Club 80-90 Forums

Another cry for help - sure if this is the right place to put this. Was driving home today, oil temperature at half way when smoke started pouring out from from the heating/air vents, stopped looked at the engine which looked fine. Thought it might be the clutch but it didn't smell like a burning clutch and the smoke kept coming out when moving without using the clutch. Does anyone have a suggestion.

oil dripping on the exhaust

Sounds like an oil leak and oil is dripping onto your heat exchangers.
You should be able to smell burning oil.
Have a look for traces of oil on the exchangers.

Ignore the "heat exchangers" if it is water cooled cos it dont have any lol
Exhaust is the next place like kev said up there ^^^^

phredd

Thanks mate. It is water cooled diesel, was wondering where I could find heat exchanger. If it is oil dropping on to the exhaust wouldn't the smoke pour out of the back when moving rather than through the grill and air vents?

Flombard,
i am confused - sorry.

1982 - Aircooled Petrol...or early diesel


oil temp at medium? Do you have an aftermarket temp guage....cos certainly wasn't one in my Aircooled!
Did you mean heating/air vents in the cab? If so, you have melted perhaps the wires behind the dash...(I know, mine did about 6 weeks before it went to VW heaven as beyond economical repair)

I think the chaps above may have been thinking about the engine cooling vents.

But, I may be totallly wrong. Just reading some other meaning into your posts.

Em
xx

hey - u just answered my questions!!

so we are talking internal cab vents?

Em
x

Sounds familar..had smoke coming out of my last vans vents,by the time I could pull over it had turned to flames..didnt have the temp go up or anything but it was after a hill climb..never found out what caused it as after the 3 fire engines put it out there was nothing left. that was rear vents on mine not dash..

Yes its an early (1982) diesel watercooled with a replacement sb engine and I am talking about the air vents in the cab, still learning the correct terminology. Wondered about wiring, will have a look when its light.

OK if you have a watercooled diesel then the problem is not heat exchangers - that delight is reserved for aircooleds

It is potentially more serious.

Firstly is it 'smoke' or 'steam'.

If its smoke the only thing that will pump smoke through your dash vents is something burning behind the dash or grill, possibly electrical, but that would generally appear elsewhere on/around the dash

If its steam then it will be a radiator or heater matrix prblem (I think its steam)

My gut feeling would be a pinholed heater matrix.... and yes the dash will need to come out

If it is a pin hole it may not manifest itself till the engines nice and warm. you could minimise it by turning the heater to cold, but it will need sorting.

if it is smoke then your heater could have seized and fried the wiring

Really hope its something minor this time, my pockets have been emptied! I am confused because when the van stopped so did the smoke...oh well -will have a proper look during daylight

Had a look behind the dash, can't see any sign of burning wires. I noticed that the heater/blower fan switch is now seized fully on but isn't working so wondering if something went wrong in the heater switch mechanism, it was working before the smoke so hoping that might be it.

kevtherev wrote:if it is smoke then your heater could have seized and fried the wiring

flombard wrote:the heater/blower fan switch is now seized fully on but isn't working so wondering if something went wrong in the heater switch mechanism, it was working before the smoke so hoping that might be it.

Sounds like Kev gets the prize

Re shallow pockets, you can live without the heater blower now until October(ish)

Yep, switch melted inside. I'm a bit slow on the uptake. Kev do you mean the actual heater matrix will have broken or do you think it likely that it is just the switch? Massively relieved because this looks like something I can have a go at and not too pricey. Can wait 'til October that's true, now just to fix the window so that I can wind it down - I was frying like an egg yesterday

I hope Kev does not mind me answering

It is likely that your heater fan has seized up - a common issue on these vans.
This will have overloaded the switch, the wiring and possibly the low speed resistor, all of which can make smoke !

Sadly getting at the heater fan involves a fairly major strip down of the dash (taking it out !)
If you do a search on here for dashboard removal or heater fan you will find lots of info on this (it's probably in our "wiki" knowledge base as well )

I have to do mine before next winter as the bearings n mine sound like they are on their last legs !

Heater fan = around £38 from the likes of GSF etc - I believe, but check this first, they are the same as a MK1 golf one