Driving then all the sudden car dies and starts smoking inside cab

[alexbartlett93]

So i was driving the other night when my radio starts flashing on and off, (Kenwood KDC-552u i think) so i reach down to turn it off and then i notice a good amount of smoke coming out of the car so i start to pull over, the car dies and i pop the hood, get everyone out of the car and look with my maglight for the source of the smoke in the engine bay, nothing, so i go back to the inside of the car and it appears to be smoking from the middle of the dash, almost coming out of the upper center vent, even though the key is out, the radio is still on, so i disconnected the battery, got the car towed and hooked the power back up, now i have no spark. the distributor is getting power it seems, but its not giving any power to get any spark. what else should i check here? i'm thinking fuseable link somewhere or inline fuse could be messed up, but the car still gets power to the dizzy, its odd, i'm not familiar with hondas going up in smoke from the inside, sounds like a good time. no hid's, nothing aftermarket really in the electrical department, i have 4200k or something like that halogen headlights, and blue glass sylvanias in the tails and signals. the guy before me had a sound system hooked up, but i only put in my kenwood, i haven't got around to putting my subs or amp in yet, i've only wired the rca and remote cables when i first got the car, the wiring i did on my radio is solid, i have butt connectors and tape and did a clean job, only problem i had early on was the radio going into protect mode, later i found out its because of the rear driverside speaker was causing a short, so i disconnected it and secured the wire ends and that fixed it, this was a few months ago, but given the care the car had from the original owner its possible he messed something up inside the dash or somewhere with his sound system, but i'm skeptical about that being the cause, any experience with inside smoking? this is a 95 civic ex coupe with a jdm d15b swap, standard tranny, VTEC, bad clockspring (like every other 5th gen)

 

[lethal6]

Sounds kind of obvious to me. It isn't a coincidence that the radio was flashing on and off, then the dash mysteriously started smoking directly near where said radio is installed. Your car won't start because you fried something. Being that the only modification electrically is the radio, I would bet a very good guess it has something to do with the wiring.

 

[HeX]

Sounds kind of obvious to me. It isn't a coincidence that the radio was flashing on and off, then the dash mysteriously started smoking directly near where said radio is installed. Your car won't start because you fried something. Being that the only modification electrically is the radio, I would bet a very good guess it has something to do with the wiring.

I agree here. The radio is easy to pull out so just inspect it. perhaps you missed something during your installation that finally went faulty. At this point it wouldnt hurt.

 

[alexbartlett93]

Sounds kind of obvious to me. It isn't a coincidence that the radio was flashing on and off, then the dash mysteriously started smoking directly near where said radio is installed. Your car won't start because you fried something. Being that the only modification electrically is the radio, I would bet a very good guess it has something to do with the wiring.

Yeah, but i'm trying to figure out what could have fried, and if anyone has ever had this happen and what i should check, it wasn't my wire job, so maybe i need to go deeper into the dash, and its weird that the distributor is getting power but not sparking through the wires to give me spark, you get what i'm saying?

 

[alexbartlett93]

I agree here. The radio is easy to pull out so just inspect it. perhaps you missed something during your installation that finally went faulty. At this point it wouldnt hurt.

yeah i meant to pull it out while i was waiting for the tow truck, you think the radio shorting something out might have incapacitated my dizzy? cuz i'm still getting power to the car and to the distributor, just not getting spark

 

[RonJ]

1) Pull the radio out and check the wires.

2) Did you actually test for voltage at the distributor connector? If so, how and what wire?

3) Does the starter crank the engine?

4) Does the fuel pump prime?