During a 12% hill climb, a 'thumping' noise could be heard. We pulled off the road to inspect the car and caravan but no sign of an issue. The noise seemed to be worse when climbing the hill. The more throttle applied, the stronger the sound. After a few miles, as we arrived at the site, the sound had gone. The drive home, with no caravan, was approx 100 miles and no thumping noise or vibration was evident.
We have a dash cam and captured the start of the noise. The road surface appeared good, but it felt like the thumping was the same are when driving over rumble strips.
Experienced something very similar with ours but it hasn't gone away. Much less pronounced when not towing though. Started my own thread as I didn't want to hijack yours but I suspect I'll be booking ours in soon to be looked at.
I noticed there's a thread a bit further down that sounds pretty much like what I've been experiencing but didn't want to hijack it: https://www.kiaownersclub.co.uk/threads/thumping-sound-for-a-few-miles-whilst-towing.56472/ So just back from our first outing for our new to us Sorento with our...
Thank you for the pointer. As CV19 restriictions continued, I have not yet arranged the car's service. I have though spoken with my works motor transport department and they feel the noise was from the caravan not the car. I've ordered new hitch pads, I understand worn pads can create noises.
Could be your problem, but I changed ours late last year and our hitch makes a different set of identifiable noises to this one. It's really tight on the tow ball with the new ones, after I'd taken or hitch lock off in the motorway services I was bouncing up and down on the handle for a while to get it close again, also we we arrived in Cornwall it took a bit of coaxing to get it off the car, guess the initial tight fit plus a bit more expansion from heating / friction didn't help
Easy job by the way, I changed both the side pads and the front/rear ones in ours, took all of about 15 minutes to do.
Something else you should take into account is the hitch shock absorber. If it hasn't been greased for a while, or has failed, it can make a banking noise. Push the hitch in towards the caravan, if it goes in without some resistance it's will be okay. It's unlikely but worth checking.
Are the tyres at the correct pressures? Did you increase rear tyre pressures to compensate for the nose load from the van? What pressures did you have?
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Kia Owners Club Forum
495.2K posts
73.6K members
Since 2006
A forum community dedicated to Kia owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, modifications, troubleshooting, maintenance, and more!