Smoke out of vents

Post Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:31 pm

Would a faulty the heater valve be causing smoke to come out of the vents or would this be the heater core unit? Mine started smoking out the vents tonight with a bad smell of burning - it's definitely coming from behind dash but I'm not sure where!

Any advice appreciated

Bert

Post Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:47 pm

Urrrrrm no!
Have you recently installed a head unit?

Post Tue Aug 26, 2014 11:48 pm

Age of car and/or aircon makes a difference, but assuming this is a facelift, non aircon car, I'd say it's the fan speed resistor burning up, although smoke from the wiper motor or fan motor would also end up coming from the facia vents.

Post Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:02 am

1992 318 non aircon car (standard heating) I'll have a good look at it tomorrow. Will I have to strip out the dash to check the fan speed resistor? And is this a straight forward fix?

Post Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:04 am

You can get at the resistor by taking out the panel above and to the right of the glove box. Square brown thing with several thickish wires going to it.

Post Wed Aug 27, 2014 12:06 am

I'll have a look at it tomorrow so and revert back when I discover the culprit. Thanks for your help, Bert

Post Wed Aug 27, 2014 1:44 pm

A likely cause for the resister to burn out is a sticking blower motor. Best to clean and oil this.

Ben

Post Wed Aug 27, 2014 10:06 pm

Sorry guys I didn't get around to looking at it tonight (working late) so I will inspect it tomorrow. Would the fact that I have been losing coolant have anything to do with it. After reading some of the articles on here I went out to discover that the carpet on the passenger side is wet (car is garaged most of the time). I'll pull up the carpet tomorrow but have any of you any thoughts whether this could be related, Bert

Post Thu Aug 28, 2014 4:14 pm

Turned out to be the wiper motor. Wipers had decided to pack in a I didn't realise the wiper lever was on - hence the power going to it. Stuck the reliable fingers in to have a feel and burnt the tops off them!!!! The whole are was full of dry leaves just waiting to go up! Stripped it out and an going to fit a spare one I have out of a donor car. Good clean required while I'm in there. For some strange reason the heater now works on all four settings!!!! I'll inspect coolant leak when I have wiper motor swapped over! Happy days - so far!