Electrical Question: Smoke coming from glove box area?

[FL318is]

Hey guys, today as I sat in traffic I noticed that "sweet" electrical "burn" smell. I thought it might be the car in front of me. But alas, it was my 91 318is. I pulled over, shut the engine down and then noticed smoke coming from the glove box area. Open the box and smoke starting coming out from the top left of the box. As if the smoke had collected inside the dash.

Not much smoke but enough to tell me the general area. No problems (for now) with the performance but the smell is getting stronger and now, no more smoke.

Any ideas on where and what to start??

[nando]

Dme is pretty much the only thing in there.

Open it up and have a look?

[FL318is]

After I have coffee it will be opened up.

[AndrewBird]

Could be coil pack transistor(s). Somewhat common on M42 powered cars. Happened to me.



It's easy to replace though if you know how to solder.

As a side note, they fry because a coil goes bad and overloads the transistor. Now might be a good time to go coil on plug.

[FL318is]

Thanks! I was wondering about that.

Source for coil on?

[FL318is]

Coil transistors check out fine. No burn! Next step, exploratory quest.