I had an issue today where my car wouldn't start. My battery had a full charge, but my starter was just clicking. I noticed a bunch of smoke start to pour out from under my passenger side dash, so I popped the panel off and saw that when I crank the car, smoke pours out or the ECM. I checked the wires, and saw that the insulation on 2 wires was charred. Those wires are called "system ground" in the ECM. I was getting nowhere troubleshooting, so I asked my dad for some help. He said to check my engine grounds, and sure enough, the one that goes from the firewall to the head was loose, and the one that goes from the battery to the smog bracket was all corroded.

So, the starter was pulling it's ground directly through the ECM.

I fixed both of the problems, and the car fires right up now and runs good, but my check engine light comes on. I'm gonna scan for codes tomorrow, but do any of you guys have ideas on what to check? When it was smoking, it was making a sizzling noise also that sounds like a capacitor frying, but I can't be sure without opening it up.

Sorry for the lengthy post, and thanks for any help you can give.

Matt