HELP: smoke pouring from vents!

[WPflepsen]

Hi Guys,

I've got a 93 Ram 350 LE that has just over 42,000 miles on it, the last 15,000 put on within the past 8 months. For about the past month or so, the interior has smelled "smoky," like something rubber or plastic is burning. The smell seems to be worse in cold or rainy weather, and especially on startups. Today I was almost gassed out and could see smoke pouring from the a/c vents as I was driving. This was following a soaking rain, but got a bit better after some time. The vehicle runs and drives fine, and guages all indicate normal. The smell was horrible, but all fluid levels were fine and there was no visible fires or burning under the hood. Has anyone else had this problem? Could the rainwater be soaking some HVAC component through the hood vent? I have an appointment for the Dodge dealer on Friday, but those guys don't work on many 1st gen. Cummins and I am far from a mechanic.



Thanks a bunch,

Jake

 

[DonTX]

On the older Dodge trucks, the heater controlled speed by little coils that got red hot, and were placed in the ac/heat airstream for cooling. A small bit of fuzz on the coils would often smoke up the insides. Don't know about your year though. If it is a mousenest, the added oxygen will make you a nice dash fire.

 

[cerberusiam]

Oh, now you went and did it!!! You let the smoke out of it and ain't never gonna be right again! :-laf :-laf





It sounds like a mouse has built a nest in there somewhere and the fan is blowing the stuff around on the fan switch resistors. Those little buggers just love heating boxes.

 

[mysteryman]

smoke

This could be a few different things... . the plastic/rubber smell tells the tail. .

1) the heater box has leaves packed in front of the evaporator or packed in the air intake and the blower motor speed coils are burning them.



2) the blower motor is shot and is drawing too much current . This caused the wiring in the dash to melt the plastic off of them.....



3) the plug on the headlight switch is melting due to shorts or high current draw in the tail/running lights... The cause for this is normally Faulty trailer wiring..... or salt water getting into the light bulb sockets and creating cross shorts



4) If your windows fog up and or feel slimy it is a leaking heater core... .



These are about the only things that will cause smoke to come out of the vents

Hi Guys,

I've got a 93 Ram 350 LE that has just over 42,000 miles on it, the last 15,000 put on within the past 8 months. For about the past month or so, the interior has smelled "smoky," like something rubber or plastic is burning. The smell seems to be worse in cold or rainy weather, and especially on startups. Today I was almost gassed out and could see smoke pouring from the a/c vents as I was driving. This was following a soaking rain, but got a bit better after some time. The vehicle runs and drives fine, and guages all indicate normal. The smell was horrible, but all fluid levels were fine and there was no visible fires or burning under the hood. Has anyone else had this problem? Could the rainwater be soaking some HVAC component through the hood vent? I have an appointment for the Dodge dealer on Friday, but those guys don't work on many 1st gen. Cummins and I am far from a mechanic.



Thanks a bunch,

Jake

 

[WPflepsen]

thanks

Hi Guys,

Thanks to all for the replies and suggestions, and a special thanks to mysteryman for clearing up the problem. There was a small electrical fire due to some poor aftermarket accessory installation that had evidently been smoldering for some time. It burst into flames yesterday and I immediately pulled over. After disconnecting most of the electrical system and rerouting the current via cell phone charger wire, I was able to limp back to Rockville and have the problem addressed. Moral of the story: don't ignore burning smells and watch out for electrical accessories!!! The a/c system does need to be cleaned out, but that is another issue, and thankfully one that can wait.



-Jake

 

[Paychk]

How to clean the heater box "suit case"



http://ramchargercentral.com/index.php?action=howtoshow;id=45