Smoke under dash.

[seymore]

Hey everyone, I thought my car was on fire this afternoon. First off let me say I don't have AC but I still have all the guts the blower, hoses, Etc. And when it rains and I have the vent fan on It drips a little water in the passenger side floorboard but just a little.

Well this afternoon It started to pouring rain and I mean pouring! So I rolled up the windows and turned on the fans, AC fan and the vent fan. I also had my wipers, radio, headlights and a phone charger in the cigarette lighter on.

So I started to smell a funny smell.. kept driving.. I thought it was a car in front of my with some bad exhaust.. kept driving.. about 15 minutes later I came to a red light as soon as I stopped the whole car filled up with smoke.

It was coming from everywhere the vents under the dash it was horrible. I immediately turned everything off, and pulled it to a gas station so I could look. I couldn't see anything.. no fire that is.

After that I started to diagnose the problem I turned everything back on one at a time to see if if started smoking again. Well when I turned the AC fan back on it started smoking again. Now I have used the AC fan for a year now whenever I have to have the windows up but never had a problem.

Has this happened to anyone else? What should I do. Thank you all for any help you can give. Jake

[Christien]

What did it smell like? Did it smell "electrical", if you know what I mean? (as opposed to oil, exhaust, etc.) Every once in a while I get some smoke emerging from the dash. It hasn't happened often enough for me to trace the source, but it has something to do with the wiring from the turn signal switch, and I believe it might be the high beams. It's a short somewhere, but has never caused a fire in my car. Mighty stinky and scary, though.

It definitely sounds like you've got a short in your fan wiring somewhere. Easiest thing would be to just get under there with a light and trace all the wiring. Not very comfortable or fun, but you should be able to find some place where a wire has frayed, or something like that.

[seymore]

Christien, It didn't smell electrical but I'm 99.9% sure it was. Thats why I thought it was exhaust from another car. there was just way to much smoke for it to be exhaust. it smelled kind of sweet a little like antifreeze but burnt. Ill get under there and see if I see anything. Thanks

[Christien]

Might want to disconnect the battery first

[JayG]

If it didnt smell like anything is burned then its refrigerant from the a/c. I have a leak in one of my lines and when I flip on the a/c it does the same thing. Gauges fog up and the cabin fill with smoke. Nothing is on fire but the r134a does that. Dries your mouth out too. Take it to get the cooling system pressure tested.

[seymore]

I dont have AC just the fan.

[JayG]

Originally Posted by seymore

I dont have AC just the fan.

So no remnants of refrigerant in the lines or is it all disconnected?

[seymore]

There all disconnected.

[john walker's workshop]

water in the heat exchangers? steams interiors up fast.

(they're = they are. there = over there, etc.)

[Laneco]

My husband's cabby did this about a week ago... I was driving down the freeway on the way back from a Porsche campout. I turned the fan on for a little ventilation. Odd smell... A few minutes later smoke absolutely boiled out of the vents - thought the car would burn to the ground!!!

The fan that I'd turned on for ventilation is now completely fried... Completely!

I suspect that's what happened to you.
angela

[Jaskas]

Did you got the problem solved, from which blower did the smoke come from?

I had also huge some, when i turned the heat on. and the footwell blowers wont work at all...
I also experienced some elektric-like smell at first.

Laneco: which fan was the problem?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Ground your light switch and check your interior/instrument lights for bad grounds/shorts/frayed wires. This is a fairly common problem among older 911s and there are several threads about it - including a few from folks who weren't so lucky.

[Carl Bauer]

Originally Posted by john walker's workshop

water in the heat exchangers? steams interiors up fast.

JW is spot on.

This happened to me right after it got done raining very hard here in Houston. It was just steam coming from the footwell heat exits and the dash vents.

It really did appear to be white smoke for a few seconds while I was trying to grab the fire extinguisher!

[Jaskas]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Ground your light switch and check your interior/instrument lights for bad grounds/shorts/frayed wires. This is a fairly common problem among older 911s and there are several threads about it - including a few from folks who weren't so lucky.

I dont think my problem is from ground problems. The smell came as the fan was on and the smoke came as the heater was on, the smoke came from the vents in dash, not "around" the dash.

Now only the motor blower works, all others dont... ?

[ramonesfreak]

i dont know much about the other blowers, but when my heater motor in the engine compartment fried itself, there was smoke coming directly from it, some melted wires and blown fuse.

[Jaskas]

I think the main problem in my case was the luggagecomparment blower:


http://s216.photobucket.com/albums/cc262/jaskas2/puhallin/

So... where to find a new one? Should i go original, or is there some cheaper solutions?

btw. new rims worked out fine: