!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Most importantly, the car is fine and no fire. (deep breath of relief)
I was literally a mile away from home after a 250+ mile drive (the furthest I've gone in years) when my lovely girlfriend says that exact quote:
"That smoke looks really cool how the sun is.... WAIT!"
I look behind her and I see the smallest tuft of white smoke and I smell a popcorn type smell. I turn off my radio (the only electronics I recently installed) and it does not change. I turn the car off at the stop light. smoke stops. Fire it up and race home but the smoke had basically stopped. I get home safe.
Before I tell you what I find, let me tell you of another weird thing that I believe are pieces to this puzzle.
The drive was in the middle of the day, but I drive over the Santa Cruz Mountains and it's semi dark and I use headlights for safety, right? (headlights were only used on the 20 mile stretch of the SC mountains)
When I was coming home over the same mountain, it was high 70's outside, but not hot. I had my headlights on and after about 10 minutes or so (maybe less) I needed to go into the right hand lane, so I use my blinker, but my dash blinker light wasn't coming on. I can see the turn signal in the reflection of the car in front of me so they're working, but my dash light isn't. Ok I think, new bulb, no worries. (it functioned all day before failing the first time)
At one point I turn my headlights off (at the summit, where its bright) and I had just been using turn signals as usual knowing they functioned (left turn signal light never failed), but then my turn signal dash light came back! Weird!
Going back to the night before, we took a little drive (headlights on) and I thought I smelled popcorn. We had also had a rainstorm recently and I thought it was something that had gotten wet but was now drying with a weird smell, who knows. So when I smelled it before I saw the smoke, I figured it was a reoccurring smell, but not an issue, but I was still ever mindful of my cars vital systems.
Back to current time, I get the car home safe and pull the rear passenger electrical wood cover off, and instantly I can smell the popcorn. I poke around and my fan fail fix wires had melted together and almost shorted. The smell was the wires getting hot and melting! (see below for pictures)
Both my fans were working, I have not added anything besides my radio, and I am using the radio circuit (green wire behind the Craig radio), I don't think it has anything to do with my radio.
It seems to have been when my headlights were on and the fans kicked on. The fan fail wires were tucked back and over themselves in a tight configuration, but they shouldn't have melted...right??
Now my amazing DeLorean detectives, has something failed? Was my electrical overloaded somehow? Did my wires...fail? old?
Both fans functioned and always have. The electrical was "revamped" in 2011 with new relays, but nothing has been touched otherwise. Car is factory. I leave my fuse cover on my fuses, but I've heard to remove it. None of my fuses or sockets look melted
To recap, my main points are:
-Only happened when headlights were on
-Only happened when fans were running
-Right turn signal bulb not functioning then functioning? (possibly after fans turned back off?)
-Right turn signal bulb non functioning when headlights were on
Would Dave's Solid-State Fan Relay help with the heat? Is there always a large amount of heat and it finally got too hot? (I know it gets warm but!)
Slightly worried but also curious!
Thank you for reading!