Not good

Was about to drive to work in SWMBO's Ka this morning - she turned the engine on, cleaned the front and rear screens with wash and wipe, selected reverse to roll off the driveway and then said she could smell burning.

A few seconds later smoke started coming out of the area at the top of the steering column, just below the wheel - nasty surprise for 7 in the morning!

Haven't had time to take the pastic trim off yet as it only happened this morning, but does anyone have any ideas?

I turned the ignition back on to accessory power (i.e. no engine running) a couple of minutes later and it started smoking again. The only thing I noticed was that the wiper stalk was sitting half way between 'on' and 'off' - the KA has no single wipe option so you need to quickly flick the wipers on and off to get a single wipe.

We've had the car since 2000 with no major problems - SWMBO is now convinced that it's only because we're looking at getting something more baby friendly in the next 2 months that the car has gone wrong!

Any suggestions welcome.

Perhaps the ignition switch has failed.

Stalk switch for sure, quite common on most Fords.

Was about to drive to work in SWMBO's Ka this morning

I've quoted the fundamental fault.

I've quoted the fundamental fault.

Should point out, I was sitting in the passenger seat with my manly VRS parked on the road

I thinking the stalk switch too - I wonder if she managed to park the stalk in such a way as to keep the connection open? You'd think there would be a fuse to blow or something.

I'll see what the damage is later :(

Would be far easier just to let it burn and go ahead and look for a Fabia as is the current plan!