Kia is recalling 5,787 Sportage and  1,432 Soul models in the UK to check a possible fault with the vehicle’s seat-belt pre-tensioner.

Although Kia is not aware of any injuries resulting from this possible fault, discovered as a result of on-going monitoring of customer vehicles, the company is concerned that some pre-tensioners may not work properly due to a faulty piston within the mechanism.

Kia will contact all affected UK owners and advise them to take their Sportage or Soul model to their nearest dealer for a system check. Any faulty pre-tensioners will be replaced free of charge within one to two hours.

Only vehicles fitted with components from the faulty batch need to be inspected and other Sportage and Soul vehicles are not affected.

The Sportage models were built at Kia’s Zilina, Slovakia factory between October 2011 and November 2012 and the Soul vehicles were built at Kwangju in Korea between August 2011 and March 2012. The fault does not affect the all-new Soul just announced in the UK.

Owners may contact Kia’s dedicated Customer Service Centre on 0800 015 8757 if they have any questions.

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