Kia Carnival, model years 2022 to 2023. Filed by Kia America, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 17 March 2023. 3,555 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Kia America, Inc. (Kia) is recalling certain 2022-2023 Carnival vehicles equipped with a tow hitch harness installed as original equipment, or purchased as an accessory through a Kia dealership. Water accumulation on the tow hitch harness module printed circuit board (PCB) may cause an electrical short, which can …
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Kia's own number for this recall: SC265. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 23V179 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 23V179 cover?
- Kia Carnival, model years 2022-2023.
- What is wrong with them?
- Kia America, Inc. (Kia) is recalling certain 2022-2023 Carnival vehicles equipped with a tow hitch harness installed as original equipment, or purchased as an accessory through a Kia dealership.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- A fire while parked or driving can increase the risk of injury.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Owners are advised to park their vehicles outside and away from structures until the remedy is completed. Dealers will inspect and verify whether the vehicle is equipped with a Genuine Kia accessory trailer tow hitch assembly. If equipped, dealers will install a new fuse and wire extension kit.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Kia calls this recall SC265, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “A fire while parked or driving can increase the risk of injury.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 23V179 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Kia America, Inc. |
| System at fault | Trailer Hitches |
| Reported to NHTSA | 17 March 2023 |
| Model years | 2022-2023 |
| Vehicles named | KIA CARNIVAL |
This is not an ordinary campaign.
- Owners are told to park it outside, away from buildings: the wording used when a vehicle can catch fire while switched off and unattended.
What the notice says today
The consequence
A fire while parked or driving can increase the risk of injury.
The remedy
Owners are advised to park their vehicles outside and away from structures until the remedy is completed. Dealers will inspect and verify whether the vehicle is equipped with a Genuine Kia accessory trailer tow hitch assembly. If equipped, dealers will install a new fuse and wire extension kit. Repairs will be performed free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed May 16, 2023. Owners may contact Kia customer service at 1-800-333-4542. Kia's number for this recall is SC265.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 142 notices in the record whose component field names trailer hitches. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 32 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 23V179, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/23v179/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
Other Kia notices we hold
- 26V545: 2025-2026 EV9
- 26V431: 2022-2024 EV6 and 2024 EV9
- 26V430: 2020-2024 Telluride
- 26V356: 2027 Telluride and Telluride Hybrid
- 26V232: 2022-2026 Carnival
- 26V173: 2027 Telluride Hybrid SX Prestige and X-Line SX Prestige
- 26V135: 2027 Kia Telluride and 2026 Kia K4
- 26V105: 2025 Telluride
All 164 Kia campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 23V179 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
f4527047 - Consequence
44301f6e - Remedy
669c206d
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 23V179 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Kia Carnival, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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