Bad or Burnt Exhaust smell in cabin during hard acceleration. | Page 88 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Has anyone heard of, found, or experienced a solution to the Ford Explorer exhaust issue?


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Ford has gotten back with me and told me that I have to take it back to the dealer again. They act like they don't believe me and I feel insulted by it. I haven't demanded a thing, just called them like my dealer told me to. I have several other issues to take it in for plus the exhaust issue. I really don't have enough patience and time to deal with this.

I'm so close to trading it in for another brand of vehicle and just take the hit financially. My father owned all Fords from 1948 until 2002 when he was dissatisfied with customer service. Loyalty didn't mean squat back then and looks like it hasn't changed.

That's what they want you to do. My wife's uncle is the Ford salesman that sold us the car. I talked to him the other day and he said yes unfortunately you have to push back at them sometimes. They are trying to put the ball in your court so they don't have to do anything. They want you to make all of the effort.

I am also writing a letter and sending it snail mail direct to Ford Motor Company detailing my situation and how I have been treated by the regional customer server rep.

If you just trade it in, they have your money and your car gets resold with nothing on the books about it being defective. I would at least spend a few minutes reading about the lemon law. It's really very simple to get it going once you have your service slips. From the owners manual Ford uses BBB Auto line:

https://www.bbb.org/council/programs-services/dispute-handling-and-resolution/bbb-auto-line/

You can submit your claim in about 5 minutes.
 



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So that confirms that the 2016 still have the same issue.
Idk but for a $50K car you would think Ford would be working on a fix.
Britta I had the same problem and got it fixed by the dealership.
There is still a slight smell but nothing like before.
Good luck.

As said, I tried to reproduce, but only got a really light smell for around the same rpm (~4200). I use regular gas, but switched from my standard gas station Marathon (out of convenience, being directly on my way from work) to Shell. As of yet I didn't smell it again.
 






I've kept running my Sport hard when I need to; maneuvering in and out of Atlanta traffic, passing slow pokes doing 10-15 under the speed limit on 2 lane back roads from the ATL to Highlands NC, etc.... And I've ran the stink out of mine. I occasionally, and I mean occasionally might get a slight stench (maybe 10% of what I initially noticed when getting on her hard), but 2 seconds of 1 window down and it's gone. I'd say the problem is 95% eradicated from my Sport. Maybe it was the packing materials in the muffler/catalytic converter exhaust I've now burned thru; maybe it was the computer's preset air/fuel burn mixture ratio that learned my driving style needs; I don't know. But it's gone thank God! Don't give up and drive it like it's stolen is what worked for me. YMMV...
 






I've kept running my Sport hard when I need to; maneuvering in and out of Atlanta traffic, passing slow pokes doing 10-15 under the speed limit on 2 lane back roads from the ATL to Highlands NC, etc.... And I've ran the stink out of mine. I occasionally, and I mean occasionally might get a slight stench (maybe 10% of what I initially noticed when getting on her hard), but 2 seconds of 1 window down and it's gone. I'd say the problem is 95% eradicated from my Sport. Maybe it was the packing materials in the muffler/catalytic converter exhaust I've now burned thru; maybe it was the computer's preset air/fuel burn mixture ratio that learned my driving style needs; I don't know. But it's gone thank God! Don't give up and drive it like it's stolen is what worked for me. YMMV...

HamHands, I don't think you too far off by the packing material and think it is closer to what they made the mufflers/catalytic converter with in the manufacturing plant in China!
Regarding lowering the window that would not be an option for me. Temperatures get in the upper 115-120 in the shade and we here in AZ rely heavily on A/C down here.
My smell still exist after the fix but is not quite as bad as it was before.
 


















I have recently found out my wife's 2015 Sport also has this "feature". My wife is the primary operator of our 2015 Sport (build date 12-14, purchased 4-15) with 3,000 miles. She is a gentle driver and we live in a coastal community where the speed limit is 45 MPH or lower. So ninety percent of this Sport's operation is in this environment. She was out of town recently and I went to pick her up. This involved some interstate driving. On leaving a rest area after a pit stop, I got on the Sport pretty hard with a quick run up to 80 MPH to get back on the Interstate.

Sure enough, the smell of exhaust starts wafting through the cabin. Now it cleared up after five minutes or so but still I was somewhat disappointed. We probably won't take it in if this is the only circumstances under which this occurs. It doesn't appear the dealer or Ford have found a good fix and I'm concerned any attempts at remediation will just give the dealer an opportunity to mess something else up.

