Bad or Burnt Exhaust smell in cabin during hard acceleration.

[scarpi]

Well so far my new 15 built in March of 15 just before they started to build the 16s has no odor when accelerating. I've had it on the freeway going about 75 or so and no exhaust smell at all. I'm at about 1200 miles now. Hopefully it will continue to be odor free. I hope all of you get your problem resolved soon.

 

[Ecobeast]

I have 5,300 miles on my '16 Sport and I have only once noticed a slight hint of the (sulfur/egg) smell, but it may have been the outside air because I noticed it again in the same spot when I drove by later, but not accelerating hard. I then tried to duplicate it by a couple WOT runs and I could not. I am going to be monitoring this thread, however, because I have heard the smell sometimes comes on later in the vehicles life.

I truly do hope that Ford resolves this issue somehow for you good folk I semi-interact with weekly.

 

[613GT500]

^ Can this smell be related to the PTU leaking issues?

 

[JerryC]

Does the smell linger or quickly disappear? I had the same thing happen in my Lincoln but the smell was gone in less than a minute. I've experienced the same with other brands of vehicles. I've also had it come in from other vehicles that accelerated quickly. The cabin is not air tight. Also, different brands of gasoline contain different levels of sulphur. It isn't regulated.

Peter

Just got back from a long trip...

Without flushing the cabin by opening the windows it takes a long time to clear. Essentially it clears when the people in the cabin have absorbed the chemicals plus what ever the cabin air turnover flushes out.

In a case with four people in the Ex it took about 10 minutes. That's long time putting up with the stink.

In one case we noticed it strongly after we pulled in the driveway and stepped out the EX. The interesting thing about that was that was no recent hard running of the engine. It was definitely centered on the EX and not coming from another source.

FWIW, no other vehicle I have owned has done this. I know my 2011 mustang had the cat converter protect built into the ECU programming but it did not have this stink. My 2015 Wrangler doesn't do this either. Until the Wrangler I had only owned Fords since 1979.

 

[ECinEI]

Thanks for confirming.
This is going to be my first domestic, first Ford and the list of issues are adding up (corrosion on the hood, foul odor during hard acceleration, noise from the front cowl, dash alignment issues with the doors, memory seating not communicating properly with the keyfob, brake seizing issues...what else?)

I don't expect perfection by any means, but for a 50K vehicle...ouch :thumbdwn:

My wife came out of an '07 RX 350 and had a '01 RX300 prior to that before getting her '15 Sport. If I had to do this again we probably would have gotten an RX350 F Sport. Not nearly the power, but when you use the power in her Sport you get to smell exhaust. Just saying...

The Lexus may look weird but, in our experience, it would likely be better sorted out.

 

[peterk9]

I bought a used 2012 Explorer XLT at the end of Feb. 2015. I haven't had it long, and I have only put 3,000 miles on it so far since then, for a total of about 51,000 miles. I smelled the sulfur/egg crap after passing someone a week or two ago. I had just been to the dealership where I bought the car to have an oil change and a few recalls taken care of. After I got the car back, I realized they had only looked at one recall (door handle springs), but never did the steering related recall.

So after the oil change, I smell the sulfur in my truck. WTF? Then last night, my battery is dead, just out of the blue. I jump start it, drive to a friends, then when I turned it off, I got the warning on the screen about power being low and to take out the key or start the truck. WTF is going on here? I just drove it over 10 miles and it didn't charge at all? I knew I was stuck there for a few hours so I tried to enjoy myself, knowing full well my battery would be dead again when I walked up to the parking lot to leave. I leave, and of course, it's dead. So my friend jump starts it, I look at the dash, and there's now a service engine soon light on. I'm shaking my head. It just keeps getting worse.

So I took it back to the dealer where I bought it again today, told them about them not looking at the steering related recall when I was just there, told them about the egg smell after acceleration/passing, and lastly the battery/charging issue.

Now they just called and said it has to stay there till Monday, because they called Ford techs, and there's nobody there on Saturdays.

I really thought I got a fair deal on this truck, because it was a company lease before I bought it, and it does look pretty new, and I thought it was probably well taken care of considering it was a company car/lease. It really didn't look beat-on or neglected. But now I'm just like, wow.....maybe this was too good to be true.

