Smoke coming from dashboard vents- Help

[Yellowdart69]

Any idea what to look for- My 82 Cordoba is not used very much anymore. But yesterday, I drove it for four or five hours. Everything was fine. This morning, almost as soon as I started driving, I noticed a burning smell in the car, then saw smoke coming out of the passenger side air vents. After turning off the motor, I opened the hood. Smoke was coming out of the cowl intake vent. I drove the car home and parked it in the driveway. Any idea of what could be wrong? Thank you.

 

[jasperjacko]

was your heat a/c system on. was it maybe steam....heater core? or the thing that adjusts voltage for the blower? its mounted inside the firewall and is open to the cowl area.

 

[Dago Red]

Electrical will have a pretty pungent smell. If it smells like somebody is burning wood/leaves, you probably have a buildup of local debris from Mother Nature

 

[Yellowdart69]

Thank you. The AC was on, or at least the blower was on. It was an electrical smell, not an antifreeze smell.

 

[MiradaMegacab]

There is a resistor mounted on a PC board that is exposed to the cowl. The PC board bolts to the cowl from inside the car just above the glove compartment. U will see wires plugged into it.

 

[Yellowdart69]

Thanks for the help. The smell and smoke have gone away. The car runs as well as ever. The blower works on all speeds. There was a lot of debris in the cowl area, on the passenger side - mostly insulation! like the kind used in the interior, for sound. I have no idea how it got there. I didn't see any mouse droppings.

 

[bremereric]

Did you buy some lottery tickets after that, thus saying your darn lucky.