Ranting more then anything else, but was moving my car off of a snow covered road so it would not get hit by some dumb a$$ sliding on the snow, and what do I see? a trail of smoke rising out of the steering column!

So it looks like I get to swap a column out tomarrow/tuesday, oh great fun.....

 

Smoke rising from your steering column?? That's a new one.....glad I'm not you dude. : /

 

Maybe theres some frayed wires. Have you blown any fuses?

 

No blown fuses, no fraied/fried wires to see. Though did find out that it happens in every key position but "off"

Then went out earlier today and chased more wires, to find it was the airbag circuit (great huh?) So dissed the power connector at the base of the column. To make sure I let it run for 30 minutes, no smoke. Problem solved. Just no operational airbag... oh well, I wanted to get a grant wheel anyway, this just makes it more argueable to my wife!

 

I've actually heard of that happening before, but not in an F-body. A fellow with a Pontiac Grand Prix (mid '90s) had the airbag's "popper" short out and caused the steering column to smoke while he was taking it down the highway. I hope it's not too much of a PITA to fix.

 

Hense the Grant sterering wheel purchase.... Got a challenger GT silver and go tit on today. Looks much better, and quicker end to end turning cause of the smaller diam 'wheel.