Now you might ask why did we buy a Sport to putter around the beach? Well the Sport was for the other ten percent of driving that I do. Now I'm looking for hood corrosion, water leaks, and power steering problems. In many ways this is a nice vehicle it's a shame they don't seem better sorted out. I've pretty much already decided this Sport won't be around after the bumper to bumper expires.
 






exhaust fumes smell

I have a 2015 explorer and ew also get this exhaust gas smell under hard acceleration has to be toxic smells terrible we have 300 miles on it but something has to be done Help!!!!!
 






As said, I tried to reproduce, but only got a really light smell for around the same rpm (~4200). I use regular gas, but switched from my standard gas station Marathon (out of convenience, being directly on my way from work) to Shell. As of yet I didn't smell it again.

At least for my 2016 Explorer Sport I think it was just something from the factory burning off. I did some pretty hard accelerations yesterday, racing my husband in his Optima SX (mostly from 0-80 from traffic lights).
First off: I won. :D
Second: No smell whatsoever.

Sorry for making it look like the 2016 still has this issue. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones, but mine doesn't seem to have it.
 






I have a 2015 explorer and ew also get this exhaust gas smell under hard acceleration has to be toxic smells terrible we have 300 miles on it but something has to be done Help!!!!!
Welcome to the Forum.:wavey:
If you've read through the thread, you will find that the success rate for having this fixed is very low. Take it back to the dealer. There is a TSB for this issue.
Also, please add the model to your profile so it shows in the margin when you post. Thanks.

Peter
 






I don't think I have ever read about so many problems as the 2011-2015 explorer. I regret my purchase 100% and will never buy another ford mainly because ford will not fix recurring, known problems such as the smell, a pillar noise, hood paint issues and many others after producing the same vehicle for 5 years. My wife drive the explorer and I happily drive a 2013 GMC Sierra everyday with no issues whatsoever.
 






Its been a while so I wanted to post an update. Ford denied my request to reacquire my 2014 with the horrible burning exhaust smell after leading me along for a while. There was a tiny moment there when I thought Ford was going to do the right thing. It appears I am on my own now. Long story short:

1. Fords regional field service tech told my dealership they had done all they could do and that Ford was aware of this smell and sometimes they can not fix it. I was told to contact Ford customer service and try to get them to buy back.

2. During the buyback process Fords regional customer service rep told me to take it to another dealership. When I explained number 1 above she then told me that the smell was considered normal.

3. When I asked how a horrible burning exhaust smell if normal for a $42000 Ford, I was told she could no longer assist me and that her correspondence with me was done and that I should fill out lemon law paper work if I wanted to. When I asked why my claim was being denied after all I had explained to her and the weeks I had waited, she refused to answer saying it was proprietary.

So I am in the process of going the lemon law route on my own after weeks wasted with Ford hoping they would do the right thing. I could trade this in tomorrow and be done with it buts its a matter of principle now.

I had to take it on vacation recently as I had no other large car to carry everything. Under normal interstate driving with cruise control it stunk horribly every time cruise control had to go up a small hill here in FL. So this is not some extreme driving condition, this is normal every day stuff. We had to ride a few hours on the interstate with the windows down!

So yes I am a bit ticked off. So at this point I can truly say Ford SUCKS! Ford customer service SUCKS! I will never buy another Ford again in my life and neither will anyone in my family. Totally unacceptable that after 5-6 years there is still a problem on this car and people are still getting the run around.

Nixhex , what I don't understand is why you do not join into the class action suit taking place in Florida against Ford regarding this issue ? There also has been one launched in New Jersey. Why isn't Ford being dragged thru the mud in Congress like GM & Toyota...........I guess death is more permanent than slow brain damage from Carbon Monoxide ??
 












As a NJ resident, I'm waiting for this to go into action. I smell it all the time when accelerating hard with the air on recirculate.

With a new car (2015), there have been WAY too many issues. I regret trading in my Camaro, and miss is quite frankly. Prob going back to GM after the lease is up.

I hear ya, I also traded my Camaro SS for this.
Had I known about the exhaust issue and Ford not being able to fix it I still would be driving with a permanent grin.
 






Possible repair for the Exhaust smell in Cabin

My 2015 has had the burnt oil/sulfer /exhaust smell inside the cabin since I bought the vehicle in August 2014 brand new.

I've been able to determine that the smell in strongest when the rear a.c. system or the seat a.c. system is on. When only the front a.c. is on, the odor is very minimal and very rare.

I have had the TSB done on the vehicle which basically included sealing up an a.c. intake vent that is located in the rear panel of the vehicle, near the exhaust, and sealing seams along the rear bottom of the car. They also checked some plugs that were in the tail gate. Nothing has worked. Under hard acceleration, the odor can be smelled blowing directly through the rear a.c. vent.

