I pulled my Mini out of the carpark this morning, charge light came on at ignition and went off once it'd fired up as usual, but within a minute of setting off I noticed a bit of smoke drifiting around the dashboard area. I immediately pulled over and switched everything off. The smoke diffused and after struggling to see where it had come from or if anything was unusually hot, I fired it back up to see if it'd do it again. It didn't, but the charge warning light stayed on. Everything is still working on/in the car, it seems.
My car is an '89 Mayfair although someone has retrofitted the centre clock setup, but unfortunately they have used some of those horrible choc-bloc connectors. I found that the brown wire with yellow stripe (to charge warning light), and a black (surely an earth?) wire had melted the plastic slightly. Thought it might be the alternator over-charging, so I've changed the alternator but the light still remains on the dashboard. It is still only registering ~12.5v across the battery too.
I can't get my head around what could be the issue (other than that knackered plastic sheathing) or what might have caused it? Surely if the light illuminates, the warning circuit is not the problem? Is that correct?!
Thanks in advance!
Chris