Noticed a small amount of smoke coming from the steering column in my 90 CRX Si yesterday. I did notice some electrical type odor before that also but I thought it was something outside. Please let me know if u have experienced something similar. I may tear the drivers side dash apart to see if I can find anything. Car runs and drives fine. For the last week it's been producing ALOT of noise from what seems like the speedometer cable. I thought that might be the cause as it might be rubbing something with the squealing sound. However, I was sitting at a stoplight when the smoke occurred.

 

Does everything electrical still work? Horn, rear defrost, light dimmer, fog lights if you have them? I know what you mean by smelling something and thinking it's outside. Sometimes that happens to me and I start sniffing around the car thinking it's my car on fire or something. I've never really heard of a speedo cable producing smoke but I suppose anything is possible. I would replace that soon if you can, that noise drives me crazy personally.

 

I hate this, my car was burning oil for so long, after I rebuilt it a car in front of was giving off that smell and I got scared thinking it was mine
it's not hard to remove the cluster cover, check that and check your engine harness.
Make sure it's strapped well to the engine where it's suppose to be

 

I had this same problem. For me it was the main relay, I'm pretty sure it is for you as well. Check the solders on your main relay, specifically the part that connects to near your ignition.

 

Had the same issue too then wam bam slam my ignition switch took a **** and my car wouldn't start it would just crank fire die so I had to steal my own car to get it home

 

thanks guys. I did replace the main relay not long ago. I also pulled the ignition relay thinking that was the problem, then realized the main relay was the problem. I'll check the igintion relay and see if that is the deal. Definitely some type of short or grounding going on.

 

My vote is your combo switch for your headlights. This has happened on three local cars including my old DX one recently. I bought a replacement only to find it was melted aswell. I had a steady amount of smoke coming from it on my way to work