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Today on this 2013 Kia Optima, we'll be installing the Curt Hitch Part Number C11025. This is what our hitch to look like once it's installed. Next, we'll go ahead and give you a couple measurements to assist you in selecting accessories for your new hitch. From the center of the hitch pinhole to the outermost edge of the bumper is 4-1/4 inches. From the top of the inside of the receiver tube opening to the ground is 10 inches. This will assist you in selecting accessories such as a bike rack or cargo carrier.
Now let's go ahead with the installation. First before we can install the hitch, we'll need to lower the exhaust. There are three rubber isolators holding the exhaust up in position. They're located just in front of the rear axle and one at each tail pipe. We'll put a safety strap underneath, so that we can safely lower the exhaust then we can remove the three fasteners securing the rubber isolators.
Next, we'll go ahead and use a safety strap to lower the exhaust to gain access to the heat shields above the muffler. We'll need to remove both heat shields which have four fasteners each. Now, with the fasteners removed, we'll pull the heat shields out and set them aside. Next, you can see the rubber pads covering up the attachment points on each frame rail. They'll be two per side for a total of four.
We'll go ahead and remove this, exposing the holes in the frame. Now, we can go ahead and point out the attachment points. This will be the same on the passenger side. Next, as you can see the hardware is too large to fit through the access hole in the frame and there's no rear opening at the end of the frame channel to gain access to get a hardware into the frame, so we'll need to enlarge in the forward attachment point. To do this, you can use a rotary tool or file and in this case, we're going to use a drill with a round file bit.
Now, with the hole large enough, we'll go ahead and test fit our block and carriage bolt to make sure it'll fit into the access hole. Now, let's review our hardware. For each attachment point, we'll have a half-inch carriage bolt and block that'll get pulled into position with the pull wire provided with our install kit and then we'll secure it with a half-inch flange nut. To get our hardware into the frame, we'll feed the pull wire through the rear attachment point and out the forward access hole then we'll slide on our block right on the carriage bolt. Slip the block into the frame followed by the carriage bolt and pull them into position then we'll remove the pull wire and use the same pull wire and of reverse pull method to install the forward attachment point. To do this, we'll slide the block on to the pull wire and thread it on the carriage bolt. We'll feed the carriage bolt into the frame first followed by the block and then pull them back into position. Once you have the forward attachment point hardware into position, we'll go ahead and leave the pull wire on as we have a second one to use on the passenger side. Keep in mind each process we do here on the driver side, we get to repeat identically on the passenger's side. Now, with the hardware in place, it's a good idea to get an extra set of hands to help you hold the hitch while you install the fasteners. We'll put our hitch up into position using the pull wire through the forward attachment point and lining up the rear hardware and installing the flange nut then we'll remove the pull wire and install the forward flange nut. Now, with all the hardware in place, we can go ahead and tighten it down. Next, we'll torque the specifications as indicated in the instructions.We'll need to reinstall the heat shields. We'll go ahead and put the heat shield into position and notice the inner attachment point is slightly off to compensate for the hitch, so we'll need to notch out the heat shield so that we can re-install the fastener. Noting that the rear fastener for the heat shield will not get re-installed as it goes through the hitch. Now, with our hole notched out, we can go ahead and install the heat shield with the three attachment points. Now, with the heat shield back in place, we can go ahead and re-install the exhaust. We'll remove our safety strap and this will complete the install of our Curt Hitch Part Number C11025 on our 2013 Kia Optima.
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