Posted on 03/21/2019 5:16:17 PM PDT by rickmichaels
Migraine headaches, fatigue and dizziness were sidelining Bert Henriksen several times a week.
Evenings were the worst, after his 50-km commute home in his 2017 Ford Explorer.
His behaviour grew erratic. He’d get angry over minor things. “We were getting scared that he had some kind of a brain problem,” said his wife, Megan.
An answer came last March in a phone call from his doctor: A blood test revealed Henriksen had been exposed to toxic levels of carbon monoxide gas. But how? He says his prime suspect was parked in his driveway.
Henriksen is among more than 3,000 Ford Explorer owners who’ve complained to Ford or U.S. federal regulators they suspect exhaust fumes have seeped into their sport utility vehicles’ cabins.
Many fear carbon monoxide gas may have made them ill, and dozens of drivers have complained to regulators that the company’s recommended fix wasn’t effective.
Explorer owners have filed more than 50 legal claims across the U.S. against Ford. And some police departments said in 2017 that Explorers used as cruisers were exposing officers to carbon monoxide.
The complaints, which cover vehicles built between 2010 and 2018, carry high stakes for the second-largest U.S. automaker. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating drivers’ claims in 2016, then expanded the probe a year later after saying it had “preliminary evidence” of elevated carbon monoxide levels in some driving scenarios.
If NHTSA finds a safety defect, Ford would face the prospect of recalling more than 1 million vehicles, costing perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars.
Ford, which in January debuted a redesigned Explorer for the 2020 model year, says there’s nothing wrong with the previous version. “All of our testing to date has shown these vehicles are safe,” company spokesman Mike Levine said in a statement.
“Ford’s investigation has not found carbon monoxide levels that exceed what people are exposed to every day.”
The claims aren’t easy to investigate. The U.S. has no regulatory standard for how much of the odourless, colourless, toxic gas would create a health risk for drivers, and scientists say the answer varies depending on an individual’s health and age. And drivers say the seepage problem comes and goes, complicating attempts to verify their allegations.
NHTSA’s task includes evaluating both what might be causing the alleged defect and what sort of health risk is posed to occupants by any pollutants in the cabin, a subject that global experts have just begun to study in recent years.
Ford’s response to the claims has served to deepen some drivers’ mistrust. The company’s first attempt to quell the concerns—through repair instructions the company provided to dealerships in 2012 to respond to customers’ complaints—was followed by repeated updates and several additional instructions.
Ford said it’s confident in its most recent repair campaign, which was offered in 2017 and is still in effect. Complaints have dropped dramatically since this latest effort, the company said, and the fix “effectively resolves the matter.”
And yet, for drivers like Bert Henriksen, it hasn’t. He now drives with a portable carbon monoxide detector in his Explorer, and he said it occasionally shows elevated levels of the gas.
He invited Bloomberg News along for a ride. There was very little sign of carbon monoxide during a 120-km test drive near Henriksen’s home in South Lyon, Michigan, in January. One of two detectors in his vehicle registered only tiny amounts of the gas. The other showed zero.
“That’s the problem—it’s so sporadic,” he said. Ford twice sent engineers to examine his Explorer, Henriksen said, and they found no problem.
Ford offered to buy his Explorer back after he sued the company under Michigan’s lemon law. He’s in the process of closing that deal now.
As of mid-2016, Ford had bought back roughly 100 Explorers from complaining drivers, according to federal records. “We have made buyback offers to certain customers as goodwill gestures,” Ford’s Levine said.
One of the first complaints came from a Ford manager who was leasing an Explorer. Company engineers tested his vehicle and confirmed what they described as a slight exhaust odour under specific driving conditions: full-throttle acceleration while the climate-control system was in “recirculation” mode.
Ford described those circumstances as outside “typical customer usage,” according to a letter the company sent NHTSA in August 2016.
Using recirculation mode created negative air pressure inside the cabin, which could draw in outside gases through gaps in the rear of the Explorer’s body, Ford’s letter said.
