like it would take much for it to foul. I took a video, can't upload that here, but there's a link to it below. I'll also try some other orientations of kerbs etc. when I get time later today.

Here's the kerb I quickly tried elswhere in the neighbourhood (it's higher than it looks there).

View attachment 4521

And here's the video:

IMG_5565.MOV

drive.google.com

When you drove off the curb and back on level ground did the gaps fix themselves? Jealous of those amber lights.

 

[scanaloni]

I guess one important takeaway of this experiment is that, after you parked on flat ground again (or differently-unflat ground), it un-warped, and no longer fouls in the same way?

I think I can probably tolerate settling into skew more than I can tolerate permanently skewing based on where you parked. But that lack of stiffness still feels suspect.

Ah yes, that's an important clarification - this skew isn't permanent, ie I can still open and close the tailgate just fine on other flat or "differently unflat" (love that wording!) ground.

But I certainly want it fixed - just looking at the rear of the car makes me feel sad to see the misalignment (that I guess they would have fixed in the workshop if they could, but the mechanic indicated it was down to body misalignment and not a simple adjustment).

As I said before, I'll try some different angles to see what might make it worse.

Glad to hear others are not having this issue, I'd 100% prefer it to be a one-off.

 

[scanaloni]

When you drove off the curb and back on level ground did the gaps fix themselves? Jealous of those amber lights.

No, those different gaps are permanent, but the LH-side looked much closer when I was parked up. It's a good point, I'll get more detail later. But the different gaps are very significant and quite noticeable on flat ground. When I showed the mechanic yesterday he had a sharp intake of breath and said it wasn't right.

I think it's when some torsion stress applies to either just the sheer mass of the tailgate when on an unusual incline, or to the entire car's aspect, that it fouls (due to the fact that the tailgate isn't correclty centred in the first place. I suppose if it was, we would never notice any issue on different level terrain?).

 

[Cnsheets]

Theres another thread where the glass above the main windshield shattered on a few folks vehicles for no apparent reason. I hope there’s not some type of abnormal flexing going on that caused the glass to shatter and also causing your issue as well.

 

[alexw]

No, those different gaps are permanent, but the LH-side looked much closer when I was parked up. It's a good point, I'll get more detail later. But the different gaps are very significant and quite noticeable on flat ground. When I showed the mechanic yesterday he had a sharp intake of breath and said it wasn't right.

I think it's when some torsion stress applies to either just the sheer mass of the tailgate when on an unusual incline, or to the entire car's aspect, that it fouls (due to the fact that the tailgate isn't correclty centred in the first place. I suppose if it was, we would never notice any issue on different level terrain?).

hmmmmmm even more interesting. So it’s plausible that your torsion/skew-related failure to close is due to already-offset gaps?

 

[scanaloni]

Theres another thread where the glass above the main windshield shattered on a few folks vehicles for no apparent reason. I hope there’s not some type of abnormal flexing going on that caused the glass to shatter and also causing your issue as well.

Yikes! The glass on the main roof in between the windshield and the sunroof? I'll have to hunt down that thread.

I certainly can't say that the car feels anything but rock solid on the roads, and on our really bumpy Australian backroads (they tune the suspension locally which makes a huge difference. The Kias have always had a nice ride)

 

[scanaloni]

hmmmmmm even more interesting. So it’s plausible that your torsion/skew-related failure to close is due to already-offset gaps?

You might be right that there are actually two issues, the "torsion" is only being made obvious on my vehicle due to offset gaps. Though they could both be connected issues with build or design structure.

Having said that, I don't want to cast aspersions by conjecturing, it's not fair to suggest anything major is wrong with the car's design (though I stand by my title that this is a shocking "fail"!) until Kia investigate further.