"Air" noise coming from the rear of the cabin

My apologizes if this has been addressed before, but I didn't see it when I searched. I notice that there is a very pronounced "whooshing" sound from the driver side of the back of the cabin when the air is on. I'm sure it's some sort of fan used to circulate air, but it's seriously noisy. If I turn off the climate control completely, it shuts off. But if I turn it on, even if the fan is turned down all the way, it's just as noisy as ever (plus I can hear it very well since the front vents are quiet at that point).

Is this normal? It just seems like it's unnecessarily loud and annoying so I'm wondering if there is some sort of obstruction that is causing it to be louder than it should.

Also, is that an intake vent that is on that side closer to the top of the storage well behind the 3rd row? I'm guessing yes. The noise, however, seems to be coming from farther up the side panel.

The rear Climate is housed in the tire well area between 2nd and 3rd row

That makes sense. The question then is why is it so loud? Maybe I need to check to see if my rear controls are up too high.

Okay. So I realize that the problem is that I was making the incorrect assumption that the front and rear air was linked. Looks like you have to adjust them separately... and the rear was cranked way up. Now that I turned it down, it solved the problem. Since these are not linked, I actually shut off the lockout in MFT because it's just easier for me to reach back and turn the dials up and down to adjust the rear air than it is to dig into the MFT menu interface to tweak the climate control.

Which brings me to a little rant... I'm an admitted tech junkie. I loved the idea of the MFT setup because it looks like it has tons of functionality. I even told the salesperson not to bother showing me how to do anything because I like reading the manual and figuring it all out. But I have to admit that I'm finding the MFT system frustrating in its unnecessary complexity. I hate having to go a billion menus deep just to do something that I'm used to having a knob to do. It's distracting while driving. The voice controls are equally frustrating because it seems to have a very specific series of entries that need to be made to control stuff. I figured that, with the "10,000 voice controls" that Mike Rowe talks about in the commercials, it would be more akin to Apple's Siri (which of course has its own faults but seems to be fairly good at determining what I'm trying to ask). The fact that it's sometimes painfully slow to respond is quite irritating as well. For example, if I want to toggle up 4 station presets on the radio using the steering wheel controls, I have to click up, wait for the station to catch up, click up, wait for the stations to catch up, click up, etc. instead of just clicking up 4 times in rapid succession. Throw in the touch-sensitive buttons -- that I thought were so slick but now realize are a PITA because of a lack of tactile feedback -- and it's not really a very user friendly setup. For example, I can't imagine non-tech-saavy people like my parents ever being able to figure out anything but the most basic and fundamental controls in the MFT. That's a real shame. I initially thought that all the griping about the system was due to people just not knowing how to do things. Now I realize that even if you know all the functionality, it's still quite annoying to actually do those things the way they are "supposed" to be done.

Of course, there is a different section of the forum for MFT commentary so I'll let it go at that.

That is the first thing you should check if your A/C rear controls (fan) are set too high. In my experience with 2 Ford Explorer - EB - 2009 and my current 2012 XLT, if the rear fan is set too high it makes that kind of noise very noticeable to the driver.

Based on your last post: Seems that you solved the issue. Good deal

Where is the intake for the rear system? How does it work? Is it recycled air only? The only reason I raise this is perhaps it might have something to do with drawing in the smelly air, or exhaust air in one of the long 10 page recent post not far below this one...Maybe you have stumbled on to something.....afterall the system according to your discription of where its located is nearer to the muffler exhaust area of the under car.......just thinking could there be an air leak somewhere around this area which is pulling in exhaust air when the vehicle is ran hard.....? best regards Plum

plumbago said:

Where is the intake for the rear system? How does it work? Is it recycled air only? The only reason I raise this is perhaps it might have something to do with drawing in the smelly air, or exhaust air in one of the long 10 page recent post not far below this one...Maybe you have stumbled on to something.....afterall the system according to your discription of where its located is nearer to the muffler exhaust area of the under car.......just thinking could there be an air leak somewhere around this area which is pulling in exhaust air when the vehicle is ran hard.....? best regards Plum

Click to expand...

I have suggested that same idea before. I too am wondering if the rear A/C is the culprit. I do know that in our car, the stinky exhaust doesn't happen when the recirc is OFF. The next test will be to try a hard acceleration without the rear A/C on and see if it still does it.