code7rpd

I recently replaced my alternator and battery in my '90 C4 and the car has been running great. Yesterday, I pulled into my garage and saw smoke coming from the vents (my heater was on at the time). I thought maybe an oil drip caused smoke that got into the ventilation system but found no leaks. The smoke did not smell like burning oil either.

This morning I go to start up the car and the battery is completely dead. I jump start the car and as soon as I disconnect the battery box, the car dies. Jump it again and it dies again. Ultimately, the jump start battery box dies so the car isn't going anywhere.

Any ideas on what might be the problem. I'm guessing either the new alternator is shot but have never heard of one smoking. I did check the voltage with a multimeter after it fired up after jumping the car and it dropped from 12.8 volts to 8 volts in about 4 seconds. The second thought is that one of my servos or front fan motors burned up and is stuck open causing a massive battery drain but would it drain the battery that fast?

jimq

when one of my servos finally totally fried it would run my battery to 4 volts over night.

Mrmerlin

did the smoke smell electrical since you said is was not oil???

code7rpd

It smelled like rubber burning and I found the culprit. Apparently, the scat heater tube that runs from my B&B headers was rubbing on the positive connection at the starter. It rubbed through the pipe and come in contact with the metal wire inside the scat hose. This burned up the tube and created a short to ground with the metal wire inside the tube. Luckily, nothing got damaged!

Indycam

Dang , I was just about to guess that !

Mrmerlin

glad you got it figured out before the whole car decided to smoke

code7rpd

Me too! I ended up putting silicone hi temp sleeves around a new heater duct to better protect it. Hopefully that will solve the problem.