OK this sounds weird and I never saw it so baffled. My wife stopped the beetle after driving a few minutes then noticed smoke coming from the bonnet. She opened the bonnet and said it came from near the passenger side hinge (where the hoses are)
I got home , started bug and nothing. I did have a few live wires off and untaped. The horn and the washer motor wires actually. They were not touching anything, and I checked all wires for burning and can find nothing. I also checked fuses and there fine as well? Any ideas anyone. I am thinking she is talking rubbish but she is adament there was smoke and a burnt plastic smell.

maybe from the jukebox?
get fire extinguisher ready..

Whats the juke box, only ever seen one of those in a cafe . I have actually found a broken fuse to. Anyone know what the fourth fuse from right is for.

"a few live wires off and untaped"... that'd be my first suspect.

Also, how cold is it in Sydney at the moment... did she have the heaters on ??? (ie could it be caused by hot air running through the demister hoses)

Yer sides was stupid of me. I just forgot to tape them. Am in process of changing washer motor and horn. Does anyone have a pic of the fuse box with the description of each fuse? Still not sure what a jukebox is?

erm wireless

it would have to be a pretty intense short for smoke to be coming out from the hood with it closed
that being the case you would find some pretty melted accompanying it in that area

as H said check it wasnt coming from the radio first
in flat screen bugs they love to fill up with water as they;re straight below the vent in the hood and if the air box is missing or the seal is gone you can be expecting a smoke screen from it

Radio lol should have realised. I thought juke box was some really fancy thing. As I said I cant see any intense burning at all (all wires look fine) but that dont mean to say there is not. I will have to find out what that fuse operates first I guess and i will check out radio when finished work and if this damn rain stops. I must get a manual one day, not knowing even what fuses do what is def a disadvantage

oh yeah fuses, only diagrams on the net are for US spec bugs which differ abit from aus bugs

71 super tho its fairly basic

starting from the left closest to the steering column

1 and 2 are all the parkers and tailights

3 and 4 are highbeam left and right

5 and 6 are low beam left and right but those could be vice-versa way to check is yellow wires are low beam white is high beam

7,8,9 are all the constantly live stuff like hazards, interior light, ciggy lighter etc

and 10, 11 and 12 are all the ignition stuff like coil, wipers, blinkers, horn, brake lights etc

the terminals on the top side of all the fuses are the fused side, bottom ones unfused obviously

hope that helps

yep, rain and radios dont mix
been there before..
i ended up making a cover that shields the wireless from any stray rain that seeps in..
beetles - they just about all leak..

So which would be washer motor? it was smoking after being stopped and is number 9 at least I know its a constantly live fuse.

they never had electric washers
stock setup used air pressure from the spare tyre

so as that system fails people put in after market electric pumps
so it could be hooked up anywhere

best way is to use one of the ignition only fuses 10-12
so it will only work if the ignitions on

Thanks for help . I reckon its gonna be the washer motor as that is closest to where smoke was but will let you now when sorted. Again thanks for help

Happened to me. Smoke from the dash cause a PO had disconnected the interior light and shoved the bare wires back in the pillar.

yea thats always a good trick

i found when they cut the roof off my convertable they must have put the grinder straight thro the interior light wirign and just left it

stilll connected to the fuse box too

I also used to have an issue where the morning exhaust would come into the front de-mister vents(the sort of condensation Smokey stuff)

I don't understand what the problem was there.

Anyone who has any experience with autoelectrics knows that all cars' electrics are powered by smoke.

What happened is that some of your smoke escaped and you found the leak and stopped it.

See? Problem solved.

PS

Ask anyone who owns an English car that is fitted with Lucas Electrics, which are also known as the Prince of Darkness Electrics. They know all about smoke leakage. Lucas smoke is particularly intense and strongly odoured. There is always the lingering odour of smoke in an older English car, especiallly if it has leather seats. That odour is not the lovely smell of old leather. It's the stink of old smoke. Smoke leakage is the major problem in older English cars.

Maybe a sticking caliper on your left front wheel?