Nissan: smoke from steering clumn when signaling

Usually, where there's smoke there's fire. Just couldn't resist. Of course you should get it fixed. Weather or not you can do it yourself depends on your abilities and access to a good repair manual and the correct tools. If it has a tilt steering wheel I would highly recommend letting a professional do it. On most cars you would at least need a steering wheel puller, and on some models other special tools are required. Not sure about your particular model. That's where a repair manual would come in handy.

I had the exact same problem with my 99 Altima, although mine didn't smoke. I did notice the steering column was warm though. Any time made a left turn, the blinker would continue blinking even after it clicked back to the off position, but it was blinking twice as fast as normal.

I pulled the signal switch off the column and took it apart. I cleaned the contacts, lubed everything up with some vaseline, and it's been fine ever since. My guess was that it wasn't quite returning fully to the "off" position.

PS, I only let mine go a day or two before I pulled it apart, I wouldn't suggest letting yours go too long especially considering the smoke.. that could turn nasty pretty quickly!

Also, it's trivial to remove the switch from the steering column. Once you get the top and bottom cover off the column, there are two or maybe four screws holding it in place, and the electrical connector. With those undone, it just slides out to the left. Just be careful in there if you have an airbag, don't want to bump or short anything accidentally -- I usually pull the battery terminals off and wait 20 minutes if I'm doing anything near that part of the dash.

Like my link stated, disconnect the neg.cable for 20 minutes prior to repair, as JM states, leave it disconnected until repair is made.