[Clammy]

Back in June, I was driving down to an event in New York state.

I was in and out of rain the whole way down, so I was using my rear defroster quite a bit. At some point, I noticed a burning smell. I didn't pay much mind to it, as I was driving with my windows down (A/C's on the fritz with a leak I have yet to find), when it wasn't raining, and it's not uncommon to smell burning, especially in rural areas where people have fires going all the time.

So, when I arrived at the site, I started unloading the car, and when I opened the right rear door, the smell was there, and smoke came out from the passenger side... �� Needless to say, I was concerned.

Since there was nothing I could about it immediately, and I wasn't going to be driving anywhere for the next few days, I put it out of my head, and enjoyed the weekend.

When I left, I figured that the issue had something to do with the rear defroster - a shorted wire, or something like that, so I didn't use it the whole way back. By the time I got home, there hadn't been any burning smell or smoke, so my thought about the rear defroster appeared to be correct.

The next day, I went looking for the source, and found this behind the C pillar trim, beside the right rear passenger headrest.







It's called a "trap circuit". It is in line with the power wire to the rear defroster, and is to suppress radio interference. Apparently this is not an uncommon failure... I'm just happy it didn't start an actual fire!!

I got the replacement parts, and installed them (I had to build the connector wiring myself), and all has been good since.

Hopefully, this can help someone if they experience the same problem.

Cheers!

[3PedalJake]

Holy shyt, glad you didn't get barbecued. LTNS hope life's been good to you pal.

[StradaRedlands]

As a fellow '06 330i owner, I am officially on notice!