Smoke in the cabin!!

[gautam]

This first happened yesterday, I was following a bus so I thought maybe the exhaust fumes got in but it happened again when I was parked in a parking lot.

I can't tell what type of smoke it was, it was night time so I couldn't really tell the color of the smoke. I'm fairly certain it smelled like fire smoke not coolant smoke but I'm not sure :( it happened so quickly, I panicked and put the windows down to let it out.

Has anyone ever had this happen? The smoke came in from the passenger's side, I'll be checking for coolant leaks later today, I had a huge coolant leak last week, one of the hoses was missing a clamp and it spilled almost ALL of my coolant on to the area near the air intake snorkel. Got on the engine and evaporated, really scared the shit out of my mom who was riding in the car with me lol.

If it was caused by an electrical problem, wouldn't it blow a fuse? So far no errors on the dash, and no CEL's, I've scanned it with VAGCOM.

Also, I have seen smoke coming from the engine bay but it was in small puffs, only saw the puffs of smoke when I noticed smoke inside the cabin. Any help whatsoever would be very much appreciated!! I'm scared...

[q_dubz]

so smoke entered the cabin with the windows up?? Only thing that could be is electrical. Coolant of course has a very distinct smell and you'd most likely have a wet floor if it leaked enough to be noticed. Just my two cents.

[Lucca M]

Broken flex pipes ?

[JB5]

sometimes you can see what appears to be smoke but it's actually humid air. when yo blast the AC in a very humid day, it could happen.

[gautam]

http://imgur.com/zhVdDqs

Electrical smoke...

Has this ever happened to anyone? It looks like the harness on the positive terminal shorted out.

[chain_slappins4]

I would say that's probably the cause of your smoke, not sure about audi's, but on American cars, smoke could enter through the ducts.. i would imagine if you have the vents on fresh air, it could enter that way.. or if that was the last setting you used even..

Sent from the S4 with a Tap!!!

[roboto_1337]

I had a little bit of coolant collect on my exhaust manifold... it smoked for a few days after I did my downpipes.... nothing entered the cabin though. Electrical smoke has a distinct smell.

[Concavitor]

Serious, serious issue. Don't mess around. Take it to an Audi dealer's service department and have them check everything. This is very unusual and don't dismiss it if you no longer smell smoke.

[emilio]

crikey! the cabin air intake is right next to the battery, so it likely sucked in the smoke from that meltdown.

i would IMMEDIATELY disconnect both sides of the battery and start diagnostics or consult a mechanic. you don't want that lighting off in your driveway - or apartment garage!

- emilio

[gautam]

Cars parked at work, did not risk driving it anywhere, I have a friend who's a mechanic so he came and checked it out. He's not sure what the cause was but he's going to redo the positive terminal of the battery.

Funny thing is I had the car at an Audi dealership a month ago for them to have a look at my electrical system. I was having trouble starting the car after it had been sitting overnight or sitting at work, they looked at the battery, alternator and starter motor and said it was all good.

[emilio]

i would definitely inspect the entire engine electrical system before repairing that battery cable.

the starter problems are likely related. the only thing that could cause a meltdown that big is a very large un-fused short at a device designed to consume a lot of power - say, a device like the starter. it would take a huge amount of power to smoke a battery cable like that, so big that it would melt most electrical systems in the car before it affected the battery feed cable. the starter is probably the only device in the car capable of drawing that much juice without melting.

- emilio

[gautam]

Thanks emilio! That's my suspicion too. I'll have the mechanic have a look at the starter motor before trying to start it. Luckily my car is a stick so we can always push start it and bypass the starter motor for now. Might have to have the starter motor replaced very soon.

[gautam]

So the previous owner was a DIY type of person so I'm guessing he installed an aftermarket stereo, amp and sub himself. He didn't too a very good job cos I had a pretty bad grounding issue, I cannot believe my starter motor, alternator, coil packs or anything else electrical wasn't affected. My positive terminal blew because of a combination of the wiring and sheer bad luck, some leaves got stuck in the drain hole below the battery (oh and whoever installed it - previous owner most likely - didn't f-ing bolt it down so the battery was moving around with the bumps) so when it rained a few days ago, water pooled in the area and so what resulted was a blown battery, blown positive terminal and wire length, and a very scared (now, relieved) owner.

My mechanic re did the grounds so I shouldn't have any issues going forward (fingers crossed) and thank god my starter motor is ok cos that would have been more $$