hey guys,

After a 15 minute drive the headlights (MY01 C4 cab with 11,000 miles) and the interior lights (just ones inside the cowl tach/speedo/gas/etc) started flickering. I pull over & some smoke comes out from the area in front of the upper driver side dash speaker, accompianed by a nasty electrical smell.
I wait a few minutes and get home with no problems.
At home I pulled the front dash speaker and looked around and couldn't find any signs of an electrical problem - melted wires, etc.
I thought the most logical explanation is a couple days prior I switched out the upper console for a body color matching one (beautiful Lapis blue from Eric), and had pulled all the wires from the middle of the dash. I checked all these connections however and found nothing. I then took the car to my mechanic and he went through everything (except cracking the main wiring harness) and found no signs of an electrical problem.
Naturally that night when I first turn on the headlights, it starts smoking again, but this time only the interior dash lights are flickering. They continue to flicker and cut out completely off & on for the next ten minutes and then it's fine again. It's strange because something obviously melted but everything still works perfectly.
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to give all possible pertanent info because I know nothing about electrical problems except they scare the crap out of me.
Thanks in advance for any advice and for taking the time to read this.
MJ

 

I'd start by pulling out the headlight switch and headlight itself to check for burns and connections. Check all fuses too. You may want to remove the dash speedo pod also. Start by taking out parts of the dash. Double check the upper center console again for misplaced switches / crossed / stripped wires.

 

Checked the headlight switch, every fuse and every connection/wire in the center of the dash.
Must be something inside the headlight light switch because I was pulling on it a little trying to figure how to take it off the day before all this started. Is the headlight switch connected to the instrument lights?
This sucks.