smoke from steering column on '93 GP

I had it happen with both of my Grand Prix's (1991 and 1992). It's the blinker mechanism or whatever it's called (sorry, I don't recall the name of the part) inside the steering column. It's the thing that makes the blinker 'click' off when you turn the steering wheel. I didn't replace either on my cars, as at the time, they were well over $300 (Canadian). That, and it didn't happen too often. I had an uncle look at it (GM dealership mechanic) and he said not to worry about it, as it was (at least, at the time) a known issue with these cars, and most didn't bother with it.

Thanks, Knight. Your explanation sounds plausible. IIRC the part you refer to is the cancelling cam.

One thing, though -- on both occasions when it smoked, the vehicle was just going straight down the highway with the cruise on -- not making or coming out of a turn.

So I'm wondering if yours _only_ did it during turns, or if the cancelling cam can cause that smoke even when it's not performing its function. TIA

I had a '91 Regal (same car in reality) and twice the steering column smoked. Scary at first, I was ready to bail out and let it burn, but the smoke stopped. The canceling cam did not work properly for a while, but after the second time it smoked, it started to work again and was not a problem for 50,000 miles afterwards.

In my case, it happened going straight but one of the time I may have had the turn signal on. I never knew, until now, that it was a common problem.

Never happened with the signals on. It always happened while I was driving straight down the road.

Hehe funny, I thought I was the only one who'd seen this. My 94 Lumina did it too a couple of times, usually right after I started the car for the day and hadn't even moved yet. Only happened like 1-2 times. I just shut the car off when I saw the smoke and let it stop, waited a minute or so, turned the car back on, no more smoke. Never had a problem with the cancel cam, either.

-GV

"James Goforth" wrote

Common problem in those years. It has nothing to do with the "cancelling" cam. The problem is in the signal light switch assembly. A couple of contact points get a bit hot, they have grease on them....you get smoke. I've replaced dozens of signal light switch assemblies in order to fix the problem.

Ian

Seems to be a common situation, especially with Crapillacs like mine. Happened a couple of time to me, ignored it, went away.