E39 heating grille black smoke ?

[dcb]

Usually, when I take Barry the BMW for a bit of enthusiastic driving, afterwards there is a distinct smell of burning in the cabin.

Today, Barry decided to go a bit further, and produce about a cubic foot of black smoke from the right most of the pair of heating grilles just above the tape deck.

Beyond the usual "take it to the dealer and he will take a few hundred quid off me", any tips ?

AC never on, heating controls set at their usual 20 C and medium fan speed.

5000 rpm and the ABS / DSC light flickering off and on like it's Christmas, if that helps.

[silverback mike]

Got me on that one, I can only stab at the most obvious thing that an electrical component has burnt out and smoke exited from the nearest outlet.

Presumably everything still works ok...

I had a similar occurence in a peugeot once, it turned out to be the alarm shorting itself on something.