ok been away from the pc for a few days thanks for the replys ppl (1) What kind of smell? Electrical, coolant? the smell is electrical for sure that's why I pulled the fan motor out first up thinking it was on the way out but it runs,looks and smells fine (2) Got a cat stuck in there somewhere? nope no cats in there lol (3) Fresh, recirculate or both? both that's the other reason I was asking about how the car redirects the air from ,face,floor,windscreen and the like (4) auto or manual. my vents smoked when my btr sh*t itself.... the car has a zf auto and I only had the oil changed last week the smells been around for at least two months it still smells with new oil and although the old oil was dirty it didnt have any crap floating around in it (5) had this problem years ago.. do you park under trees? My system got clogged with gum leaves and would smoke at random times.. lucky it never actually caught fire lol funny you say this as the cars always parked under trees but the smell isnt of leaves I wonder the leaves may have got stuck in somewhere else besides the fan causing something to jam causing the electrical buring smell some other info I forgot to add is of late the auto head lights dont always work nor does the keyless entry ive checked the bcm and it looks fine nothing buring in there all the connections look good no hot pins or melted plugs and no blown fuses whats got me stuffed is it wont smell for a week then it stinks of buring everyday for a week besides taking out the dash I dont really see any other options as ive looked over everything you can check with the dash in and im guessing dash removel is a major pain in the ass cheers trev