I took out my 1980 C3 for the first time in ages today. After about 20 minutes of driving, I started to get an electrical burning smell. Also, the radio started to misbehave; there were crackling, static-like sounds from the speakers. I immediately stopped, popped the hood, and had a good sniff around the engine. There was nothing unusual there. I got back into the car started it again. I noticed that even when I disconnected the radio’s face plate, the speakers were still making a cracking static sound. How can this be? The radio was disabled by removing the faceplate. But the electrical burning smell seemed to have gone. I put the face plate back on the radio, but the radio wouldn’t work anymore. After a while, I came home and I turned off the engine. I tried to start it again and it was like as if the battery was dead and there was absolutely no power. So I tried it a few times, and eventually it cranked very slowly, as if I had a very weak battery, and it struggled to turn the engine over. But it did eventually start.

So I’m not sure what’s going on and I’m also not sure where I should start investigating. Any tips ideas or advice?

By the way, the last few times I started the car over the last few months, it sounded like a weak battery, and it struggled to crank the engine. But the battery is only a year old!

Thanks.

.....Mike.....

 

I think the first step is to make sure the battery is still good. Take it to a local parts store to have it load-tested.

As for the radio, is it a factory unit? I'm not familiar with '80 radio components and wiring but knowing if it's a factory unit will go far to helping others offer input.

 

The radio is NOT a factory unit. But it has been in the car since the mid 90s, and has never caused any problems. If your theory of a bad battery is correct, why would it create a burning smell and then disable the radio? I'm not contradicting you, I am just curious as to your train of thought.

 

I'm thinking you probably have two separate issues, but first you need to have a good battery to move forward with any other investigation.

Might your car have been a mouse house this winter? Chewed wires could have shorted out, creating the smell until they burned through and lost contact.

 

Did you happen to glance at the voltage gauge when this happened, if so, what was the reading?

 

No signs of any mouse activity in the last year or so. the other cars are mouse-free too.

I never noticed the voltage gauge at the time. I kinda panicked a little and was ready to grab the extinguisher at the time. The gauge was not something I thought of checking.

 

keep in mind that the aftermarket radio would still have power after removing a faceplate if it had a memory function to save channel memory or a clock etc that needed continuous 12 volt power.