That letter didn’t address any potential flaws in the Explorer’s exhaust system itself, but records the company turned over to NHTSA indicate that Ford dealers found exhaust system leaks in roughly 50 Explorers between December 2011 and April 2016—all on vehicles with fewer than 160,000 km.
The leaks were mostly found in the exhaust manifold and the catalytic converter, and were chalked up to porous welds, cracks and poor fits with other components. The reports indicate installing new parts resolved owners’ complaints.
In a statement, Ford said its testing hasn’t found exhaust leaks “to be a contributor to the concern.”
NHTSA declined to comment on the progress of its probe, but said it’s testing and inspecting several Explorers driven by consumers and police officers and reviewing crashes involving police Explorers. The agency has completed about 90 such engineering analyses on various vehicle models since 2008; more than two-thirds of them resulted in manufacturers issuing recalls.
Recalling the 1.3 million fifth-generation Explorers would be costly. For context: In 2017, Ford took a US$267 million charge to recall 1.3 million F-Series pickup trucks in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to correct faulty door latches.
In Michigan, Bert Henriksen is still waiting to complete his buyback. Meanwhile, he’s driving his Explorer to and from work each day and keeping an eye on the carbon monoxide detector that sits on his dashboard. When it registers, he says, he rolls down the windows.
I have a 97 XJ Sport and love it. Can’t kill that 4.0 inline 6.
I have an escape that rocks.
My last two cars have been Escapes and YES they ROCK!!! I have always owned Fords, I have to say my Escapes have been my favorites I like them better than my previous Mustang, had an Explorer also, but the size of the Escape is PERFECT!!!
04 was the switch to the D-tech engine (I know a few Z-techs made their way in to early 04s).. the d-tech has a timing chain..
I have a courier friend with a 07 wagon...
691,000 miles on it last time I saw it.
shows no signs of wearing out. he washes it almost daily in the winter (unlimited car wash pass, his courier company uses magnets so he can take the name off and sneak in like a personal car)
still looks new on the outside. he smokes and I know I have given him a few drivers seats over the years ;)
I ponder the same thing.
My next vehicle will have a metal dashboard.
Don't care how many decades I have to go back to find it.
The Focus seems like a great little car for about three years.
They break down after that.
I’ve had a few Ford pickups all AOK.
Bought a 2005 Expedition, loved it.
When it was near 100,000 miles we gave it to #1 son.
One day he calls to ask if I ever changed the plugs?
No problem they are good for 100k, not a big deal.
He said to google Ford Triton plugs, not good. (JUST HIGHLIGHT AND CLICK SEARCH)
The two of us spent most of a day on it and that is considered an OK time! All of them came out in one piece. Luck!
#1 son drove it many more miles and none of them blew out as they are also known to do.
That Ford was a bad experience.
Very bad.
Ford is the only American vehicle with a higher quality that can compete with the Japanese like Toyota.
“he smokes and I know I have given him a few drivers seats over the year”
That’s funny... Pretty good when you wear out a bunch of drivers seats before you wear out the car. lol
Thanks for sharing that. I am a mechanic but never tore down one of the 04s and up yet. Maybe because they don’t break very often. :)
Just gonna throw this out there. Were these people sitting in traffic? Is there a way other cars co2 gas may be drawn into the cockpit?
Put a CO2 detector in the car. Case closed. Is that just too easy. Some even have digital readout.
I learn something new every day on FR...
My 64 Chevy has a metal dash, the padded dashes were optional until they completely redesign the full size GM line in 65.
Easy to measure. OSHA says 50ppm 8 hours a day 5 days a week is permissible. NIOSH says it’s 35ppm.
I am a used car dealer.
I’ll do in house payments on some cars.
I sell a TON of foci on payments. why?
you can’t kill them.
A smokers house will often read 2-3ppm and a house downwind of a large road will go 4-5ppm.
“Some even have digital readout.”
Mine does,just bought a few months ago.
Keep getting them back and flipping them out? lol
Check the EGR valve.
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