Welcome to the Forum.:wavey:
Not sure why your battery suddenly died. I used to get that low battery indication a couple of times a month because I wasn't driving the vehicle enough. Just trickle charged it overnight and it was good to go until the next time. If it is the original battery then it might be time to change it. There are a few threads on here about battery issues. As for the steering recall, do you know if the dealer service people actually checked for and saw any codes that were stored? If the previous recall 14S06 was performed on your XLT then the extended warranty should cover any repairs. What isn't clear in reading the supplementary bulletin is whether or not you have to have a failure in order to have the warranty repair done.
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3437006&postcount=127
As for the sulphur smell, it is not uncommon to experience this after a sudden and hard acceleration but the smell should dissipate quickly.

Peter

 

[wilkersm]

And to everyone on this forum; please register your complaint on the NHTSA site. All these forum posts help, but we need more official documentation for something, if anything, to happen. Right now I only see 38 total complaints listed on this site. Which Could suggest that this is not a serious issue; which I know is NOT the case.

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/VehicleComplaint/

Well, had the TSB done yesterday, 10/9/15, the service team told me that the TSB has recently been updated to include someextra part, I didn't catch what, some sort of vent tube? Anyway, as soon as I left the dealership I punched it, TWO as some say. Well, the smell was there, not as bad as before I don't believe, but it could also have been the new undercoating that was applied, so I am going to give it a few days.

Question to the forum, has anyone tried to get the smell while not driving the truck? I had my 2015 in the garage (door open), last night and literally floored it; NO SMELL????

 

[segen77]

My wife has a 14 sport and I was driving it last night. there's about 12k miles on it, and she has never had any issue. I got on it real hard last night and we had a bad burnt oil smell for about 3-5 minutes. Obviously, I was pushing the engine too hard, but I didn't expect the issue. I saw that there was a TSB mentioned. Can someone point me to what page this is on so I can reference it?

 

[peterk9]

My wife has a 14 sport and I was driving it last night. there's about 12k miles on it, and she has never had any issue. I got on it real hard last night and we had a bad burnt oil smell for about 3-5 minutes. Obviously, I was pushing the engine too hard, but I didn't expect the issue. I saw that there was a TSB mentioned. Can someone point me to what page this is on so I can reference it?

Not sure if this is the one or not;
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3412661&postcount=1572

I found it by going to page 1 of the thread and then clicking on 'Search this thread' and used TSB as the search criteria. There are many posts that come up with TSB in them so I just scrolled through them to find what looked like it may be helpful. Anyone else is going to have to do the same thing.

Peter

 

[F150EB]

Well, had the TSB done yesterday, 10/9/15, the service team told me that the TSB has recently been updated to include someextra part, I didn't catch what, some sort of vent tube? Anyway, as soon as I left the dealership I punched it, TWO as some say. Well, the smell was there, not as bad as before I don't believe, but it could also have been the new undercoating that was applied, so I am going to give it a few days.

Question to the forum, has anyone tried to get the smell while not driving the truck? I had my 2015 in the garage (door open), last night and literally floored it; NO SMELL????

It doesn't do it unless your driving.

 

[ECinEI]

Not sure if this is the one or not;
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3412661&postcount=1572

I found it by going to page 1 of the thread and then clicking on 'Search this thread' and used TSB as the search criteria. There are many posts that come up with TSB in them so I just scrolled through them to find what looked like it may be helpful. Anyone else is going to have to do the same thing.

Peter

I've got the link below listed in my bookmarks and it gives a bit more information on this TSB.

http://oemdtc.com/12573/exhaust-odor-in-the-vehicle-2011-2015-ford-explorer

My wife's '15 Sport has the same issue, only on hard acceleration. In typical, day to day driving, you would never know this was an issue. I have a case number filed with the regional Ford rep that was arranged by one of Ford reps on this site.

Her car has just under 7,000 miles and I plan on asking our dealer when we take it in for the first oil change the following:

1. Have you heard of this issue? (My guess is the answer will be no or "they all do it".)

2. Have you ever performed this TSB on one of your customers cars? This TSB requires what appears to be a surprising amount of disassembly.

3. Was the TSB procedure successful? In that the customer no longer complains of exhaust smell entering the cabin under hard acceleration.

