Smell of Burning Wires..puff of smoke

[fstar]

Good morning guys...need some suggestions. Took the SC out last weekend and after a few miles came to a stop and all of a sudden a puff of smoke came out of the defroster vents with a smell of burning wires. Everything was still working fine but went straight back home and searched for the problem. Could not find anything at all abnormal. Took it back out yesterday (dumb?) and the car still ran fine....then while at a stop light the engine just died, restarted fine and headed home. Long story short...car runs fine but at idle will sometimes just die. If I kick the throttle a little before it dies it will continue to idle. Very intermittent. Any ideas where I should be looking?? Thanks guys...appreciate the help!

[CamB]

Just to be sure there aren't two problems - does all of the electrical stuff (especially the lights) still work?

[stormcrow]

If you smelled burning wire, then you have a electrical problem somewhere. Look behind the dash and I am sure you should be able to see what's burned. If you leave it like that and the problem occurs again, then you may really do some serious damage.

Steve

"A Porsche does more then just go fast in a staright line"

[speedkillz]

check the turn signal switch

[pwd72s]

Check the wires leading to air blower(s?)

[Roy M]

Same thing happened to me - this sounds stupid but do your heater controls work?

The cable from the distribution control had shorted on mine burning off the outer coating (hence the smoke) and taking a couple of cables in the automatic heater system with it. Heater system (between the seats) was relatively easy fix - wires easy to spot and that was the only damage there. The heater control cable had to be replaced so I modified an old choke cable and after adjusting it was as good as new.

I'll try and dig out some pics of the repairs if it will help.

Cheers

[Siena911]

Same thing happened to me, scared me silly, all that it ended up being is the fresh air blower packing up, the brushes eventually wore down enough and the wires shorted against the commutator. Just replaced the blower and its all fine.

Scary moment that, I was standing outside in rain with fire extinguisher at hand.

Hope its an easy fix
Jakes

Sorry just spotted the answer below, should have been more clear, I just replaced the blower motor, not the complete assembly

[jtgith]

Had the same problem. Blower motor worn out. Replace it and you will fix the problem. I just replaced the motor instead of the entire assembly due to $.