I stumbled across an old Edumnds.com forum dealing with the same issue in the '03 Toyota 4 Runner, and one of the owners determined it was caused by a low pressure area directly behind the vehicle (possibly due to, or accelerated by a rear spoiler on the back of the 4 Runner... similar to the one on the Explorer). The low pressure area behind the vehicle allowed the exhaust fumes to be pulled under the vehicle and drawn in through an a.c. intake vent located near the rear of the SUV.....Sound Familiar?

The Toyota owner determined that there were only two options, move the rear a.c. intate (not practical), or stop the exhaust from accumulating under the car.

One way to stop the exhaust from accumulating under the car is to direct it to the side of the vehicle, into the slip stream, where it will be blown far behind the vehicle, which prevents it from accumulating under the vehicle or near the tail gate where it can be sucked into the a.c. intake vent.

I did an experiment and tried to redirect the exhaust to the side of my Ford Explorer by inserting a tail pipe extender that had a slight curve to it. I found it at Auto Zone. It's about 10" long and the diameter is 2.5 inches. It fits right into the chrome tail pipe and over the smaller actual tail pipe. I was able to go through the weep hole in the chrome tail pipe cover and attach the extension with a screw so that it is safely attached and can't fall out causing damage to vehicles behind me. The end result is about an additional 4" of tail pipe with a slight downward and outward turn towards the outboard side of the vehicle, on each side.



I took a passenger with me that is very sensitive to smell and did a number of hard accelerations with the rear/auxiliary a.c. and the front a.c. fan and cooling set the coldest and highest setting(for the fan), and we never detected any exhaust smell.

I'm going to keep testing for the next couple of days, and, if this is indeed the solution, I'm going to my Ford Dealer and tell them that they need to correct the issue by changing the rear exhaust tips so they point down and to the outside of the vehicle instead of blowing exhaust out directly behind the vehicle and into the low pressure zone where it is then sucked into the a.c. intake vents.

I'm not advocating that anyone else try this, but if you do, please make sure the extension is securely fastened so there is no chance it can come off and hurt someone following you.

It would seem that the real solution is for Ford to move the a.c. intake vent closer to the front of the vehicle, and change the exhaust so to goes out the side of the vehicle, but since this will probably not happen for a while, the above solution might just work.

In the meantime, I encourage everyone with an Explorer that is having this issue to go to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration site at http://www.nhtsa.gov/ and file a complaint. I did last night. Don't worry, you don't have to enter your VIN number, so it shouldn't have any impact on value when you decide to trade the vehicle.

It's interesting that on the NHTSA site, the issue with the exhaust inside the passenger cabin appears to be the number one complaint from Ford Explorer Owners.

Ford needs to address this problem now. Daily exposure to even low levels of exhaust fumes in the passenger cabin of the vehicle may have a cumulative effect over time, and I suspect it could be very dangerous to one's health.

UPDATE: spoke with the dealership today and was told altering the exhaust in anyway would void the warranty. My dealership won't modify the exhaust to have it vent to the side of the vehicle. Back to being at the mercy of FORD to repair this mess or going through Lemon Law.
 






possible cause of exhaust in cabin, possible repair.

My 2015 has had the burnt oil/sulfer /exhaust smell inside the cabin since I bought the vehicle in August 2014 brand new.

I've been able to determine that the smell in strongest when the rear a.c. system or the seat a.c. system is on. When only the front a.c. is on, the odor is very minimal and very rare.

I have had the TSB done on the vehicle which basically included sealing up an a.c. intake vent that is located in the rear panel of the vehicle, near the exhaust, and sealing seams along the rear bottom of the car. They also checked some plugs that were in the tail gate. Nothing has worked. Under hard acceleration, the odor can be smelled blowing directly through the rear a.c. vent.

I stumbled across an old Edumnds.com forum dealing with the same issue in the '03 Toyota 4 Runner, and one of the owners determined it was caused by a low pressure area directly behind the vehicle (possibly due to, or accelerated by a rear spoiler on the back of the 4 Runner... similar to the one on the Explorer). The low pressure area behind the vehicle allowed the exhaust fumes to be pulled under the vehicle and drawn in through an a.c. intake vent located near the rear of the SUV.....Sound Familiar?

The Toyota owner determined that there were only two options, move the rear a.c. intate (not practical), or stop the exhaust from accumulating under the car.

One way to stop the exhaust from accumulating under the car is to direct it to the side of the vehicle, into the slip stream, where it will be blown far behind the vehicle, which prevents it from accumulating under the vehicle or near the tail gate where it can be sucked into the a.c. intake vent.

