so i'm driving and i notice the volt meter is 18.
now i knew i had a bad ground, but instead of usually draining the battery, it did much more.
anyways im driving and the volt meter was at 18, then it was pegged, so was the temp gauge. the tach dropped and the car was sputtering. i quickly pulled onto a side street as smoke emerged from the gauge cluster, right by the volt meter soon followed by the tach.
i pop the hood and the battery was smoking pretty bad.
i disconnected the cables and let it sit.

meh, i'll have it towed home tomorrow and then take apart the dash sometime this week.
i'll look and see if the bad wire/ground was in there, if it's over my head i'll bring it to the garage nearby.
my friend said it would be wise to have all of the wires redone. would it?

car turned 25 this month

 

look at the fusable links to see if they have blown. they cause a good amount of smoke.

 

i know very little about wiring in cars, what exactly are those?

 

I had the same thing happen to me a few weeks ago. My case was a little different were as I want driving and it was on the speedo side.

I had mine in the garage stored for several months. I charged the battery every once in a while. I fired it up without a problem and let it idle. I did a few things while it ran and came back to check it. Everything was fine when I shut it off. I fired it right back up to make sure it would start ok and I started seeing smoke.

I first thought exhaust from being in the garage, but it was comming from the cluster. The smoke rolled out above the speedo side behind the glass.
I didnt notice a spike in voltage, it was showing 12-14 just fine. I pulled the cluster and checked the fuse box. The fuses were fine but the cluster smelled burnt in the back were the harness plugs in and right above.

I still havnt figured out my problem yet, but im figuring a voltage regulator problem, or a circut board burnt out.

You might have your alternator tested with a load and see if it is ok.

 

hmm well for a while, if i left the car for a few days and came back, the battery would be drained, its a new battery too.

and so i figured it was a bad ground or something.

how long do alternators last? mine is about 2 years old