Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

[c0rbin9]

So I'm pulling out of the parking garage today at work ready for a nice relaxing commute in 6 o'clock traffic when all the sudden, bam, smell of burning plastic and wisps of smoke creeping out of the passenger side dash vents. FWIW, this happened after making an usually hard left handed sweeper.

Checked all fuses - good. Checked all functions - still good. The only weird thing is I've got this neat new feature where the center stack lights (hazard switch, defrost switch) don't turn on when I turn the lights on. Or sometimes they do come on, but the hazard light switch gradually gets brighter instead of immediately turning on.

Any ideas where to begin? Tomorrow I'm going to pull out the radio and have a look into there. Really don't feel like learning how to pull the dashboard in my DD. It's 1 step forward 2 back with this car.

[Das Delfin]

if I were to guess it sounds like an electrical connection is shorting out. Get an electrical diagram and see what the switches in the middle get their power from. If they are all acting up then you need to trace see what they have in common. Either their grounds or their 12v or whatever the manual says

Then look for those wires and see if you see anything

my other idea is try pulling fuse 20 (the heater blower fuse) and see if the same problem happens. It's possible the blower is askew now and one of the plastic cages is rubbing the wrong way. Although not as likely

[TimeMachinE30]

If a fuse is bad, the circuit is broken and there is no voltage. This is not a fuse issue.

Recall what items were on? Perhaps start there.

I'd say pull fuses out. Then add them in one at a time, trying to isolate the circuit at fault.

Have an extinguisher at the ready. Do this away from any structures.

Safest, pull the dash apart and maybe even out. If there was smoke, there surely will be a mark left flagging the issue.

Good luck. Don't catch anything on fire. If you do, I get dibs on the part out.

[c0rbin9]

Been driving the car and no fires yet. Interior lights don't work quite right anymore. They take a second or 2 to come on after pulling the switch.

I looked around at what I can see (glovebox already removed) and I can't see much. Seems like the dashboard needs to come out in order to fix this. Shucks.

[TimeMachinE30]

No fires. . yet.

[Das Delfin]

when my friend's e34 heater core went he would get smoke out of the vents. Another thing to look for. Also something that could cause a fire.

[jeffnhiscars]

when my friend's e34 heater core went he would get smoke out of the vents. Another thing to look for. Also something that could cause a fire.

That would most likely have been steam

[Das Delfin]

^ it was a white smoke but thicker than steam

[jlevie]

Vaporized coolant makes a denser, whiter, smoke and has a slightly sweet odor. Very different from the smell of burning wire insulation. A dying blower motor can make a smell like burning paper.

I suspect that there is more than one problem here. A bad blower motor or heater core failure is about the only thing that would cause smoke to come out of an HVAC vent. I suspect that you will have to pull and test the HVAC blower and pull the dash to look for wire damage.

[c0rbin9]

It was definitely the smell of a burning wire, and it wasn't the blower motor.

And actually it may not have come out of the vents per say. It was just kind of creeping out from under the dash area where my (missing) glovebox would be.