Bad or Burnt Exhaust smell in cabin during hard acceleration.

wdeadwyler said:

All of the above, the burnt hair is at higher RPM's. I get the egg smell all the time, I have the burnt heater occasionally and actually the burnt heater smell I smell more now that they have plugged the holes to keep out the egg smell.

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I never had the egg smell; just the burnt heater smell occasionly.....but it seems to be going away after 1500 or so miles. I wonder if it was a break-in-period?

Time will tell...

bruinsfan said:

I never had the egg smell; just the burnt heater smell occasionly.....but it seems to be going away after 1500 or so miles. I wonder if it was a break-in-period?

Time will tell...

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I have 6000 miles on mine now and it still smells! Hopefully yours burns off.

wdeadwyler said:

All of the above, the burnt hair is at higher RPM's. I get the egg smell all the time, I have the burnt heater occasionally and actually the burnt heater smell I smell more now that they have plugged the holes to keep out the egg smell.

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That is usually caused by the catalytic converter. Sometimes it is because of the gasoline that is used. All gasolines carry some levels of sulphur, some more than others because it isn't a regulated item.

Peter

Update....My dealer took my 2015 back with 6000 miles and I went to pick up my new 2015 XLT fresh off the train last night. Got a block away from the dealer and took it back. The smell was so bad we had to roll all the windows down in below zero temperatures to breathe. I can't believe that Ford lets them leave the plant smelling this way. Since my old one didn't burn off by 6k miles I will not hold my breath for this one to burn off either. I will not be leasing it and unless they can find me one today that doesn't smell I will no longer be a Ford owner, which is unfortunate for my dealer who has been great.

wdeadwyler said:

Update....My dealer took my 2015 back with 6000 miles and I went to pick up my new 2015 XLT fresh off the train last night. Got a block away from the dealer and took it back. The smell was so bad we had to roll all the windows down in below zero temperatures to breathe. I can't believe that Ford lets them leave the plant smelling this way. Since my old one didn't burn off by 6k miles I will not hold my breath for this one to burn off either. I will not be leasing it and unless they can find me one today that doesn't smell I will no longer be a Ford owner, which is unfortunate for my dealer who has been great.

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That stinks.....

I hope it works out. My burnt smell seems to be going away. I'm at 1500 miles and can barely smell anything; if I do, my family thinks it's all in my head....they don't smell a thing.

I have a 2015 Ex LTD and had the TSB done in November. Did not notice much smell after until getting down to Florida and having the AC on. I am still getting the burnt hair/oil smell upon quick on ramp acceleration and then deceleration after blending in with traffic. It is disgusting that Ford can get away with this for so many years and not come up with a fix. I hope the class action suit in Florida will bring closure or a fix soon. Unfortunately being from Canada I can not join in with my complaint and complaining to the Transportation Board in Canada is like dust blowing in the wind. I urge all Americans on this site who have the issue to get your name and complaint into the class action suit. Somewhere in the last 3 or 4 pages their is a link to the lawyers handling the class action........click on link and fill in info.

gypsy321 said:

.... Unfortunately being from Canada I can not join in with my complaint and complaining to the Transportation Board in Canada is like dust blowing in the wind.

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If you don't report it then there will be no record of your issue, whether you feel it is useless or not. File!

Peter

After driving numerous 2015 XLT's I finally found one that didn't have "the smell" so I traded mine for that one. So far so good. However, I was driving behind a Ford Fusion yesterday and it smelled as bad as my first 2015, so it isn't isolated to any one particular vehicle. I am glad my dealership took care of me. With the way Ford didn't help or handle the situation I don't know that I will ever buy or lease another one.

I lied, the 2015 XLT that didn't smell, now smells horribly and I just hit 170 miles. Thankfully I am under the 300 miles/7 day return policy. It will be going back to the dealer tomorrow and I will be taking back my old one. I have contacted a Lemon Law Attorney and he says that I have a strong case so we will see what happens next. This isn't the route I wanted to take but unfortunately the lack of response from Ford has left us no other options. I love the Explorer and without the smell it is by far my favorite SUV to drive, but now I have to say I will NOT be giving Ford any more of my money.

wdeadwyler said:

I lied, the 2015 XLT that didn't smell, now smells horribly and I just hit 170 miles. Thankfully I am under the 300 miles/7 day return policy. It will be going back to the dealer tomorrow and I will be taking back my old one. I have contacted a Lemon Law Attorney and he says that I have a strong case so we will see what happens next. This isn't the route I wanted to take but unfortunately the lack of response from Ford has left us no other options. I love the Explorer and without the smell it is by far my favorite SUV to drive, but now I have to say I will NOT be giving Ford any more of my money.

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Good luck bro..

