Well it seems I have some new electrical gremlins to deal with, and there was, as the subject says, smoke comming from my dash, and venting system.

I removed the dash last night so I could get at all the wires to see whats melted or burnt..... but I can't seem to see anything yet.....

Any advice or suggestions on finding a short?

P.S. That dash is a bitch to get off, I will be lucky to get it back on....

 

Well it happened to my 7 also and when i pooped my hood I relized when i close my hood the battery terminals were touching the hood bexause the hood area surrounding the battery was really hot so i covered the battery and never had a problem after that.

 

I checked around the battery when this happend, to see if anything was hot, and I could find nothing, this is what led to the dash removal.....

 

Ummm, dont poop your hood.

 

I just took it for a drive, and was looking to recreate the problem, but with no luck.... WTF???

 

yeah i know those dash's are a pain in the *** to get off. you think you got it till you have to take off the 2 nuts off from behind the guages and then the 2 underneath the glove box.

 

I had my 85 parts car dash off in 30 min. Try taking a Ford Tarus or Audi 80 off. Pfff

Do you have A/C? Is it comming out with it on?

 

you know it might just be a short between the steering wheel and the seat.

 

Care to elaborate?

 

my car did that once, i dont know if it was because the battery was hooked up backwards or what, but it fried the intermitten relay in the wiper circuit.... that was all nothin els was wrong

 

How did you end up figuring it out? I guess because your wipers quit working? WEll my heater quit working so maybe there is a link? But the heater quit months ago, and the smoke was a few days ago....

 

Perhaps it's not the wiring... Perhaps it's a switch...

Check high current switches such as for the blower motor and A/C (If you've got it...) Just stick em up next to your schnoz and get a good whiff...

I know the A/C switch gets pretty hot on my truck...

Apparantly all the 80's Mazdas had dealer or 3rd party installed A/C systems... (1989 B2600)

Not sure where the blower motor resistor is in the RX-7, but check that as well...

And remember, smoke might travel around under the dash... Could have originated somewhere else...

 

Well you say nothing changed except the heater. Take er for a drive again and turn on every electronic device in your car you can. See if something doesn't work and maybe you can pin-point it.

 

the way I found mine was i freaked when smoke started comming out the dash and the car smelled like fried electronics, so i got up under the dash with a light and found what was smoking, but it would have been easy to find from the smell, I still have the damn little box thing that fried and it still smells and that waslike 6 or 7 months ago.