Bad or Burnt Exhaust smell in cabin during hard acceleration.

[Ecobeast]

I have a 2016 Explorer with 5,000 miles on it and I have not noticed one scent of exhaust or fumes in the cabin. No complaints here, in fact, this is the best impression of a new vehicle I have ever had.

 

[peterk9]

I took my complete air box and inlet tube off last night and there was a lot of oil in the inlet tube. I'm very familiar with this as I'm in the Mustang and Lightning community. There is TONS of blowby with these 3.5's just like all the 4.6 Mustangs. This is most of the cause of people smelling burnt oil. Does anyone make a catch can/ oil separator for these?

Have you read the following post? Defective 2011 - 2012 valve cover.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3426713&postcount=67

Peter

 

[peterk9]

Justanothername, thank you for that detailed explanation. It reinforces what I've been saying all along but without the detail. The smell does not linger and rapidly dissipates. This issue has been around since the introduction of the catalytic converter.

Peter

 

[gypsy321]

Justanothername, thank you for that detailed explanation. It reinforces what I've been saying all along but without the detail. The smell does not linger and rapidly dissipates. This issue has been around since the introduction of the catalytic converter.

Peter

Peter ,I think the thread is getting away from the original intent............ THAT IS; nobody wants these fumes inside the passenger cabin............ poison gases and humans don't play well together............. Ford know's this problem exists and has banked on the fact that most people will accept it as normal exhaust fumes.......but "THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO ENTER THE CABIN".......that is the point.

 

[ECinEI]

I have a 2016 Explorer with 5,000 miles on it and I have not noticed one scent of exhaust or fumes in the cabin. No complaints here, in fact, this is the best impression of a new vehicle I have ever had.

May that continue for you. I felt the exact same way about my wife's 2015 Sport up through the first three months and 3,000 miles. Then I went 0-80 mph to merge onto the Interstate and smelled exhaust gases wafting into the cabin. Until then, I was, candidly, somewhat skeptical about these reports. Imagine my surprise.

 

[colson543]

Just an update on my post yesterday, I sent out an email bomb to some representatives at Ford and the legal analyst I have been dealing with and less than 3 hours I got a callback from her. She is submitting my vehicle for a good faith review to see if we can get it resolved without having to go the legal route (such as them offering to buy the vehicle back or replace it with a new one).
I cannot stress it enough for everyone on here to research your states lemon laws. It is a lengthy process, but, hopefully, it works. I will update once I receive word back.
Good luck!!

 

[neme]

Bad or Burnt Smell

So, we have a 2014 Explorer Limited 3.5. Been having the exhaust smell in cabin upon hard acceleration since we purchased. Just assumed it would go away since it was a new vehicle, even though I have read the threads here. The wife scheduled service with our dealer to have regular maintenance and requested that it be checked for the bad odor. Was scheduled for today at 11:30. When my wife arrived she was then told that you have keep air on max to prevent odor, not accepting that stupid comment she told them she would like them to look at it anyways that you shouldn't have to have air on max all the time. Then she was told that she would have to bring it back so they could have it all day, told this after taking a day off of work to go 20 mile to dealer for a scheduled appointment. Not happy with Ford right now, even though we really like the Explorer the odor is so bad we have to roll windows down to get fresh air. So they can blow us off all they want, but we will keep returning to dealer until fixed.

 

[neme]

Lemon Law

So Colson543, just notice your post in reference to Lemon Law in Florida, I do not have any experience with Ford on Lemon Law, however I have filed Lemon Law on a car with GM. I contacted our local rep out of Tampa and explained everything in great detail to him. Although he was under no obligation to help me, this is what we ended up doing. He ask that we file lemon Law and he would intercept the complaint when it came in. That is exactly what he did, he called us upon receiving complaint and had us return vehicle to dealer where there was a check for everything we had in the car, interest, doc stamps, window tint, alarm system,etc. minus mileage. Never went to arbitration. So I hope you have as much luck as we did and hope we do not have to go this route.

 

[patsy1099]

Just an update on my post yesterday, I sent out an email bomb to some representatives at Ford and the legal analyst I have been dealing with and less than 3 hours I got a callback from her. She is submitting my vehicle for a good faith review to see if we can get it resolved without having to go the legal route (such as them offering to buy the vehicle back or replace it with a new one).
I cannot stress it enough for everyone on here to research your states lemon laws. It is a lengthy process, but, hopefully, it works. I will update once I receive word back.
Good luck!!

That's great news and kudos to Ford for stepping up. Please let us know the results. I have used to lemon law before and I guess it depends on your state but my local AG didn't mess around and the dealer buckled fast. One important thing to note is that if the dealer loses, the TITLE for that vehicle is forever marked as a lemon and is basically reduced to "parts".

 

[colson543]

So an Update on the Lemon Law Good Faith Review by Ford:
They have denied my claim to have them replace or buy back the vehicle. So next step is 3rd party arbitration through BBB- Autoline and submitting a claim through them. Wish me luck...

 

[neme]

Wish you the best of luck. Your outcome could affect everyone. I encourage everyone that has concerns with this problem to file a complaint with the NTSB. Maybe this will get Ford's attention, I personally would rather see a fix for the problem than get rid of our Ex, we really like everything else about it.

