Hi all,
Question. I just purchased a new 06 4x4 F150 KR for my wife. Honestly it is a little more vehicle than we need (commuting the kids to school). Having said that it rarely goes in to 4 whl drive. It now has 4k miles. I put it in 4 whl drive going up a gravel drive way a couple of times on our way to a friends house. Not that I needed to, only because I could. Drive way is 400 yards, slight grade up. Driving slow. I get to the top, get out of the truck and smell this odor, what appears to be coming from the back end. The best way to describe it is like burning oil, or burning brakes. This smell is only when in 4 whl drive. Took it to the dealer for the first service and mentioned this. They took it on a test drive, could smell it, and told me it is a break in smell, and it is coming from the catalytic converter. No problem.

If this is the case then I guess it's ok, but I don't want to have problems later if it's really not. Does anyone have experience with something similar to this. They said they would replace the catalytic converters if I wanted. I am unsure what to do. Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Zak

 

Well, you've got another 32k miles of warranty, so I would wait and see. Or perhaps hire an independent 4WD mechanic to have a look over it. If you are still smelling something burning in another few thousand miles, then I would definintely take it back and force the issue. But putting a new cat on now will only put you back to square one w/ regard to the burning smell issue, so I would definitely hold off on that. How long have you owned the truck? It took me nearly a year to log 4k mi and my break in smell was long gone by that time. But my wife bought her new car just a few short months ago and already has over 4k miles. So there's an element of mileage but probably also time as well.

BTW, have you ever tackled that driveway w/out 4WD? Might be that you're just picking up dust, etc, and that's what's actually burning...

 

I've owned the vehicle for prob 5months. Gone up the driveway with out the 4X on many times. Ford test drove my car during the service on flat road in 4wd and they could smell it also. Hence their deduction of cat converter. Just doesn't sound right. If I had more time I'd like to take one of their new trucks on the lot around the block in 4X to see if they smell. I suspect they wont. Plus now Ford has bumped their warranty up to either 5 and 50k or 6 and 60k can't remember now. So I know I'm covered, it just kind of bothers me that it smelling like this and could possibly wearing on other things. I grew up around boats and have a sensitive sniffer for problems, as if you don't fix them quickly they end up very costly later.

Thanks for your advice.

Zak

 

Hmmm, yeah, I think 5 mos/4k miles is way too long for the cat to still be kicking off bad fumes. Honestly, for the price of an hour of an independent mechanic's time, I'd be getting a second opinion (and you might let your stealership know that you plan to do that and also plan to present them with the bill when it turns out to not be the cat). These trucks are way too expensive to be given that kind of a brush-off...