Just arrived home and decided to play with the position of my steering wheel (just had it at the mechanics and wasn't sure if he changed its' position).

As I was moving it away from me, I heard a bit of a short and acrid white/yellow/grey smoke started billowing from the steering column.

I can't remember if the car turned itself off or if I turned it off (happened within a split second of each other) right after it happened. I took out my manual (make sure it wasn't on fire), waited a minute with the doors open to air out
I turned the car on again after I felt confident there was no fire. Smoke was gone. I turned the air on max and let it blow anything left in there out and checked all the signals/lights. Radio still worked and I didn't have any error messages, so I turned the car off again to take a look.

I couldn't see anything amiss inside the car or under the hood, but I'm no mechanic.

Any ideas? Should I just be towing my car to the mechanic and hoping I don't have a serious malfunction? Is there a simple way to see what the problem is?

Any help appreciated!

 

u can always remove the kick panel to access under the steering wheel. To be honest there is alot of wires down there once u remove the panel and a few modules. Search thermostat diy to see how to remove the kick panel. it only takes a few minutes to remove it and visually inspect it.