Smoke from under steering wheel, fans overheated?

[Richard]

Hi I have a 2005 Mazda3 Sport, manual transmission, and I was in bumper to bumper traffic on the highway for a good 20 mins. Once traffic cleared up and I finally got moving me and my brother (who was also with me in the car) smelled a strong smell, fumes or a strong chemical smell or something.

At first I thought it was the truck in front of us, but he sped off soon and we still smelled it. The engine's temperature was fine, it was halfway between hot and cold. There were no warnings on the dashboard. So we kept driving, and we also had the AC on the whole time. Soon, the fans just shut down, they weren't blowing any air, and then we saw smoke coming from underneath the driving wheel.

I pulled over and checked the engine, it was fine. I thought maybe I burned the clutch. Anyway we got back in the car, stared it up, and no problems. Also I turned off the fans as soon as we saw the smoke. I waited for a bit to see if the car would do something, then i turned the fans on and they made a really loud whirring noise.

Could it be that the fans overheated? This is what I am leaning to, and my dad looked at it and thinks the bearings may be going on the fan.

[Shawn]

I think mazda sourced some part from Lucas Electronics.
I believe this is what you need. Replacement Item (http://www3.telus.net/bc_triumph_registry/smoke.htm)

[TheMAN]

either the fan motor is bad or the wiring... who knows, we can't tell behind the computer... BRING YOUR CAR TO A SHOP BEFORE YOU SET IT ON FIRE!!!

[bluemazda3]

I had this issue with my dads old gmc safari .. but never got to fix it cuz we scrapped it.. nothing but problems.. Generally Made Crap = GMC never again

[sol_searchin]

Are you sure it wasn't your clutch

[baymoe]

Not to the extent of seeing smoke. It's probably the fan motor bushing slipped of it's slot (rare) and is creating a short. Get it checked it out asap regardless. Keep the fan off and try and source a replacement unit from auto wreckers.