I was driving our 850 and saw and smelled smoke from the instrument area. It was electrical smoke for sure. It seemed to be on the left side of the cluster where the clear plastic covers the guages. It was not a lot but plenty like the first smoke from a match or two. I pulled over immediately and called a tow truck. I saw what turned out to be the generator light was on. It is the one that is a battery icon. When I opened the hood carefully I saw or smelled no smoke. Nothing around the fuse box. The day before I am certain that I heard a belt squeal but only for a couple of seconds and then never again. The car still runs but I only ran it for a couple of minutes after the smoking when I had been towed to the garage. It was not a hot day out and I had been driving on city streets for a couple of hours.

I/we would be grateful if anybody had ever heard of or has any knowledge of what it could be.

Thanks so much in advance, Danny and Stephanie

 

I have never heard of that before.
But if you smelled the smoke in side and it cam from the cluster I would pull the lower dash panel and the knee bolter and look up with a flashlight.

 

Maybe there's a short in one of the switches on the dash or a bad ground somewhere? Maybe the headlight switch? Very hard to tell without seeing it and looking around as tech suggested. In any case, I would not take a chance on this type of problem. You need to find out the cause immediately. Please make sure you have a fire extinguisher handy that's electrical fire-rated.