93 gagt smoking steering colum?

[bigjayzizzle]

today i stoped at a red light and i looked at my steering colum and smoke started to come from the top part of the colum (not a lot but still smoked) in between the wiper and turn signal??? i have no idea what this means but i heard something about the colums catching on fire???? i replaced my old colum already and now this one is smoking. what can this be? and how do i fix it/stop it from progressingany further?

[rixGAphx]

'Possible ignition relay fire' or similar was a recall, for '96 and possibly other years.
I'm not sure which, but there's a forum on this site that lists all recalls.

I don't *think* it applied as early as '93.

If there's smoke, something is melting or burning.
I would take it apart and correct it rightaway, before too much damage has been done.
Prolly just some scraped insulation or a crimped wire lightly grounding-out, and a bit of vinyl electrical tape may fix it.

That kind of thing is common in a 12-yr old car, and even mice can play havoc with wiring.
I would just go looking for wiring, rather than searching for a device that may or may not have had a recall.

Good luck.
-Rick

PS: BTW, why was the column previously replaced?
Similar problem, or bearings, or ????
There's a good chance that today's malady results from the column change (even if it was a year ago), since a crimped wire or such may take a while to wear-thru.

[swalt]

Is your turn signals or high beams still functioning ok? Usually smoke like that is indicative of the multifunction switch (turn signal indicator) failing.

[JxMetal]

On my 90 Cutlass Supreme the column smoked. I just let it go (I know dumb move) because it would only smoke for a few seconds about every month or two. Eventually the turn signal switch went out and the smoking stopped. The smoking was caused by the turn signal switch my mechanic said.

[voyager]

i'll third that - turn signal switch. your blinkers probably haven't been up to par lately either; if you're the type to actually use your turn signals ( i think only about 40% of drivers do... =| ) -- you might have noticed something.

the same thing has happened to my berettas three times. always the multifunction (turn signal) switch.

[Matt95GT]

Unless you just started the car, I'm gonna vote combo switch... the hazard switch is part of it - and turn signals/brake lamps are affected by this. I'm thinking the contacts on the hazard switch are foobar'd causing this.

IIRC the ignition switch recall only applied to 94+ when the ignition switch design changed.

[bigjayzizzle]

it was replaced becuse my preevious colum had a bad ignition switch and dealers and other places wanted over 400 just for the little cylnder, so i went to junk yard and picked up a new colum. i dont know if this helps but i blew the fuse for my brake lights ( same fuse that lets u shift car out of park0 a few days before i saw the smoke.

[bigjayzizzle]

ive replaced my turn signals already... i have a bunch of wires taped into my steering coulm harness from when i put an alram in.. but now its just wires, so im thinkin maybe that has sumthing to do with it.