I think the subject pretty much speaks for itself! I was cruising down a sidestreet and stopped at a stop sign waiting to turn left with my directional on and all of a sudden a small pillar of white smoke appeared from the steering colum. So I threw off the directional and made a mad dash for home not knowing what to expect. The rest of the way home i used the directional 7 or 8 times at least and nothing happened. The colum or anything didnt get hot and hasent smoked again and everthing still seems to work fine. My question is what the heck happened!! I gotta find something out otherwise this is going to leave me extreamly paronid. Thanks for any help!

Jason

P.S.- 87 GT

Bet you anything its exhaust smoke coming thought the seal in the footwell for the colum. I've yet to see one in good condition still. mines pretty much non exsistant, you could fit a small baby though mine. Mind you though smoke like this from a stop is still a bad thing. Was it a hard stop that could of thrown oil on the pipes? any idea which direction the wind was blowing..
Don't rule out an electrical issue though. Time to give your car a good look over!! Best of luck.

Exactly where was the smoke exiting the steering column? From around the horn button?turn signal stalk area? Lower down? Did it have a wire insulation smell? Check the other accessories that are column related, for proper operation.
emergency flashers
horn
wiper/washers
lights
all of these have switches and/or wiring inside or attached to the column. If the wiring has become chaffed, you may have unknowingly burned a fuse in this event, even tho the turn signals still work. The wiring inside the column is a pretty tight fit under normal circumstances. If the turn stalk has ever been changed, it's not hard to cut the insulation while pulling the harness thru the column.

[This message has been edited by maryjane (edited 04-27-2003).]

It had absoulutly no noticable smell to it, although both windows where open and the sunroof was off. It came from the top of the steering colum where the plastic piece behind the steering wheel meets us with the metal piece of the actual colum, it came right out that little crack. It probobly came a little more from the turn signal side of the colum but not by much! Went out there again and looked and everything appears fine!, the only thing i couldnt "test" is the cruise control. That hasent worked since i bought the car for some reason. I know the actual unit in the engine compartment works but when you try to use it, it does funny things.

Thanks for your help,

Jason

Well, don't know. There's not much else you can check without pulling the steering wheel & lock plate. About your cruise: you said it does funny things-like not holding a constant speed, surging etc? If so check the little vacum lines on the unit in the eng compartment. They can get soft and collapse or even porous. Check the metal vac cannister too for leaks. Good luck with it.

You need to get the steering wheel and lock plate off. You shorted something out. Could be the wiper horn or turn circuits. It could be an intermitant short that could go off again at any time. Next time you may not have a car.

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RIP Crew of Columbia. 01-Feb-03

Check the windshield washer switch. My 84 used to smoke when I hit the washer.
Fixed

Ray

It's no big deal, although it certainly doesn't seem so at the time... My 91 grand prix did this once - I traced it back to a brass contact arcing and burning dust (if that's even possible) Just take apart your column, clean everything out nice and tidy, and grease anything that needs to be (especially any contacts. ) Should be fine.