smoke! fire? behind dash gauges

W

w. chen

Well-Known Member
Messages
103
Reaction score
12
Location
los angeles, ca
hi folks. had some kind electrical problems a few days ago. i had stopped to fill up the tank. and after, started the car to go on my way. lights were on, a/c on and then smoke started pouring out thru the left windshield defroster vent. acrid white smoke. i wasn't panicking but concerned. quickly lowered the windows and turned a/c to blow the smoke out and about 30 seconds later, shut everything off. i was surprised that i was calm and not yelling for the fire dept to send the red engines to hose my interior. after the air cleared, i checked the electricals and everything worked except the right side of the car's exterior lights were dead. headlights and high beams were fine, signals worked, then checked the fuses which were all good. since i was some ways from home, decided to go home and if it catches fire, so be it. my thing is if it starts to burn, let it go all the way.

now to start troubleshooting the problem. anyone in this group have such an experience? my thoughts without pulling the gauge dash out is that some wires inside melted causing that smoke. i don't know the extent and would like to hear from our group prior to pulling stuff out to see the damage. thanks in advance.

wendell
 
forgot one other thing, dash gauges lights dead. gauges work, even signal light worked, just the lights dead. i also believe the hvac lights were gone too. thanks.
 
Check the headlight switch, I have seen a terminal on the back come loose and short out. I have also seen the connector on the vent fan under the hood come loose and short out on the covering screen and it produced smoke in the vents.
 
Since wires are now compromised, they should be inspected and replaced where necessary. Melting through the insulation could be causing contact above and beyond the original issue. Once everything has integrity, then it would make sense to diagnose. I would bet you'd find the issue while replacing the burnt wires. Hopefully Chris is spot on, and the problem is not so complicated.
 
scary moment

Fortunately, most of the wiring is visible from under the dash. I would remove the drivers knee bolster and lay on my back and look around. Burnt wiring or disconnect should be pretty easy to spot.
 
My only recent experience was two weeks ago. I put a pita bread in the oven and went to take a shower. When the smoke cleared the pita was so hard I started advertising E9 floor pans made of pita bread. Fortunately I had another pita bread in the freezer, unfortunately I forgot that one also in the oven. I can now sell driver and passenger side floor pans.

Not sure I helped you Wendell beyond the deep wisdom that where there is smoke there is pita.
 
w. chen said:
hi folks. had some kind electrical problems a few days ago. i had stopped to fill up the tank. and after, started the car to go on my way. lights were on, a/c on and then smoke started pouring out thru the left windshield defroster vent. acrid white smoke. i wasn't panicking but concerned. quickly lowered the windows and turned a/c to blow the smoke out and about 30 seconds later, shut everything off. i was surprised that i was calm and not yelling for the fire dept to send the red engines to hose my interior. after the air cleared, i checked the electricals and everything worked except the right side of the car's exterior lights were dead. headlights and high beams were fine, signals worked, then checked the fuses which were all good. since i was some ways from home, decided to go home and if it catches fire, so be it. my thing is if it starts to burn, let it go all the way.

now to start troubleshooting the problem. anyone in this group have such an experience? my thoughts without pulling the gauge dash out is that some wires inside melted causing that smoke. i don't know the extent and would like to hear from our group prior to pulling stuff out to see the damage. thanks in advance.

wendell
Click to expand...

Sage advice from Chris. I've had two headlight switches go bad and both smoked and smelled. The switch has a resistor for the instrument cluster lights that could be the culprit. It heats up so you can always test it by feel.
 
Can a relay circuit take the power level down at the switch to help with the life of these old switches?
 
Tom P said:
Thanks Steve. Can you explain how you added the relay to low beam circuit/switch?
Click to expand...


You use the Yellow lo beam wire in the harness near battery as the trigger lead for the relay instead of going direct to lo beam light. Power to relay comes straight from battery, remaining yellow wire which you cut now goes to lights. Add ground for relay, you are done. Power for lo beam now no longer goes from battery to ignition switch to headlight switch to headlights, which have no fuse.
 
HB Chris said:
You use the Yellow lo beam wire in the harness near battery as the trigger lead for the relay instead of going direct to lo beam light. Power to relay comes straight from battery, remaining yellow wire which you cut now goes to lights. Add ground for relay, you are done. Power for lo beam now no longer goes from battery to ignition switch to headlight switch to headlights, which have no fuse.
Click to expand...

Old bakelite inline fuses from VW are great for these issues as well, you can find them on the VW forums, and they are about $3 per fuse, they use the same old fashioned fuses as our cars and look period correct.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top