Smoke from the passenger side heater vent...

[CRE]

Ok, so I'm on my way to work this morning and I get on the highway. All of the sudden I notice smoke billowing out of the passenger side heater vent. It's not coming out of any of the other. It's not horribly dense, about like a freshly puffed on cigar. It only lasts about 30 seconds and it's down to a whisp. The color is very decidedly BROWN. I roll up my window, but at this point it's not dense enough and I smell nothing burning/burnt.

I got to work, tore out my glove box (look for a WTB soon. ) and inspected my TCCS' wiring and the wiring for my MAFT Pro and LC-1. All fine, no burnt smell no warped or singed connectors, all wire insulation appears like new and my harness isn't brittle.

So, the only things I can still think of are something in the passenger kick panel or the blower resistor. I don't often use my A/C and it's summer so I haven't been using the heater. I did turn on the A/C this morning (the heat was on when I turned on the blower). Only had it on for a minute though, then turned it off.

Is it possible one of the blower resistors is burning up and that the smoke had a chance to fill the duct, but didn't come out until I was at highway speeds? The air is set to recirc too, so it pulls air from near the passenger kick panel compartment.

I tried running the A/C and it ran fine, no low speed, but that's been out for sometime.

Are there any common failure point on that side?

 

[lagged]

if it didnt smell like burning it might have just been dirt...

 

[CRE]

Yeah, that's what the color had me thinking. The car had been sitting for about two weeks. But after I pulled the glove box and checked the wiring I sniffed at the vent and thought I just barely smelled something burnt... could have been my imagination I suppose.

I've got a big ol' fire extinguisher behind my seat... it'll be riding shotgun on the trip home... hose out and aimed from the start.

Any other possibilities? I've been logging the past couple days, so I went over the log from this morning and NOTHING skipped a beat. So I'm thinking it's an accessory system or something in the ECU overloaded but didn't go out when I was loading down the car getting up to highway speed.

 

[CRE]

I have been considering something as of late... I suspect that I may very well be in hell and all of this is a masterful charade. A week ago my wife and I smelled burning paper in her car... tore through the whole thing... nada... WTF?

Perhaps I was a witch in a past life and it's all catching up with me now?

 

[MKIIINA]

my guess is dirt possibly mixed with condensation. there are a few cars i have been in where the a/c worked well enough where white smoke "appeared" to come out of the vents when it was really hot and humid but it was enough to cause some light condensation i guess.

 

[lagged]

a witch? .... ok

 

[CRE]

Well, whatever it was it rattled the hell out of me.


Yeah, a witch... and apparently not a very good one. I got caught. The thought of a crowd with burning torches makes me want to hide under my desk. :icon_razz


I can't figure out why it only blew out of the passenger side though. Don't they usually blow evenly, they seem to in my car, although that vent is almost always closed... actually, I only opened it a couple days before I had to park it for a couple weeks, IIRC. If it is smoke I guess it's a good thing I opened that vent.

Any other suggestions? I suppose I may know when I get off of work and can open the kick panel up, but I'd like to know if there's anything in particular I should look at.... kinda freaked out if you can't tell. :nono:

 

[CRE]

Whoops, wrong button

 

[supramk3man]

i have seen this before on a supra and other cars some times in the morning the ac with do that do to the humidity. but keep a eye on it to make sure it was nothing more then that.

 

[gaboonviper85]

did you take your medication CRE? lol

 

[AJ'S 88NA]

I remember it happening to me also, been so long ago, no smell that I remember, thought the samething that something was burning. I was in Florida when it happened, so maybe something to do with humidity.

Now back to this warlock thing....oh wait you said witch....did you hate your 1st grade teacher?

 

[CRE]

did you take your medication CRE? lol

No.



They're not gonna brainwash me! I know what they're up to and I'm not fooled!



You're working for THEM, aren't ya? :1zhelp:

 

[CRE]

The question I'm left with concerning the dust/condensation (man on the grassy knoll) theory is that the air wasn't on and the vent is set to recirc. I suppose air could still be blowing past the door in the unit, especially at speeds around 130MPH, but is it likely to be enough to move enough dirt for one good 30 second puff and still mist a little after I slowed to 40MPH?

EDIT:

I remember it happening to me also, been so long ago, no smell that I remember, thought the samething that something was burning. I was in Florida when it happened, so maybe something to do with humidity.

Ok, well, I'll still check behind the kick panel and take some xanax.... but I'm gonna be nervous for weeks now.

Now back to this warlock thing....oh wait you said witch....did you hate your 1st grade teacher?

Can't say I hated her.... the dancing nekkid with goats thing was weird though.

 

[Who]

I have a ford exploder that did the same thing. Small leaves managed to work their way into the fresh air vent for the ac. When you turn on the ac fan the blower resistor gets very, very hot. Hence the reason they place them in the path of the blower fan. Anyways the leaves caught on fire inside the blower motor housing and billowed smoke out of the ac vents.

 

[s000pra89T]

Has it happened again? I guess you won't find out since it just occurred this morning. If there was no scent to it, I'm assuming dirt as well...

 

[CRE]

It hasn't happened before that I've noticed and I haven't driven the car since this morning.

Like I said, While it was happening I didn't notice any smell. The passenger window was closed and the driver's side open, so I figure I would have been likely to smell something as it crossed my path to exit the vehicle. When I smelled the vent I thought I might have smelled the faint odor of something that had burned, but there was no smell at all behind the glove box..... that must have been s sight for passer-by's. lol

 

[dumbo]

I have a ford exploder that did the same thing. Small leaves managed to work their way into the fresh air vent for the ac. When you turn on the ac fan the blower resistor gets very, very hot. Hence the reason they place them in the path of the blower fan. Anyways the leaves caught on fire inside the blower motor housing and billowed smoke out of the ac vents.

yah that would be my thought too, its only one or two screws under the glove box, maybe pop it out and give her a look, should be able to tell if theres some foreign material on it, or ash. mine got so hot it made a open in the very finest coil(low) so i only got med. and high fan now.. anyone got one for sale haha.

 

[Who]

Call Jeff at Champion Toyota. The number is in the vendor section. I believe Pep Boys can order one for you. Sometimes you can solder the broken wire back together.

 

[cuel]

Since you said it was brown, I'd lean more toward the dirt theory as well. Wouldn't be the first time I've seen it, either. I always find dirt, leaves, papers, etc., caught in blower motors when faced with a complaint like this.

Hope you figure it out.

 

[CRE]

Well, i spent the evening digging through under the dash. All of the stock wiring and my added wiring are fine. There's no incky charred stuffs to be seen in the kick panel compartment and the ECU smelled... well, like an ECU.

If it was something burning the I hae no idea what. I could imagine it being the blower, but the blower was off when this happened. The only way it could be dirt though is if outside air can still push in in a high enough volume to move the dirt when the CC is set to recirc.... OR does the door that switches to recirc open back up to outside air once the CC is off?

It wasn't the blower resistors, the only issue there is that the low resistor is burned out (as usual) but I'm not worried about it.

I can imagine it having been dirt, but I'm surprised it didn't move sooner. Prior to parking a couple weeks ago I set the CC for recirc (something i really never do, it's usually set for outside air) and I opened that vent. So I can imagine there may have been a fair amount of dirt built up.

I'll keep an eye on it. Hopefully it was a one time thing. You know, I kind of wish I had found something fried though... at least then I'd know what it was and how to fix it.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, I'll let you know if anything else happens. (That means I'll come back and beg for someone else to just fix it for me. )