So after a good hour and a half of blowing the heat and defog, [ miserable day in TO ] all of a sudden I can smell smoke, then see start through the left vent. What the @$%#^$ !
My question is ,should I take the battery out until someone looks at it.
Any thoughts as to why are always appreciated.
Bill

 

Did it smell like oil or burnt out blower motor windings ?

 

or bbq'd critter............

 

Not oil, not critter,more of a elec.burn smell. Wires melting ?
I don't even know what those other thing are.

 

Sounds like it could be the motor windings for the blower motor. You could always just disconect that and see what happens. You will still even have heat, just not at idle / low rpms. If you brought it down one sat we could look at it for you but unfortunately this wekend I will be at Hershey.

You can try starting and idling your car with the centre heat levers down. ( no heater blower action ) and when you raise them it wil start the blower and you wpuld smell it right away.

OR even better test. pop the engine lid, turn on the inition only. Lift the centre heater levers. you should definitely hear the wooshing sound and go out back and see what is going on. If you know what the blower looks like you will be able to inspect it. ( the gold thing on the left at the top of the engine. )

If you smell burning or don't hear the motor you will know what it is.

My guess it is this as they go quite often. You can get em at swap meets or ebay and are a cinch to replace.

 

As always, you guys are a font of knowledge !
Thanks .

 

That happened to me once 3 summers ago. I pulled over immediately, looked over the engine, under the car, everywhere and couldn't find the source of the smoke. I even hoisted the car and looked for holes in the heater hoses - nothing. It went away and never came back.

 

This is a case of why one should include their car's info in their signature. The answer on what the problem is, or suggestions on where to look are different for different years. If, for example, you have a '71, we couldn't suggest that you look at footwell blowers. If, however, you had a Carrera, that would be the first thing I looked at, particularly since you noticed it on the one side.