Strange hatch opening false start or misfire

[Doc]

When the first thing after leaving the car unlocked for 12+ hours is to press the hatch open button on the hatch door, it starts to beep, the lights will flash, the hatch will start to move just a bit, and then it shuts down and closes the hatch.

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I wondered if anyone else has experienced this or has an explanation? No one at KIA can, just a lot of head scratching and "that's a strange one". After a lot of testing I can be quite prescriptive. It only happens;

• when trying to open the hatch using the button on the hatch, and
• only after the car has been left unlocked for 12 hours minimum (my car is in a locked garage at night so used to leave the car unlocked), and
• only if that is the first thing you do with the car after that 12+ hour time period.

It doesn't happen when;

• using any of the other hatch opening methods - button on the dash or key, or the auto open function (standing behind the car when locked)
• have accessed the car in some way - opened a door, unlocking, driven...

After that, it works fine. Only on that first button press. Not a big issue, not even a little issue, but curious.

Maybe it's a security feature to encourage you to always lock your car even if the car is locked away!

 

[Ucinn]

When the first thing after leaving the car unlocked for 12+ hours is to press the hatch open button on the hatch door, it starts to beep, the lights will flash, the hatch will start to move just a bit, and then it shuts down and closes the hatch.

.
I wondered if anyone else has experienced this or has an explanation? No one at KIA can, just a lot of head scratching and "that's a strange one". After a lot of testing I can be quite prescriptive. It only happens;

• when trying to open the hatch using the button on the hatch, and
• only after the car has been left unlocked for 12 hours minimum (my car is in a locked garage at night so used to leave the car unlocked), and
• only if that is the first thing you do with the car after that 12+ hour time period.

It doesn't happen when;

• using any of the other hatch opening methods - button on the dash or key, or the auto open function (standing behind the car when locked)
• have accessed the car in some way - opened a door, unlocking, driven...

After that, it works fine. Only on that first button press. Not a big issue, not even a little issue, but curious.

Maybe it's a security feature to encourage you to always lock your car even if the car is locked away!

Had that happen on my Sorento. It was the rear struts for the liftgate had weekened enough to cause it not to open sometimes. They replaced the struts a couple months ago and it hasn't happened since then.

 

[Kazz]

I believe there's a safety feature that monitors how difficult it is to lift. If it hits a threshold, it closes again. I believe it is adjustable. Talk with your dealer's Stinger-trained tech!

 

[Never thought]

I have that happen all the time

 

[DrGCS3]

I’ve had this happen. I haven’t investigated as thorough as you but you’re exactly right. Car sat unlocked for a good amount of time and when I walk straight to hatch it does the same thing. I always thought I pushed the button on the hatch to hard or maybe double pushed it. It opens no problem on the second try. There isn’t anything blocking the hatch and it doesn’t seem to struggle on the second go around. Now I’m gonna try it tomorrow to see if it’s reproducible for me too.

 

[Matt77]

I have the exact same issue. I'm thinking the same as Kazz in regards to safety threshold. Maybe the little rubber feet get sticky and cause it to require a little extra force??? It is annoying though!

 

[JasonC3962]

I've experienced this on my car a dozen times or so, figured I hit the button twice.

 

[DiabloStinger]

I 100% believe it is the two plastic latches dragging on each other after it has settled for a good bit. I've watched this happen also after I fixed the hatch rattle. Looks like it tries to begin to open only to hit a threshold, and then close again. I would also bet it would happen less often on a car that has not modified the latch for the rattle fix. What I did to mine was put two layers of rubber mat behind them, pushing them closer to one another at rest. I'm sure this is the cause of mine when it happens. Probably not a huge deal.

 

[Doc]

Thanks for your feedback everyone. It's good to hear that I'm not the only one seeing this. Maybe I'm not so crazy after all!

The data doesn't support it being something mechanical such as something sticking, getting caught or some sort of critical level of resistance. Otherwise it would also happen when using the dash button, or the key button, or after unlocking the car, etc when opening the hatch after that critical 12 hour period. But it is restricted to the combination of car unlocked, left for 12 hours minimum and pressing the button on the hatch. I should also add it is not 100% of the time if all the boxes are ticked. It is 0% if they are not all ticked, and about 60 - 70% (2 out of 3) when they are.

I'm in research and tend to turn everything into a designed experiment - sad, I know. When you can only collect one data point per day at best, you can imagine how long it takes to work through all the permutations.

My personal belief is the car's control system sort of slumbers when left unlocked and is jolted awake in a confused state when the hatch button is pressed and the logic jumps from an opening sequence to a closing sequence. Any other access of the car wakes the system up and it then runs through the opening sequence normally. That may be all rubbish but I think it has to be software related rather than hardware.

As I said in my original post, it's not a big issue. I now lock the car and/or open the hatch with the key after 12+ hours. Alternatively, I have to push the button twice every now and then. It's hardly going to wreck your day. But I am curious...

 

[ZaphodBx]

Interesting research - thanks! I've been having the same problem, but only really knew that it seemed to be sometimes first thing in the morning. It'll be interesting to see if anyone who takes it in gets any sort of fix done.

 

[Razet]

It is exactly how doc says it is. It only happens when you push the button on the tailgate so agree it isn't a mechanically related issue. It would be interesting to try it with the key behind the tailgate/key nowhere around/key inside the car to test the hypothesis that it's about "surprising" the car with a trigger on the latch before it has recognised that it needs to wake up for the day! Now riddle me this. The other day I dropped my daughters off at school and after they pulled their bags out of the boot they closed the liftgate and it bounced and reopened. In the end I had to go and manually lower it and it would not latch even though it was all the way down. The cluster showed the tailgate ajar indicator and it would beep at me every time I started rolling after being stopped. All signs pointed to it thinking it hadn't lowered enough thereby not initiating the latch function. With the tailgate open if I manually operated the latch tang it would not stay in the locked position, again reinforcing the argument that if it thinks the gate isn't down it wont latch. The next day I drop my kids off again, leave the motor running in Park, manually lower the gate and after I get into the drivers seat I hear the familiar sound of the latch locking. I drive off and it keeps working. Then I stop, open it and manually manipulate the latch tang. It latches in the closed position. I had to push the unlock botton on the key fob once to unlock the tang and then again to lower the gate. So this invalidates the logic that the gate didn't lock because it thought it wasn't down far enough. It happily locks the latch even when the gate is fully open. One more thing. I was parked next to a proximity key activated boom gate when it stopped working and when it started again.

 

[SilverNitr8]

Same here, only happens when the car sat overnight. It's a mild annoyance, but hasn't bothered me yet even after owning the car more than a year lol