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Passenger compartment smell on 2016 Taurus I couldn’t tell what kind of smell but it was not gasoline type smell almost like a natural gas smell


edselford

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I have a 2016 Taurus SEL with all wheel drive and 20” tires.  Vehicle purchased in June 2016.  I have driven the vehicle 49,000 trouble free mile with only oil and filter changes.

Todayvehicle started making very bad smell coming thru the heating system .  Something like a natural gas type smell not a gasoline smell. Checked for antifreezes leak and nothing is leaking or missing.  No gasoline leaks. Had to drive home today 15 degrees from river view to Brighton mi with heat turned off and windows down.  Also smell just as bad standing next to car. 

Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this

thanks

edselford

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Guys

thank you for suggestions. Car is an all wheel drive.  15W-150 gear lube used in PTU and rear differential.

because smell surrounds the vehicle when engine off for extended periods of time, probably not  leak but I will check!

I realized what smell was like yesterday. 30 years ago When I worked for Borg Warner selling the T5 manual 5 speed to Ford for the Mustang GT.

mustang at the time had a tremec 4 speed manual overdrive transmission.

we built a Mustang 302 V8 a hi rise intake, marine cylinder heads Holley 4 barrel carb demo vehicle.

It took one ride by Bill Ford himself to approve the program.

I built many T5’s in that time and lube used was first gear lube that smelled like the Taurus problem I have now. Thirty years is a long time ago!

It’s at the ford dealer waiting to be worked on since it’s not drivable with the smell.

so probably PTU related.  

Dealer just called. The entire PTU needs replacement. Wow

now I know one reason ford is switching to rear wheel drive based Explorer.  This must be a common failure with current Explorer/ Taurus AWD

not enough real estate to do a PTU correctly!

Guys thank you for your help.

edselford

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Thanks sorry I was off a little but I would suspect the 75W140 is used because the PTU is not large enough to hold a quart of fluid and torque is continuously transferred to rear thru coupling causing very high PTU temptures.  To avoid failing the hypoid and other gears they have to use a 140.

edselford

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  • 4 weeks later...

I finally got back from Florida (used my wife’s Escape!

picked up my 2016 Taurus from the dealer. They replaced the PTU completely! Two teeth were missing from hypoid drive gear.  And I’m not really too hard on my car since it’s not an SHO but just looks like one.

this must be a common problem with Taurus/ Explorer All Wheel Drive vehicles.

thankfully, vehicle’s 60,000 mile drivetrain warranty covered the repair cost. Does anyone know what I would of been charged out of warranty for the repair?

thanks

edselford

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Thanks YT90SC

that looks like about $2000!

We go thru design cycles every 15 to 20 years where a new group of engineers motivated by magazine car writers think that changing car architectures is the better way to go!

went from double wishbone front suspension to. McPherson strut and now back to modern day double wishbone.  All wheel drive from transfer case on demand to PTU with in line coupling and now back to transfer case active electronic control!

New is not always better!

edselford

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