I love, love, love dual power-sliding doors on minivans. With the push of a button on the headliner, door post, or key fob, they make a departure or an arrival an event to behold. They also provide a mini Apocalyse Now fantasy. You know the scene: Flying a Huey through the jungle with Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" blasting through the outboard speakers? Anyway, the 2006 Kia Sedona has those (not the speakers), but more: Power side doors, power-tilt/slide moonroof (natch), and power up-down lift gate, too. Cool eh? I discovered a problem, however.
Parked in my driveway, neither side door would fully open nor close when using the cool, powered feature. With what appears to be a mere 5-degree incline, the Sedona's side doors would slide almost the whole distance open, then beep in protest and stop short of being fully open, as if there was something stopping their progress. In the other direction, I assumed the slope would help them close more easily, but no. With the same beeping protest, the front edge would tuck in and the rear would attempt to latch with a "click, buzz, and clunk," and again, the same alert that the door hadn't made the whole trip.
To be certain the doors weren't malfunctioning in general, I tried both on level ground and they worked flawlessly. Did the Sedona always have this trouble with inclines? Could the electric motors have grown tired? Dunno, but it does seem like an oversight that a minivan's power-sliding doors can't cope with a 5-degree slope.
Chris Walton, Chief Road Test Editor @ 25,402 miles
ahightower says:
09:27 AM, 06/11/07
Looks like a bit more than five degrees, in that photo. (You should measure it with the inclinometer in the FJ Cruiser... See, it is useful after all!) But still, that's a helpful observation.
Maybe it's not so much the motors being underpowered or stressed, but the weight of the door from on the incline makes it think it's being pushed on by a person, so it refuses to go all the way to protect from some sort of damage. The only power sliding door minivan I've seen up close was a Honda, and the door kind of freaked out and stopped moving when I started tugging on it after the driver had already hit the power-open button.
greenpony says:
09:48 AM, 06/11/07
Likening a modest minivan to a flying war machine... I love the smell of napalm in the morning!
thehothit says:
09:58 AM, 06/11/07
This seems to be a common problem with the Sedona and Entourage. There is quite a long thread about it at another Entourage forum (on which I've made several posts about this subject).
My dealer can't "replicate the problem", but when I park my Sedona in my driveway facing down the slope (as in the picture above), the passenger side power sliding door has usually problems closing (Kia/Hyundai call it "cinching"). The door will close all of the way and then the motor will grind and the door will then just pop open and hang there - the van will also emit some warning beeps.
I've found that by gently lifting the door handle while it is sliding until it has finished closing , it'll close properly - can you try this and post your result?
I have a feeling that this is an alignment or body flexing problem. This is a major safety problem and both Kia and Hyundai need to be made aware of it. The owner's manual states that this could happen at 30% or more inclines, but my driveway is approx 10%.
cwalton1 says:
11:05 AM, 06/11/07
I calculated the incline of my driveway in degrees by tilting the photo until the two right wheels' center caps were more or less in line with one another. According to the photo editor I used, that was 5-degrees.
Now, after a quick consultation with our very own Dan Edmunds, an engineer to the core and coincidentally a former Hyundai employee, he showed me how to convert degrees of incline into percent grade. It appears that a 45-degree incline is a 100-percent grade, but it's more complex than portioning out 45-degrees in 100 pieces and guesstimating based on those "units."
Doing this calculation properly involves 10th-grade geometry and something about "opposite and adjacent, blah, blah, blah." Ugh, it's been too long since I've thought in those terms.
Okay, to find the percentage grade, calculate the tangent of the measured degree and multiply by 100. In my case, the tangent of 5-degrees is 0.0874, and multiplying by 100 makes that an 8.7-percent grade, or still below what the owner's manual indicates as an incline apt to produce problems.
Next time I have the Sedona home, I'll try lifting the handle while the door closes, but doesn't that defeat the whole purpose of an automatic sliding door? I solved it by shutting off the power and muscling the door myself -- which provides it's own sort of door-slamming satisfaction.
C.W.
thehothit says:
11:50 AM, 06/11/07
In response to Chris' post: I agree, lifting the door handle does defeat the purpose of the power sliding door. In fact, I try not to use that door on any slope whatsoever! I'm fed up with the "Let's see if the door closes after the 100th attempt" game. It'll even fail to close in a flat & level parking lot occasionally - very frustrating! I usually end up having to turn the power off and slide the door myself.
It's such a lovely vehicle, but it's let down by this horrible problem! Do you nice people at Edmunds have any contacts at Kia that you could have a word with about this...??? :)
gnujoe says:
11:58 PM, 06/11/07
Basic trig reminder:
"Some old horse"
[Sine] - [O]pposite - [H]ypotenuse
"Came a' hopping"
[Cos] - [A]djacent - [H]ypotenuse
"Thru our Alley"
[Tan] - [O]pposite - [A]djacent
jkavanagh says:
01:31 PM, 06/12/07
In the politically incorrect days of my youth, I was taught to remember that handy trig shortcut as "Chief SOH CAH TOA".
Do teachers still refer to it in this way? I'd be stunned if they did.
cwalton1 says:
11:38 AM, 06/13/07
I learned it another way (in the '70s):
"Some
Old
Hippies
Can
Access
Hallucinogenic
Teleportation
On
Acid"
But that was a very different time, indeed.
karbuff says:
09:47 AM, 06/16/07
I have a Claret Red Sedona, just like Edmunds. The only time my power doors don't open all the way is when the windows are rolled down. Seemes like a safety feature to prevent injury if fido's sticking his head out the window when someone opens the door. I rolled up the window all the way, and it worked fine, incline or not, for now anyway.
fixthebox says:
07:08 AM, 06/27/07
I have the same issues with my Hyundai Entourage.
The manufacture replaced the first vehicle after 6 attempts to correct the problem (I was at about 11000mi).
Now I noticed the new Entourage is having the same issue...You should all complain to the manufacture (not the dealer) and demand a new car.
I will not get another minivan from Hyundai...maybe an SUV.
thehothit says:
11:57 AM, 07/ 5/07
After a 4 day, 1000 mile round trip from Central NJ to the Blue Ridge Mountains, I must say that the Sedona performed wonderfully, apart from the passenger side Power Sliding Door. It didn't want to close properly approx. 90% of the time. I had to lift the door handle (basically lift the door) while it was closing to get it to close. Sometimes that wouldn't work and I'd have to turn off the power and slide it by hand!
I'm seriously thinking about filing a lemon law claim regarding this problem - it's dangerous!
On a happier note, the Sedona averaged approx. 26MPG on the main legs of the trip. 20 MPG on the Blue Ridge Parkway (I reset the trip computer before going on the parkway) - nice!
dweezer says:
05:26 PM, 10/24/07
I am also having trouble with my doors staying shut on the Sedona. After closing them they wil pop back open. Has anyone figure out how to fix the problem, or a dealer that has fixed the problem?
carfan19 says:
01:28 PM, 02/20/08
I have the 2006 EX Sedona and the only time I had problems with the passenger side door popping back open, was during those really hot days during the summer here in Chicago. I think what's happening is that the weatherstriping around the door is really expanding and swelling under the hot sun. Other than that, never had a problem with them.