possible cause of exhaust in cabin, possible repair.
My 2015 has had the burnt oil/sulfer /exhaust smell inside the cabin since I bought the vehicle in August 2014 brand new.
I've been able to determine that the smell in strongest when the rear a.c. system or the seat a.c. system is on. When only the front a.c. is on, the odor is very minimal and very rare.
I have had the TSB done on the vehicle which basically included sealing up an a.c. intake vent that is located in the rear panel of the vehicle, near the exhaust, and sealing seams along the rear bottom of the car. They also checked some plugs that were in the tail gate. Nothing has worked. Under hard acceleration, the odor can be smelled blowing directly through the rear a.c. vent.
I stumbled across an old Edumnds.com forum dealing with the same issue in the '03 Toyota 4 Runner, and one of the owners determined it was caused by a low pressure area directly behind the vehicle (possibly due to, or accelerated by a rear spoiler on the back of the 4 Runner... similar to the one on the Explorer). The low pressure area behind the vehicle allowed the exhaust fumes to be pulled under the vehicle and drawn in through an a.c. intake vent located near the rear of the SUV.....Sound Familiar?
The Toyota owner determined that there were only two options, move the rear a.c. intate (not practical), or stop the exhaust from accumulating under the car.
One way to stop the exhaust from accumulating under the car is to direct it to the side of the vehicle, into the slip stream, where it will be blown far behind the vehicle, which prevents it from accumulating under the vehicle or near the tail gate where it can be sucked into the a.c. intake vent.
I did an experiment and tried to redirect the exhaust to the side of my Ford Explorer by inserting a tail pipe extender that had a slight curve to it. I found it at Auto Zone. It's about 10" long and the diameter is 2.5 inches. It fits right into the chrome tail pipe and over the smaller actual tail pipe. I was able to go through the weep hole in the chrome tail pipe cover and attach the extension with a screw so that it is safely attached and can't fall out causing damage to vehicles behind me. The end result is about an additional 4" of tail pipe with a slight downward and outward turn towards the outboard side of the vehicle, on each side.
I took a passenger with me that is very sensitive to smell and did a number of hard accelerations with the rear/auxiliary a.c. and the front a.c. fan and cooling set the coldest and highest setting(for the fan), and we never detected any exhaust smell.
I'm going to keep testing for the next couple of days, and, if this is indeed the solution, I'm going to my Ford Dealer and tell them that they need to correct the issue by changing the rear exhaust tips so they point down and to the outside of the vehicle instead of blowing exhaust out directly behind the vehicle and into the low pressure zone where it is then sucked into the a.c. intake vents.
I'm not advocating that anyone else try this, but if you do, please make sure the extension is securely fastened so there is no chance it can come off and hurt someone following you.
It would seem that the real solution is for Ford to move the a.c. intake vent closer to the front of the vehicle, and change the exhaust so to goes out the side of the vehicle, but since this will probably not happen for a while, the above solution might just work.
In the meantime, I encourage everyone with an Explorer that is having this issue to go to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration site at
http://www.nhtsa.gov/ and file a complaint. I did last night. Don't worry, you don't have to enter your VIN number, so it shouldn't have any impact on value when you decide to trade the vehicle.
It's interesting that on the NHTSA site, the issue with the exhaust inside the passenger cabin appears to be the number one complaint from Ford Explorer Owners.
Ford needs to address this problem now. Daily exposure to even low levels of exhaust fumes in the passenger cabin of the vehicle may have a cumulative effect over time, and I suspect it could be very dangerous to one's health.
UPDATE: spoke with the dealership today and was told altering the exhaust in anyway would void the warranty. My dealership won't modify the exhaust to have it vent to the side of the vehicle. Back to being at the mercy of FORD to repair this mess or going through Lemon Law.
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