I have an 88 GT in mint condition (11K miles) that exhibits a weird problem lately. Occasionally on startup it sends wisps of smoke and an electrical burning smell through the vents inside the car and the outside air intakes right below the windshield.
Has anyone seen a faulty blower motor cause this condition. I'm about ready to disconnect the blower motor and see if the condition stops.
Does anyone have any brilliant ideas in case this blower motor is not the cause. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Are you sure it's not water vapor, instead of smoke? I've seen water vapor come out of the defroster vents when I started my S-10. Seems like it had a strange smell, too. Not really an electrical smell though. Would fog the windshild just above the vents. It evaporated, just a couple of seconds after the engine started. Thought I might have a bad heater core, but it didn't keep doing it.

I'd check all the wiring in there. There was a guy on one of ther other mailing lists a few months ago that had this happen. He said he was driving down the road and when he turned on the A/C one of the wires had the insulation rubbed off on it and caused a fire under his dash. Complete mint '88GT with very low miles burned to the ground in only a couple minutes . Everytime I used my A/C I thought of his car doing that.
I bet your problem will be less sever. I'd suggest unplugging the blower motor and seeing if it still happens. Does it still happen when the blower isn't running?

[This message has been edited by fiero56 (edited 11-05-1999).]

I had the same problem with mine. I have an 87 GT with A/C. The cause was the heater core was leaking. Took it to PEP Boys in Dedham Mass, problem fixed, cost was about 250 dollars.

mpicanso,
When you say the same thing happened to you, do you mean the smoke/electrical burning smell or the water vapor/strange non-electrical smell? The latter started happening just this past week in my 86SE V6 w/AC. It fogs up the windshield completely on the inside and both side windows.

Hi Kel,

This must be the season for Fiero heater cores to be packing it in. If you missed them originally, here's the two threads I was involved with regarding my heater core experience:

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/001052.html

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/001127.html

Good luck getting your baby fixed.

Thanks Patrick! I'll take a look at them. Seems since I was in that accident, little problems keep popping up. You think that has something to do with this?

Kel, I suppose if your heater core was starting to rust out that the sudden jolt from an accident might finish off the job. It doesn't take much of an opening for the coolant to start leaking out. The coolant's under pressure when it's hot, and a tiny pinhole in the core can allow a lot of it to escape in no time at all.

I would suggest that you arm yourself with some knowledge about the replacement procedure before you take your Fiero in for repair. From all accounts, including mine, it's NOT that big of a job. I don't want to see you get overcharged.

Patrick,
I just got finished a little while ago, printing out those two threads you gave me. I'll be sure to inform him of what I read. My mechanic, Terry is a really good guy. He has even bought a Fiero manual just because of my car, and he's honest. Not like that **** ...errrrr....I mean that "nice" man that did the bodywork.