Bad or Burnt Exhaust smell in cabin during hard acceleration.

[ctmhou]

Welcome to the Forum Aquineas.:wavey:
Thanks for the summary. It is indeed unfortunate that there have been so many reports on this issue. Fortunately, my 2011 has not encountered the problem.
The good think, I guess, is that the last report from an Explorer owner about this issue was back in December.

Peter

We'll Peter, I have had it from day one and still get as of yesterday. I just vent it away in seconds with an open window. I have told my Ford dealer about it and they are aware. I guess I could escalate this issue with them to fix it, but not sure if this a big enough issue with me yet.

We'll see.

 

[Aquineas]

I'm kind of in the same boat as others here; I kind of fell in love with the styling, so much that most of the other 7 passenger SUVs look downright clunky to me. I looked at the Santa Fe GLS (the longer of the two Santa Fe's) and it just wasn't happening for me. I guess I'll take a look at the CX-9.

 

[gpzrider]

I had the 2012 EX. Started off as burning oil smell, gradually turned into sulfur like rotten egg smell and finally morphed into that chemical smell one inhales when you enter a beauty salon. I had both the exhaust TSB and the cooling system TSB done. Neither worked. The end result is that if you're tired of dealing with it--hire a LEMON LAW ATTORNEY.

If you live in California and want the name of a good Lemon Law Attorney, please feel free to PM me.

 

[Aquineas]

Alright folks it's only fair to Ford that I provide an update here. I took a 2014 Explorer Sport for a test drive today and floored it with no sign of a burning smell whatsoever. Your mileage may vary.

 

[peterk9]

Alright folks it's only fair to Ford that I provide an update here. I took a 2014 Explorer Sport for a test drive today and floored it with no sign of a burning smell whatsoever. Your mileage may vary.

Neither does my 2011 Limited.

Peter

 

[MizzouMan_2000]

I used to get this smell regularly in my 2013, but I haven't had in a couple of months. Maybe it has something to do with the much colder winter we've had. We'll see what happens when the weather warms up.

 

[Motoarzan]

Hi folks, I'm new to the forum and I just spent more than two hours reading this (massive!!) thread. I had my eye on a 2014 Explorer Sport to replace our 2013 Fusion Hybrid Titanium (which unfortunately doesn't have enough room for our tastes). Let me just say I'm very happy I found this. While I'm happy I found the thread, I feel bad for those that have had to suffer so that I benefit. In any case, if anyone else is researching, here's a quick summary:

• A statistically relevant portion of the ownership community have experienced, and continue to experience in some cases, a very unpleasant odor when accelerating at wide-open throttle. This only seems to affect the 3.5 V6 vehicles, and thus far, while 2011 seems to be the most represented, owners of later model years (up to and including 2014) have also reported the problem.
• That "bad smell" has varied in description. Some folks describe it as a burning oil sensation (to me, this would be the most unpleasant). Other folks have had a "rotten egg" smell, while others still have described an exhaust smell. It's not clear that these symptoms are at all caused by the same issue
• Ford has issued a TSB which basically involves re-sealing the bottom of the vehicle and some other adjustments, particularly in the back. This has worked completely for some, while others have noticed a significant reduction in fumes, while a smaller percentage seems to report no change at all.
• A couple of vehicles that have reported the burning oil smell had an accumulation of black fluid on the muffler; there has been very limited speculation by those that it was caused by a leaking PTU (power transfer unit)

Please note that none of these are conclusions and I'm not a mechanic. The majority of EX owners probably never experience this issue, and it does seem to be limited to wide-open-throttle. I'm just summarizing what it just took me a few hours to gather. To the credit of Ford customer service reps, they seem to be very actively engaged in getting people into their dealers to get the problem looked at and prioritized correctly. It's not clear unfortunately that the solution (the aforementioned TSB) is working for as many people as one would hope.

Think of it this way...think of all the hundreds (maybe a thousand) of different products and services you purchased and used in the last year alone that have been wonderful, worked just like they should and never ever had a single problem...did you spend your time and go to each and every website for each and every product of each and every store you purchased it from and then signed up a user name account and then go on to their forum or product review page and then spend the time to write a paragraph on your "perfect" experience and how awesome it is??? The answer is obviously no.
Well, for every 1 bad complaint here on this issue or that, there are 1000's of us who's vehicles are working absolutely fine and doing what it's supposed too!
This is true for every manufactured product in this world.
Personally, My Sport has been 100%, I have none of the issue that others have complained about here.

