What would cause smoke from ebrake (No start)

I'd say it's a short somewhere that is using the ebrake cable as a fuse. Just a guess though. Look around for an electrical problem that your not seeing.

Raise the car and have a look, although I cant think of anything electrical under the car in that area.. if the cable is conducting electricity from somewhere I would look in the area of the fuel pump power leads... Only thing I can think of thats back there in any waybut the short point would have to be IN the car if you see smoke in the car, as the cable goes through a grommet. . I would pull out the center console and check under there for a spot that looks like power is going to ground...

does it do it in the ON position or just the START position??

if just the start position then i would have a buddy look at the starter while you try cranking the engine to see if he sees smoke at the starter or harness.

I had smoke come through my e-brake handle area when my starter was going bad. Actually, I ended up replacing my battery, alternator, and starter, because all of them were going bad. It freaked me out to see smoke INSIDE my car, let alone anywhere else. Once the starter was tested and failed, it was replaced and it never happened.

I have had grounding issues for the past couple years that would ALWAYS happen after washing my engine bay. Soon after, I would have serious trouble starting my car and sometimes it would not start. I found out that I had to diconnect the ground cable from the engine block and clean the connection real well (I used sandpaper to clean the bolt, nut, and wire lead). After the cleaning job, my car started up perfectly. Instead of replacing the whole negative/ground connections, I went to an Autozone and bought the same guage grounding wire. I attached this extra wire alongside the negative wire connection on the battery and also to a ground connection on the body (in front of the battery and to the right of the radiator). No problems since and I've washed my engine bat at least three or four times since.

You may not have this exact problem, but it just sounds too similar to mine. Just like you, for a while, I had no idea when my car would start or when it would give me trouble.

Good luck.

i just bought one from autozone and had a shop change it. I tried doing it myself but I couldn't get the top bolt loose. The shop only charged me $50 so it wasn't too bad.