I can't believe the transportation safety board in the states hasn't jumped all over this issue............. If your smelling exhaust fumes entering the cabin then your also breathing carbon monoxide ( poisonous,odorless gas )

2000 Explorer Limited has sulfer odor on hard acceleration.

I drive a 2000 Explorer Limited with the V8 350ci Mustang engine. I've been driving it for over 3 years. I have 187,000 miles on the vehicle, but the engine and transmission were completely overhauled at 150,000 miles. I've had that sulfer odor on hard acceleration ever since I've owned the vehicle. It happens regardless of whether the AC is in use or not. About a year after I bought the vehicle, I replaced the catalytic converters due to failing emissions testing, with OEM replacements. This drastically reduced the sulfer odor on hard acceleration, but didn't completely eliminate it. My driving habits are limited mostly to driving short distances in congested traffic, rarely reaching full highway speeds for long periods. The sulfer odor began slowly getting stronger over the time since I replaced the catalytic converters and the time I was due for emissions testing again. I was worried about failing because of the odor. A Master Mechanic friend recommended I put a bottle of "Seafoam" in a full tank of gas, and we introduced a second bottle into the air intake on the engine side of the air filter. I took a couple of 100 mile road trips and then finished the tank of treated gas. This cleaned out my catalytic converters, drastically reducing the sulfer odor, and I passed emissions today. I probably would have passed anyway, since the "Check Engine" light wasn't on like it was when the cats were bad. It did show me that my driving habits may have contributed to an increase in the sulfer odor, supposedly by allowing a build up of exhaust components in the catalytic converters, due to not allowing them to fully heat up for longer periods of time. After the treatment, my engine performance was noticeably improved.

I've been test driving different Sports models (with EcoBoost) almost every weekend since October.

I have discovered that some have the smell, and some don't.

I may be wrong, but I swear that the one's that don't smell, have better acceleration and performance.

JCat said:

I've been test driving different Sports models (with EcoBoost) almost every weekend since October.

I have discovered that some have the smell, and some don't.

I may be wrong, but I swear that the one's that don't smell, have better acceleration and performance.

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The gas mileage is worse too!

It is funny that you said that . . . .

I own a 1978 Ford F150 that came with a carbureted 351M engine. I suspect the Ford engineers tuned this engine to run lean, for better gas mileage.

When it was new, I would occasionally smell "that smell" and it annoyed me a lot. The truck would also occasionally stall or hesitate when I gave it gas.

I drilled out the jets in the carburetor to a larger size (2 drill bit sizes greater) and not only did I not smell that awful smell any more, the truck performed like it had 30 more horsepower.

Just saying . . . . I wonder if tuning the gas/air mixture on these smelly explorers would make a difference ?

Two months into driving our Explorer Sport, and Carbon Monoxide meter still showing zero parts per million in the cabin, and there are no bad smells at any time, including 5000 rpm accelerations at times. Don't know if this has anything at all to do with anything but we have using NON ethanol 93 octane pure gas. Fuel mileage has been at the top of the scale for both highway and city. In fact, everything about this vehicle has been flawless. Still amazed...

gypsy321 said:

I can't believe the transportation safety board in the states hasn't jumped all over this issue............. If your smelling exhaust fumes entering the cabin then your also breathing carbon monoxide ( poisonous,odorless gas )

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Actually, they are. There is also a class action lawsuit filed in Florida.

I've never had any problems. Any time I've smelled exhaust in the vehicle has always been because there is a vehicle in front of me that was horribly out of tune, etc.

This past week though, I seem to be picking up exhaust fumes in the cabin. Not a nasty smell like others have, just seems to be a low level smell. Kind of hard to tell as it seems transient. I have a CO meter that runs off a battery and gives a digital readout, so I think I will take that along for a ride and see if there is any increase while driving

Fix Found to Prevent Exhaust in my 2014 Explorer

Dropped off my Exploder for the 3rd time a week ago, this is after Ford sent a special technician the 2nd time & couldn't get it to duplicate. The 1st time they did the TSB per Ford, which didn't fix the problem.

Nonetheless, the local tech/mechanic spent a thorough amount of time after he witnessed the exhaust smell easily replicated during a quick test drive when I dropped it off.

He pulled off the back bumper & both left & right air vents that allow air pressure to escape/equalize the cabin. He noticed they did not go all the way down vertical, essentially they were not sealing shut. He ordered two new ones (BB5Z*61280B62*B GRILLE ASY - VENT AIR OUTER), these numbers & description pulled from my service repair sheet. He noticed the two new ones also had the same problem.

He then covered the whole outside of the moveable flap with stick on wheel weights to allow gravity to pull the flap down and seal. It was at least 4 or 5 small square weights wide and 2 high.

This fixed the problem. I've driven it for 3 days now, I could easily replicate it in the past with the AC on max recirc, medium fan speed, temp set in the middle 70's, rear heat/AC on medium fan speed, medium temp, with a couple aggressive accelerations of over 4,000 rpm's, then let off the gas, and it would usually smell like exhaust.

I became knowledgeable of this and tried not to accelerate fast nor use the cruise control since most of my driving was commuting in town. I finally got tired of having to baby the thing & do moderate merges on the interstate, so I took it back in. Once the tech witnessed it himself, he wouldn't stop until he found it.