 

[Bryceb]

I used to get this smell regularly in my 2013, but I haven't had in a couple of months. Maybe it has something to do with the much colder winter we've had. We'll see what happens when the weather warms up.

Same with mine.

 

[corpflyboy]

I get the smell with windows up or down on spirited acceleration.

 

[Aquineas]

Think of it this way...think of all the hundreds (maybe a thousand) of different products and services you purchased and used in the last year alone that have been wonderful, worked just like they should and never ever had a single problem...did you spend your time and go to each and every website for each and every product of each and every store you purchased it from and then signed up a user name account and then go on to their forum or product review page and then spend the time to write a paragraph on your "perfect" experience and how awesome it is??? The answer is obviously no.

Well out of the "thousands of products", only one of those products would cost $48,000. So believe me, before I spend that kind of money, I'm going to do research on it. If that bothers you, then you're welcome to write me a check for the price of the car and I can buy it with your money and I will officially consider my right to question it and summarize what others have experienced forfeited. Otherwise, when it's my money, and there appears to be a problem that more than a couple of people have, then that's Ford's fault, not mine. There was (and is) enough smoke for there to be a fire in this case, and I'd advise anyone considering buying one to find out for themselves; don't take my (or your) word for it.

In any case, I did return to post my personal experiences with not smelling the smell on my test-drive, something I obviously didn't have to do to, but I wanted to do so that it would provide some documentation of a positive experience to the thread.

 

[Motoarzan]

Well out of the "thousands of products", only one of those products would cost $48,000. So believe me, before I spend that kind of money, I'm going to do research on it. If that bothers you, then you're welcome to write me a check for the price of the car and I can buy it with your money and I will officially consider my right to question it and summarize what others have experienced forfeited. Otherwise, when it's my money, and there appears to be a problem that more than a couple of people have, then that's Ford's fault, not mine. There was (and is) enough smoke for there to be a fire in this case, and I'd advise anyone considering buying one to find out for themselves; don't take my (or your) word for it.

In any case, I did return to post my personal experiences with not smelling the smell on my test-drive, something I obviously didn't have to do to, but I wanted to do so that it would provide some documentation of a positive experience to the thread.

Woe, slow down...don't get your panties in a knot. I wasn't minimizing your concerns in any way, and you should do you due diligence. I was just stating a statistical fact.
If you exclude an Explorer because of these "statistically" few (percentage wise) problems and go buy another manufacturers car you will also find on their forums that they also have problem occurrences of all sorts too!!

 

[gpzrider]

Woe, slow down...don't get your panties in a knot. I wasn't minimizing your concerns in any way, and you should do you due diligence. I was just stating a statistical fact.
If you exclude an Explorer because of these "statistically" few (percentage wise) problems and go buy another manufacturers car you will also find on their forums that they also have problem occurrences of all sorts too!![/QUOTE

You are absolutely right. I'm sure there are plenty of other 48 thousand dollar vehicles out there that inhale their own exhaust and feed it straight to your face.

 

[Motoarzan]

Woe, slow down...don't get your panties in a knot. I wasn't minimizing your concerns in any way, and you should do you due diligence. I was just stating a statistical fact.
If you exclude an Explorer because of these "statistically" few (percentage wise) problems and go buy another manufacturers car you will also find on their forums that they also have problem occurrences of all sorts too!![/QUOTE

You are absolutely right. I'm sure there are plenty of other 48 thousand dollar vehicles out there that inhale their own exhaust and feed it straight to your face.

Not exhaust fumes, but equally or greater concerning problems. Heck didn't Toyota have problems with cars accelerating like a bat out of hell for no reason? additional Issue's with something as simple as floor mats causing an accelerator to get stuck and doing the same. My previous vehicle was an equinox and some were effected by faulty cam actuators that cause the engine to literally grind and rattle for 2-5 seconds after startup. My vehicle before that was a Honda Pilot which had problems and a recall on a break module which could be life threatening if it were to go bad.
Go to any other manufacturers car forum and you will see a small percentage of every vehicle (even your 50k+, 100k+ 150k+) have issues...some more serious than others.

