Smoking vents!!

[jeffbottman]

An unfortunate sequence of events driving home today. First, air conditioner fan (center console) speed was jumping around randomly, while set to the middle speed. Then it stopped working entirely.

Then, a whiff of something burning ... gets worse ... very acrid now ... billow of smoke wafting from dash center vents ... turned fan switch off and smoke cleared.

I am guessing the fan itself is toast at this point. Has anyone else experienced this?

Luckily I live only a few miles from John Walker's Workshop, if the repair is beyond me

-Jeff

[steely]

Yes, sadly - I had that a few years ago and it can freak you out.

More than likely it is the evaporator fan motor inside the evaporator assy located in the smugglers box. The motor is toast. It jams up from age, binds, draws more current and takes some of the wiring with it.

[Jesse16]

You want to talk acid smell, back 4 years ago with a brand new red top battery under the hood, I had a voltage regulator failure and overheated the battery. That caused it to boil over and I was getting acid fumes right through the vents ! Extremely not fun and had to do some quick windows down and get parked. Let the thing cool down and began a day of fun road side repair. After other misc. steps, I replaced the regulator (thankfully had a spare already on my parts shelf) and all has been good. Also had to replace the battery.