One of the main things holding me back on pursuing this is I don't read many, if any, posts saying that this TSB actually corrected the issue in full. If I'm missing anything here I'd be happy to be directed to posts or forum members stating that applying this TSB corrected the issue.

 

[wilkersm]

It doesn't do it unless your driving.

My point exactly. Looking for thoughts on what that implies. After 5 years and 93 pages on this forum, neither Ford nor us owner's are sure of the cause. Since it only appears to happen while driving that seems to indicate that it is not simply an exhaust or muffler lining issue. Those should occur whether in gear/moving or not. It seems that since the smell doesn't occur if in park, that might be a clue to the final cause? Really just a question. As an engineer, trying to get to the root cause just like everyone else.

 

[peterk9]

My point exactly. Looking for thoughts on what that implies. After 5 years and 93 pages on this forum, neither Ford nor us owner's are sure of the cause. Since it only appears to happen while driving that seems to indicate that it is not simply an exhaust or muffler lining issue. Those should occur whether in gear/moving or not. It seems that since the smell doesn't occur if in park, that might be a clue to the final cause? Really justa question. As an engineer, trying to get to the root cause just like everyone else.

When driving it creates a bit of a vacuum/air turbulence behind the vehicle which I'm guessing will allow a small amount of exhaust to make its way back into the vehicle. That is also one reason it is more difficult to keep the back of this type of vehicle clean of dirt etc.

Peter

 

[ltjball]

I've seen a few contradicting posts regarding CO levels in the cabin after the exhaust smell. Has anyone used a gas monitor to detect CO levels in the cabin of their vehicle?

 

[bburzycki]

I have - they have never reached anything close to dangerous levels...

 

[ltjball]

I have - they have never reached anything close to dangerous levels...

What levels did you observe?

 

[peterk9]

What levels did you observe?

Check out http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3422339&postcount=1589 and post 1049. There are several members that have measured the levels and reported the results in this thread.

Peter

 

[neme]

I have had the TSB done, it did not completely resolve the problem. Still have the sulfur smell entering the cabin and it does not matter if rear air is on or off, does not matter if in recirculate or max. The smell is also on the exterior of vehicle, if you happen to pick up someone curbside you will smell the same odor. Also if you have ever been behind another new Ford, pick a Ford any Ford you will smell the same odor and they do not necessarily need to be accelerating.
I had a case # opened when I had it in the dealer for the TSB. After the TSB repair was done and I noticed it still had the problem I contacted Ford area customer service and ask if there was anything they could do to resolve the problem and was informed that there is not any other repairs and she said she was closing the case and hung up. Contacted the dealer to make sure she was not missing anything and presumably they contacted Ford and was told there are no other repairs.
Recently contacted Ford corporate through the website to inform them on how unhappy I was, because the vehicle still has this problem. Received email from customer service and was told that an area manager would contact me within 24 hours, that was 2 weeks ago. Emailed her back and no response, emailed her again and no response. So now they wont even acknowledge me or respond in any manner. The dealer will not take it in for repair because there is nothing available for them to do. 10000 miles on vehicle and can not stand to drive it and Ford will not even acknowledge they have problem or attempt to repair the problem.
This was my first Ford purchase ever, it will be my last. I have had vehicles with problems before and have never been treated like this. At least there were attempts made to repair the vehicle and never was there a lack of communication. It is really hard to imagine that a company like Ford would allow this to continue for what 5 years now. It is even harder to imagine,(well maybe not) that they do not have an engineer that is able to resolve this problem.

 

[peterk9]

......... Also if you have ever been behind another new Ford, pick a Ford any Ford you will smell the same odor and they do not necessarily need to be accelerating.
....

I have been behind many Ford vehicles and have never noticed 'the smell'. My 2011 Ltd didn't have it either.
Please add the 'model' of your Ex to your profile so it shows in the margin. Thanks.

Peter

 

[outdoortrack]

613GT500 mentioned noise from the cowling. I experienced this on mine where there was a significant "buzzing" noise coming from the windshield at barely highway speed and worsened as the outside temperature rose. The dealer mentioned they were aware of the problem and to bring it in to have a new cowl installed.

Ok, gotcha. We haven't heard anything like that. Thanks for the info.