Driving in sand or mud

  • Maintain slow and constant speed. Depress the accelerator pedal slowly to ensure safe driving (wheel-slip prevention).

  • Keep sufficient distance between your vehicle and your Kia in front of you.

  • Reduce speed and always check the road condition.

  • Avoid speeding, rapid acceleration, sudden brake application, and sharp turns to prevent getting stuck.

  • When your Kia is stuck in snow, sand or mud, the tires may not operate. This is to protect the transmission and not a malfunction.

NOTE

Moving your Kia forcibly to get out of mud or sand can cause damages and overheat the engine or damage/breakdown the transmission, differential or AWD systems, as well as damage to the tires. If excessive wheel slip occurs after entering a sandy/muddy road, the vehicle may fall into the sand/mud. If this happens, put a stone or a tree branch under the tire, and then try to pull out the vehicle, or try to get it unstuck by repeatedly moving forwards and backwards.

Transmission overheated

OMQ4033146L1

A: Transmission Hot! Park with engine on

OMQ4033148L1

A: Trans cooled. Resume driving.

  • When driving on extremely muddy and sandy roads, the transmission can overheat.

  • When the transmission overheated, the safe protection mode engages and the “Transmission Hot! Park with engine on" warning message will appear on the LCD display with a chime.

  • Pull over to a safe location, stop your Kia with the engine running, apply the brakes, shift your Kia to P (Park), and allow the transmission to cool.

  • If you ignore this warning, the driving condition may worsen. You may experience abrupt shifts, frequent shifts, or jerkiness. To return to the normal driving condition, stop your Kia by applying the brake, and shift into P (Park). Allow the transmission to cool for a few minutes with engine on, before driving off.

  • When the message "Trans cooled. Resume driving" appears, you can continue to drive your vehicle.

If the warning messages in the LCD display continue to blink, have the system checked by an authorized Kia dealer.

Tire Precautions

Always pay attention to tires for AWD vehicles.

When driving in all-wheel drive, driving force is applied to all tires and the driving performance of your Kia is greatly affected by the degree of tire wear:

  • When replacing tires, be sure to equip all four tires with the same size, type, tread, brand and load-carrying capacity. Do not use tires and wheels with different sizes and types from the one originally installed on your vehicle. It can affect the safety and performance of your vehicle which could lead to steering failure or rollover causing serious injury.

  • Rotate the front and rear tire positions every 6,000 miles (10,000 km).

  • Each tire should be checked monthly when cold and inflated to inflation pressure recommended your Kia on your Kia placard or tire inflation pressure label.

  • For AWD vehicles, install the chains on the driven wheels. However, this may damage the AWD system, so keep the travel distance as short as possible.

Refer to Tire chains.

Towing precautions

Figure 1. AWD vehicle
OMQ4063019
Figure 2. FWD vehicle
OMQ40630190

An AWD vehicle should never be towed with the wheels on the ground. Your vehicle must be towed with a wheel lift and dollies or flatbed equipment with all the wheels off the ground.

Refer to Trailer towing.

CAUTION

The AWD vehicle cannot be towed with sling-type equipment. Use wheel lift or flatbed equipment.

WARNING

Your vehicle is equipped with tires designed to provide safe ride and handling capability. Do not use tires and wheels that are different in size and type from the originally installed ones. It can affect the safety and performance of your vehicle, which could lead to steering failure or rollover and serious injury. When replacing the tires, be sure to equip all four tires with the tire and wheel of the same size, type, tread, brand and load-carrying capacity.

WARNING

Jacked vehicle

While the full-time AWD vehicle is being raised on a jack, never start the engine or cause the tires to rotate.

There is a danger that rotating tires touching the ground could cause your Kia to move the jack and jump forward.

  • Full-time AWD vehicles must be tested on a special four-wheel chassis dynamometer.

    NOTE

    Never engage the parking brake while performing these tests.

  • A full-time AWD vehicle should not be tested on a FWD roll tester. If a FWD roll tester must be used, perform the following:

    OMQ4A043005

[A]: Roll tester

[B]: Temporary free roller

  1. Check the tire pressures recommended for your vehicle.

  2. Place the driven wheels on the roll tester (A) for a speedometer test.

  3. Release the parking brake.

  4. Place the non-driven wheels on the temporary free roller (B).

WARNING

Dynamometer testing

Keep away from the front of your Kia while the vehicle is in gear on the dynamometer. This is very dangerous as the vehicle can jump forward and cause serious injury or death.

CAUTION

  • When lifting up the vehicle, do not operate front and rear wheels separately. All four wheels should be operated.

  • If you need to operate the front wheel and rear wheel when lifting your Kia, you should release the parking brake.