2015 Expy, has cooled seats. Owned the truck for about 3 months and it has 17K (bought with just under 16K). Truck was a Ford Exec vehicle.

Truck is stored in my shop which has seen temps well above 100* this past week. It has also been ridiculously humid out.

The other day, I go to get in the truck, open the door and the smell of stale smoke (cigar/cigarette) hits me. It hadn't smelled before.

I smell the carpets and there is no smell whatsoever.

So first thing I think of is that the heat/humidity has brought the smell out, but from where?

Bring my wife down to shop, she smells the rear vents and Baam, she say's "This is it"

I go to turn on the rear A/C control and I get nothing. No lights, no fan, nothing.

So, now I figure that smell has been baking in the rear vents and is stiill there because it can't circulate out. It's just stuck there.

I would imagine it's just a fuse, but I'm not going to replace it for the mere fact that if something is wrong, it gets documented now with Ford, so down the road they can't deny me warranty work on it if it craps out again or worse.

Anyone had there's go out?

 

The cooled seats use a separate cooling pad that is like those small self-cooling camping coolers--they are totally self contained but the fans that blow thru them would also blow through the foam rubber in the seat cushions.

Cigarette smoke is pretty pervasive and every porous surface in the interior will tend to hold the smell. Maybe the headliner is holding some of the smoke (that is where a smoker's exhalation would concentrate). Is there any yellowing of the headliner? All fabrics in the driver's area like the seatbelts, headrests, etc might have some of the smell in them. Ultra hot and humid weather may free up some of the smoke smell and make it more noticeable.

If the vehicle has only a bit of stale tobacco smoke smell, it will tend to fade over time. (My wife loaned her car to her sister, who smoked in it for a week or two, and the smoke smell faded--but I was PISSED.) But if it was smoked in a lot--like owned by a smoker for 15k miles, it will be everywhere including the headliner and the padding under that, the seat foam, the carpet and carpet padding, any foam or fiber soundproofing under the dash, etc.

Auto detailers have chemicals to neutralize the smoke smell, but it's gonna be hard to remove every bit of smoke that is buried deep in fabrics and padding. This is one reason I like to buy my cars new, but I also have a very sensitive nose and can smell smoker vehicles much more easily than my wife or most other people. I am also an ex-smoker, so I can't tell you how many cars I polluted in my earlier years...(every borrowed or rental car, in addition to those I owned).

Good luck,
George

 

Thanks George, but I actually edited the original post (that you were probably replying to as I was editing) and have found the root of the problem to be the rear AC vents (2nd & 3rd row).

The rear AC is not working, therfore the stale air in the vents is just stuck there and can't circulate out. I expect it to be a bad fuse, hopefully nothing worse. It's a warranty issue, so I will let Ford deal with it.

 

I thought I was in an alternate universe for a minute there when I read your revised question. Well, take it to the dealer and get it fixed, but if it smells like tobacco smoke, that does not sound right.

George

 

Did you enable the rear controls so they will work?

 

Funny story..............

I went and talked with my local Ford Senior Master Tech (didn't have the car with me) and he asked which Nav screen I have. I said the big one. He says, You have to turn the rear AC on. I said, WTH?

He said, you have to go into climate, find the rear AC, and turn it on.

Sure enough, I did and it works.

What I want to know what idiot designed a system in which you have to go into a sub system and turn on a freakin control unit?

Great design work Ford, not.

 

Pretty funny conclusion...buried multi-level menus don't belong in cars IMO. You should be able to operate this stuff while driving.

In any case, since I got involved, jh, how's the smells now that you have the rear AC operating? Hope all is well.

George

 

The reason the rear controls are controlled by the front panel is so kids in the back dont mess around with the *****.

I think it is a great design.

I can enable/disable the rear ***** or I can control the rear hvac from the front alone.

Once you enable/disable the rear *****, it always stays at that setting until you change it again.

The design is fine. You just didnt understand how it works and now you do.

 

My Ford van had a simple **** on the dash that controlled the rear AC/heat fan; one position reverted controls to the rear passengers.

If the setting is a "set and forget" thing in the Expy maybe it's fine. I've got a Grand Caravan with a screen and don't think they run the climate control thru that; there are physical buttons. No kids so I don't really care.

So far in the new van, I see how it would be easy to get in an accident trying to control the radio functions while driving. I like physical ***** and buttons but realize that it's not a choice we are given any more in a lot of cases.

Thanks,
George

 

Smell is still there, but the car doesn't get used and is sitting in my shop.

Now I am attempting to figure out where the air intake for the front system is. As far as I can tell, it is not at the base of the windshield.

 

Seconded regarding the rear climate controls having an anti-kid option. Big fan.