Help please plastic pen in air vent

I have a Mazda Demio 2006 and 2 weeks ago my son dropped a plastic pen down the central air vent. I tried to retrieve it but it slid right down inside to where I can’t even see it anymore.

I wouldn’t have thought it would cause any damage but yesterday I started smelling a plastic burning smell followed by smoke coming from around the central air vent (at first I thought it was coming from the stereo,)

Could the pen be causing that kind of issue? Or is it likely some other electrical fault issue.

I’m asking because diagnostics will take a long time and expensive. If I can direct them to the problem it will cost less

Just tell the person doing the work what happened as you told us.

This is mostly a US site so you must not be in the US as a Demio is not sold here. Most shops here have a set diagnostic fee . I doubt if the pen is the source of the smoke so this needs to be taken care of . As Renegade says just tell the shop what happened .

You might be seeing atomized ink as the blower fan chews through the pen. If that’s the case, don’t run the vents until you get it fixed, unless you want ink stains all over everything.

The pen could have come to rest against the heater core if you had the heat on, the heater core is about 200 F. There is no way for the pen to get past the evaporator to reach the blower motor.

The HVAC unit may need to be removed to remove the pen, 6 to 8 hours of labor.

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