I did an experiment and tried to redirect the exhaust to the side of my Ford Explorer by inserting a tail pipe extender that had a slight curve to it. I found it at Auto Zone. It's about 10" long and the diameter is 2.5 inches. It fits right into the chrome tail pipe and over the smaller actual tail pipe. I was able to go through the weep hole in the chrome tail pipe cover and attach the extension with a screw so that it is safely attached and can't fall out causing damage to vehicles behind me. The end result is about an additional 4" of tail pipe with a slight downward and outward turn towards the outboard side of the vehicle, on each side.



I took a passenger with me that is very sensitive to smell and did a number of hard accelerations with the rear/auxiliary a.c. and the front a.c. fan and cooling set the coldest and highest setting(for the fan), and we never detected any exhaust smell.

I'm going to keep testing for the next couple of days, and, if this is indeed the solution, I'm going to my Ford Dealer and tell them that they need to correct the issue by changing the rear exhaust tips so they point down and to the outside of the vehicle instead of blowing exhaust out directly behind the vehicle and into the low pressure zone where it is then sucked into the a.c. intake vents.

I'm not advocating that anyone else try this, but if you do, please make sure the extension is securely fastened so there is no chance it can come off and hurt someone following you.

It would seem that the real solution is for Ford to move the a.c. intake vent closer to the front of the vehicle, and change the exhaust so to goes out the side of the vehicle, but since this will probably not happen for a while, the above solution might just work.

In the meantime, I encourage everyone with an Explorer that is having this issue to go to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration site at http://www.nhtsa.gov/ and file a complaint. I did last night. Don't worry, you don't have to enter your VIN number, so it shouldn't have any impact on value when you decide to trade the vehicle.

It's interesting that on the NHTSA site, the issue with the exhaust inside the passenger cabin appears to be the number one complaint from Ford Explorer Owners.

Ford needs to address this problem now. Daily exposure to even low levels of exhaust fumes in the passenger cabin of the vehicle may have a cumulative effect over time, and I suspect it could be very dangerous to one's health.


UPDATE: spoke with the dealership today and was told altering the exhaust in anyway would void the warranty. My dealership won't modify the exhaust to have it vent to the side of the vehicle. Back to being at the mercy of FORD to repair this mess or going through Lemon Law.

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Is the AC intake just on the driver side? If so, perhaps the muffler could be modified so as to direct all exhaust gas to the pax side outlet. Just a thought.
 






Is the AC intake just on the driver side? If so, perhaps the muffler could be modified so as to direct all exhaust gas to the pax side outlet. Just a thought.

The TSB with pics for this is in this post, you can see how the vents are arranged. Pretty much all cars have a set of vents in the rear quarter panels,
but the Ex and I guess other 3-row SUVs with independent rear climate controls- may have AC components in the rear area, making this problem somewhat unique, but now with so many such cars/trucks - this design sounds like a plain oversight.

The pressure idea below makes the most sense.

Exhaust flow testing would show this easily.
Even wheels are tested for how much air is displaced by their fin/mag design and how the air is pushed at speed.
 






I had a 2013 Explorer XLT that had the odor during WOT acceleration the entire 85,000 miles I owned it. I'm a smoker and always have my driver's windows at least cracked, so it never really bothered me much. Last month, I traded it in for a 2015 Explorer XLT, and the new one still has the exact same odor at the exact same times. I've also driven two different Interceptor SUV's at work, a 2014 and 2015, and they both have the same problem. In my case, I used a multi-gas detector and verified that there was no carbon monoxide in the vehicle, even when the smell was at its worst. I guess I'm lucky that the odor doesn't really bother me much, or at least I'm not as sensitive to it as some others, but after finding this thread, I'm pretty upset that Ford has known about this problem for so long and hasn't fixed it.
 



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I had a 2013 Explorer XLT that had the odor during WOT acceleration the entire 85,000 miles I owned it. I'm a smoker and always have my driver's windows at least cracked, so it never really bothered me much. Last month, I traded it in for a 2015 Explorer XLT, and the new one still has the exact same odor at the exact same times. I've also driven two different Interceptor SUV's at work, a 2014 and 2015, and they both have the same problem. In my case, I used a multi-gas detector and verified that there was no carbon monoxide in the vehicle, even when the smell was at its worst. I guess I'm lucky that the odor doesn't really bother me much, or at least I'm not as sensitive to it as some others, but after finding this thread, I'm pretty upset that Ford has known about this problem for so long and hasn't fixed it.

It is very upsetting to a lot of people and Ford acts like it is no big deal.
It is amazing what companies get away with.
 






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