This exhaust fume thing is an odd one but remember the other 99% don't have it!

 

[tnt_12]

I have yet to see a single person say that they can accelerate their 2011 on Explorer at FULL throttle from 0 to about 60 mph and not get the exhaust smell in the car. I still think every Explorer has this issue if you run it hard enough. This problem does seem to go away in the winter; this may support the theory that it is the fiberglass packing in the mufflers causing this. If it’s cold outside the mufflers may not get hot enough for the fiberglass to burn off.

 

[Aquineas]

Woe, slow down...don't get your panties in a knot. I wasn't minimizing your concerns in any way, and you should do you due diligence. I was just stating a statistical fact.
If you exclude an Explorer because of these "statistically" few (percentage wise) problems and go buy another manufacturers car you will also find on their forums that they also have problem occurrences of all sorts too!!

You're right, and I'm sorry for overreacting.

 

[yow04xplr]

Wow, this thread seems to keep growing and growing. I have a 2011 Ltd, and a smell was there during heavy acceleration for the 1st 20,000 or so miles. Whatever it was, eventually burned off and it went away. The last time I smelled it, was when a newer explorer gunned it past me to merge into my lane. LOL.

Not sure if Ford does this with this motor, but many motors have a wax coating on them to prevent oxidation. It could be just the wax burning of the hot parts. That's what it smelled like to me. Given that it doesn't happen very often, and that the smell never really bothered me, it was never an issue for me.

If you're one of the ones that posted you're not buying an Explorer because of this thread, then you may be way "over thinking" this, and you missed out on what is one of the best SUV's out there.

 

[CajunFordEx]

I have yet to see a single person say that they can accelerate their 2011 on Explorer at FULL throttle from 0 to about 60 mph and not get the exhaust smell in the car. I still think every Explorer has this issue if you run it hard enough. This problem does seem to go away in the winter; this may support the theory that it is the fiberglass packing in the mufflers causing this. If it’s cold outside the mufflers may not get hot enough for the fiberglass to burn off.

Well now you can say that CajunFordEx has never had this smell and he accelerates his from 0 to 80 mph @ full throttle quite often. I have never had this issue in the 29k+ miles I have owned it. It is not every Explorer that has this smell. Same for the Edges. I have smelled it in a friends Edge.

 

[tnt_12]

A different supplier for the mufflers in some of the builds maybe don't have the issue.

 

[gpzrider]

This exhaust fume thing is an odd one but remember the other 99% don't have it!

Thanks, I'll remember to tell my wife and small children that eventhough Daddy spent $48,000 of their Disneyland fun money on a defective car, 99% of the other owners aren't as fortunate as us. My 3 year old is getting pretty quick with the windows. When Daddy says, "I'm hitting it" everyone knows to open the windows for a couple minutes. My 9 month old still can't reach but he's quickly learning to plug his nose.

 

[tazmanken]

Just got a call from Ford and just so you all know they told me getting exhaust fumes inside the vehicle is normal when you have a window open all the way or just cracked when stepping on the gas 3/4 or more. I know all manufactures have issues but for ford to tell me this because they don't know how to fix it is bull, Guess they don't care if they lose customers,when my lease is up or even before that I'm done with Ford and that's to bad because the new f 150 looks pretty nice and that is what I was wanting to get next. Thanks ford for the upset stomach and headaches when driving my edge. This makes the second ford vehicle I have had problems with the first one was taken care of under the lemon law. I have had a problem with Chevy once and traded it in to get rid of it. I know you will have problems with anything you buy new and yes if I buy something new and have problems with it and they dont know how or wont fix it Ill let others know about it. To tell you the truth I fell if they replaced the seal around the rear hatch that would fix my exhaust problem,but no they tried 1 thing that didnt work and then tell me exhaust in the cabin when a window is open is normal,its not like I took it in and they tried 10 things to fix it with no luck they tried 1 thing that didnt fix it and this is what makes me upset.