ok, so i'm driving home and about 1/4 mile away, my front lights turn themselves off.. parking lights stay on.. wtf?!
so i turn them off and on and off and on (in a panic type deal cuz i was going about 60 mph on a gravel road)
so i just brake then turn my car off.. sit for a few seconds.. turn it on and... still no headlights.. they won't even flip up.. so i drive home by the light of the non existant moon and my parking lights
i take my dash apart.. take the switch off... test it.. and what do you know.. the conection's not good.. so i open it up.. clean it up a a bit.. put it back in then.. turn them on.. and they flip up.. and then smoke comes pouring from under the part of the dash that's still there, to the right of the steering column.
there's rivets in my dash and that smoke just about made me cry (reminded me of a T-bird SC that i saw the dash pad melt cuz everything underneith was on fire)..
is.. it.. just... a.. melted relay?.. plz..?
i'm going to go get some rivets (u know.. those big black ones along the edge at the bottom) so i can then put it back together..
1987 firebird formula LB9 Automatic, AC, Cruise, Viper alarm (so there's a bunch of wires from that under there to.. damn they did a ****ty install) power hatch, defrost.. umm.. i think that's most of the wires underneith.... PDL, PW.. ...
any help for tomarrow?

 

anybody?

 

I really dont know, when I hooked up neons in my car some wires were bare and touched a ground or something and started a fall fire with really bad smoke. Sorry im no help

 

my mom's 95 gmc safari van did that witht he heater/ac switch. some smoke started to come from under the dash and thats what burnt up the actual switch shorted out. i would recommend looking for anything that appears burnt...

btw the only way i found out it was her switch was by taking everything apart after the smoke started again...as it wasn't really noticable otherwise..

sorry i could not help more..

das Phoenix

 

i agree with phoenix350. i had a silver z28 that burnt to a crisp from an electrial fire in th edash while i was driving home one night. dont let it go. take the dash apart and find anything that looks burnt. look inside wire looms for memted wires also. while the dash is out reconnect your light switch and turn on your headlight, put your hand on the switch and see if it gets real hot do the same with th ewires around the area you seen smoke. if you still cant find the problem then take a fire extingusher with you from now on. there cheaper then buying a new car.

 

if my car burns.........
naw.. wouldn't ever let that happen to her..
me a a couple of mechanics figured out that it was my fog light wire (wtf?) that melted/burnt.. weird thing..... don't have fog lights on a firebird (but the wireing is there!)
and there's 8 little rivets holding my dash on when i'm done taking all the screws off..
somebody told me that there's two bolts on the sides that hold up this bar that the rivets are riveted to..
can't find them, but i was in a rush and didn't look too hard.
it's not a death trap.. it's all safe now.. but that fire extinguisher is a good idea..
switch is ok..
the burnt wire sti'll there.. just cut at both ends now.

s'all good.

 

I had a friend with a 91 bird that was smoking. his was caused by the ac/heater switch. I dont know where your smoke is coming from but on his car it was coming from the slots where the ***** slide on the controls.