January 23, 2018
To: Owners of 2011-2017 Ford Explorers
From: Albert Donnay, MS, MHS
Donnay Detoxicology, LLC
Albert@DonnayDetox.com
443-333-8066
You should by now have received a form letter from The Ford Motor Company offering you a “complimentary service that reduces the potential for exhaust to enter” your Explorer. Ford’s letter repeats its earlier public statements that “These vehicles are safe. Our investigation has not found carbon monoxide levels that exceed what people are exposed to every day.”
As an independent toxicologist who has inspected several Explorers, I am writing to warn you that these statements are not true.
Ford Explorers are not safe! Toxic exhaust can build up quickly inside, including odorless and invisible carbon monoxide (CO).
This happens most commonly when:
- accelerating or decelerating quickly over 40 mph
- with all windows up
- and climate control on recirculate.
While most non-smokers are never exposed to more than 1 or 2 ppm of carbon monoxide (CO), I have measured CO levels in Ford Explorers in the range from 20 to 25 parts per million, and some videos posted on YouTube show even higher levels. In comparison, the only CO exposure standard set specifically for vehicles allows a maximum of just 5 ppm. It is a Russian standard, but Russia is one of the countries were the Explorer is made.
That Ford Explorers are unsafe is also clear from all the complaints that owners have filed, including over 2000 with Ford and over 1300 with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. These complaints describe a consistent pattern of CO symptoms affecting both drivers and passengers, including drowsiness, dizziness, and brain fog or confusion. For some, their symptoms may become chronic and persist for weeks to months after they stop driving their Explorer. There also are reports of vomiting among children, which is consistent with their being at greater risk due to their smaller body size and faster respiration.
To reduce the risk of you and your passengers getting CO poisoning, I urge you to follow the advice Ford gives in your owner’s manual about what to do if your smell exhaust fumes:
The more miles you drive, the greater your risk of developing both chronic CO poisoning. This is because CO is continuously absorbed into tissues during exposures and then takes weeks or months to diffuse back out after exposures stop. CO symptoms may be mild, moderate or severe, depending on the level of your exposure and—at their worst—have caused some drivers to black out and crash, causing injuries to themselves and others.
While Ford’s offer to inspect and repair Explorers for all owners who are concerned about CO appears generous, it is a hollow gesture given that Ford dealers are unable to either identify CO leaks–they do not have CO detectors—or consistently repair them. Since Explorer owners cannot rely on Ford to find or eliminate this defect, I urge you to be proactive and take some simple steps to protect yourself.
First, do not let Ford dealers mislead you into thinking that your Explorer is fine if you never smell exhaust. CO can build up inside even without any exhaust odor, and high levels can persist long after any odor fades–until either windows are opened or recirculate is turned OFF
Ford claims the repairs specified in its latest “Customer Satisfaction Program” for civilian Explorers (#17N03) are sufficient to eliminate the odor problem. But they are not, because they do not include the inspection or repair of two major CO-related defects: the Explorer’s crack-prone exhaust manifolds and its defectively designed tail pipes. Although Ford issued a recall for these defects in August (#G0000148), it applies only to the 2013-2017 Police Interceptor version. So if your Explorer is out of warranty and you want these repairs, you will have to pay for them.
Not surprisingly, the less extensive (and less expensive) repairs that Ford is offering civilians have proven insufficient to stop exhaust leaks. They include reprogramming the ventilation system, replacing damaged and missing drain plugs with new designs, and sealing dozens of seams and holes in the body that were overlooked during assembly. And since dealers do not have CO detectors, they can neither identify CO leaks nor check any repairs they attempt.
Another thing Ford is not telling Explorer owners is that it is offering some dissatisfied customers the choice of a full refund or a new vehicle. Given that problems with exhaust odors also have been reported now by owners of the Ford Edge, Expedition, F-150 and Taurus, I recommend that CO-poisoned owners seek a refund rather than risk being exposed again.
Remember that you may be exposed to CO even if you do not smell an exhaust odor, and that high CO levels may last as long as the climate control is set to recirculate. Your best protections against getting CO poisoning while driving an Explorer are to:
- set recirculate OFF at all times and
- keep a personal CO detector with you when driving. It should have a digital display that starts below 10ppm and an instant alarm so you can take protective action before you are poisoned
I recommend against using home CO alarm in vehicles because they cannot protect you from acute or chronic CO poisoning. They are only designed to prevent deaths and do not alarm until CO has been continuously above 70ppm for one to four hours, or over 400 ppm for 4 to 15 minutes. By the time they alarm, anyone in the area will have already begun to absorb CO into their tissues.
Most importantly, if you ever smell exhaust while driving your Explorer, follow the advice in the owner’s manual and stop driving it immediately. Please do not risk your health by driving any further. Just tell the closest Ford dealer to send a tow-truck with a free loaner vehicle—anything but another Ford Explorer—that you can drive until yours is either repaired or refunded.
If you or anyone else is getting CO symptoms while in your Explorer, please call a doctor and visit FordExplorerNightmare.com for more information about tests and treatments available for chronic CO poisoning. I also invite you to read the nightmares described there by other Explorer owners and post your own.
Sincerely,
Albert Donnay, MS, MHS
Donnay Detoxicology, LLC
Albert @ DonnayDetox.com
443-333-8066