Not sure this is a fix for everyone, but the 2nd set of air vents from the TSB, and this 3rd set (as well as the originals probably), all don't close properly.

He said he ran it indoors w/ no outside breeze to affect the exhaust, and he could see the exhaust do a 180 from out of the exhaust tips and go right under the back bumper and some of it went into the cabin.

Hopefully some others can have their techs try this. I do not have a picture, but I think you can picture it yourself.

Good luck & let us know your results.


John Smith (Don S.)
Omaha, Nebraska

JohnSmith2014 said:

Dropped off my Exploder for the 3rd time a week ago, this is after Ford sent a special technician the 2nd time & couldn't get it to duplicate. The 1st time they did the TSB per Ford, which didn't fix the problem.

Nonetheless, the local tech/mechanic spent a thorough amount of time after he witnessed the exhaust smell easily replicated during a quick test drive when I dropped it off.

He pulled off the back bumper & both left & right air vents that allow air pressure to escape/equalize the cabin. He noticed they did not go all the way down vertical, essentially they were not sealing shut. He ordered two new ones (BB5Z*61280B62*B GRILLE ASY - VENT AIR OUTER), these numbers & description pulled from my service repair sheet. He noticed the two new ones also had the same problem.

He then covered the whole outside of the moveable flap with stick on wheel weights to allow gravity to pull the flap down and seal. It was at least 4 or 5 small square weights wide and 2 high.

This fixed the problem. I've driven it for 3 days now, I could easily replicate it in the past with the AC on max recirc, medium fan speed, temp set in the middle 70's, rear heat/AC on medium fan speed, medium temp, with a couple aggressive accelerations of over 4,000 rpm's, then let off the gas, and it would usually smell like exhaust.

I became knowledgeable of this and tried not to accelerate fast nor use the cruise control since most of my driving was commuting in town. I finally got tired of having to baby the thing & do moderate merges on the interstate, so I took it back in. Once the tech witnessed it himself, he wouldn't stop until he found it.

Not sure this is a fix for everyone, but the 2nd set of air vents from the TSB, and this 3rd set (as well as the originals probably), all don't close properly.

He said he ran it indoors w/ no outside breeze to affect the exhaust, and he could see the exhaust do a 180 from out of the exhaust tips and go right under the back bumper and some of it went into the cabin.

Hopefully some others can have their techs try this. I do not have a picture, but I think you can picture it yourself.

Good luck & let us know your results.


John Smith (Don S.)
Omaha, Nebraska

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WOW! I would have that service department for life if I could get that kind of attention to detail and actual interest in fixing the problem. Kudos to them! You've got a great tech there!

JohnSmith2014 said:

Dropped off my Exploder for the 3rd time a week ago, this is after Ford sent a special technician the 2nd time & couldn't get it to duplicate. The 1st time they did the TSB per Ford, which didn't fix the problem.

Nonetheless, the local tech/mechanic spent a thorough amount of time after he witnessed the exhaust smell easily replicated during a quick test drive when I dropped it off.

He pulled off the back bumper & both left & right air vents that allow air pressure to escape/equalize the cabin. He noticed they did not go all the way down vertical, essentially they were not sealing shut. He ordered two new ones (BB5Z*61280B62*B GRILLE ASY - VENT AIR OUTER), these numbers & description pulled from my service repair sheet. He noticed the two new ones also had the same problem.

He then covered the whole outside of the moveable flap with stick on wheel weights to allow gravity to pull the flap down and seal. It was at least 4 or 5 small square weights wide and 2 high.

This fixed the problem. I've driven it for 3 days now, I could easily replicate it in the past with the AC on max recirc, medium fan speed, temp set in the middle 70's, rear heat/AC on medium fan speed, medium temp, with a couple aggressive accelerations of over 4,000 rpm's, then let off the gas, and it would usually smell like exhaust.

I became knowledgeable of this and tried not to accelerate fast nor use the cruise control since most of my driving was commuting in town. I finally got tired of having to baby the thing & do moderate merges on the interstate, so I took it back in. Once the tech witnessed it himself, he wouldn't stop until he found it.

Not sure this is a fix for everyone, but the 2nd set of air vents from the TSB, and this 3rd set (as well as the originals probably), all don't close properly.

He said he ran it indoors w/ no outside breeze to affect the exhaust, and he could see the exhaust do a 180 from out of the exhaust tips and go right under the back bumper and some of it went into the cabin.

Hopefully some others can have their techs try this. I do not have a picture, but I think you can picture it yourself.

Good luck & let us know your results.


John Smith (Don S.)
Omaha, Nebraska

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That is great that they did that for your car, but does it still smell awful outside? I was driving behind one today that floored it when the light turned green and it stunk so bad I almost gagged. I had all the holes plugged in mine and the cabin wasn't so bad but the car still smells. So while I am glad that they prevented it from coming inside, it still stunk and that just doesn't seem right for a brand new vehicle. I finally gave up, and I no longer have mine and went another route. By mid next week I will explain to everyone the results I received from Ford but I don't want to share until it is finalized.