 

[neme]

OK just got back from driving our loaner 2015 Base EX while ours is in the shop being repaired. For giggles rode around the whole time with AC on recirc., guess what still get the exhaust in the cabin, no surprise to me but yet another Ex with same problem!

 

[Dramboni]

Unfortunately my burnt smell still exists during hard accelerations and with the temperature reaching 110F in the shade there is no way of opening the windows.
I am honestly getting headaches from this smell and need to get this fixed since I no longer can't stand it!
It is such a shame since the car itself is so pretty and roomy inside and I get a lot of compliments.
Even thought I bought it used I spend a lot of money for this vehicle and did not expect anything like this to happen.
Ford should have recalled all Ford Explorer and replaced the exhaust system which I thing might solve this issue.
Whatever it is I need to get this taken care off before my 3 year 36 K warranty expires.

 

[neme]

OK, So got our Ex back after 6 days in shop for exhaust fumes in cabin. According to Ford the fix for the TSB on this is to replace the fresh air intake duct for the rear A/C. The new duct has a filter built into it. That is about all I know, have not looked at the duct yet, but can tell you it reduces the fumes, not completely by no means, my wife still had to roll her window down to ventilate the cabin. So time will tell how this is going to work for us.

 

[Dramboni]

OK, So got our Ex back after 6 days in shop for exhaust fumes in cabin. According to Ford the fix for the TSB on this is to replace the fresh air intake duct for the rear A/C. The new duct has a filter built into it. That is about all I know, have not looked at the duct yet, but can tell you it reduces the fumes, not completely by no means, my wife still had to roll her window down to ventilate the cabin. So time will tell how this is going to work for us.

I experience the same thing.
Taking it back to the dealership tomorrow and hope they can fix this once and for all.

 

[bruinsfan]

OK, So got our Ex back after 6 days in shop for exhaust fumes in cabin. According to Ford the fix for the TSB on this is to replace the fresh air intake duct for the rear A/C. The new duct has a filter built into it. That is about all I know, have not looked at the duct yet, but can tell you it reduces the fumes, not completely by no means, my wife still had to roll her window down to ventilate the cabin. So time will tell how this is going to work for us.

I had the TSB done. The rear ducts you speak of do not have filters. They are originally installed with the "angled" part of the duct facing down. The TSB does include a new design which has the "angle" now facing up, as to not be as directly in the upward draft of possible exhaust from the rear of the vehicle. They will also use a sealant and seal up most gaps and seams that "may or may not" allow exhaust in the cabin.

To be honest, I think Ford has no clue what they are doing with this TSB because it doesn't completely fix the problem. This is a motion the are going through on the advice of counsel; so when the huge class action happens, they can say they tried to fix the problem in good faith and mitigate any punitive damages.

There are too many "let's try this and that" fixes in the TSB.....such as the small plastic inserts for the rear hatch holes/drains, the haphazard application of sealant, new upside down vents, and the reprograming the A/C to start up in recirculation mode. With all that, it's the same old smell, just not as bad.

My fix.... I try to leave the rear A/C off if i can. It never happens when it is off.

 

[Dramboni]

I had the TSB done. The rear ducts you speak of do not have filters. They are originally installed with the "angled" part of the duct facing down. The TSB does include a new design which has the "angle" now facing up, as to not be as directly in the upward draft of possible exhaust from the rear of the vehicle. They will also use a sealant and seal up most gaps and seams that "may or may not" allow exhaust in the cabin.

To be honest, I think Ford has no clue what they are doing with this TSB because it doesn't completely fix the problem. This is a motion the are going through on the advice of counsel; so when the huge class action happens, they can say they tried to fix the problem in good faith and mitigate any punitive damages.

There are too many "let's try this and that" fixes in the TSB.....such as the small plastic inserts for the rear hatch holes/drains, the haphazard application of sealant, new upside down vents, and the reprograming the A/C to start up in recirculation mode. With all that, it's the same old smell, just not as bad.

My fix.... I try to leave the rear A/C off if i can. It never happens when it is off.

Well leaving the A/C off is not an option for me since I travel between Phoenix and El Paso on a regular basis.
With that being said I do need to accelerate every once in a while.
This is a $41,100 vehicle which should not have any issues.
In matter of fact the only other car I ever had an issue with was an 1999 Ford Explorer Sport which were notorious for flipping over.
Ford blamed Firestone tires for it and that was it.
Needless to say it left a bad taste in my mouth but I got real excited with the new 2011 model.
I had no clue about the exhaust issue till after I bought it.
It is such a pretty SUV but the smell is unbearable.

 

[14explorer]

Mine is long gone and I had multiple tsb attempts done. Leaving the rear ac off will do nothing but trap the exhaust in the rear of the cabin. The rear ac just circulates it up front where the driver can smell it. Trust me, sit in the trunk with the ac off and have someone drive you around. I feel sorry for the passengers that have to ride back there.

 

[Dramboni]

Update.
Took the Explorer to the dealership yesterday and service manager confirmed that the smell still exist.
No work was done on the vehicle since they had to call Ford technical department to get an updated TSB.
Will keep you guys posted.

 

[colson543]

Has anyone taken their vehicle in for a software update, in relation to this issue? When I was going through the Florida Lemon Law process, the regional service engineer performed a software update. I am wondering if anyone else has had this performed and what results you have had? Mine has been minimal, at best, as it still seems to have a smell inside.