Open Question: My steering wheel started smoking today, what could it be?

I was driving home from, and out of nowhere white smelly smoke started coming out of the steering column. I pulled over and turned the car off, and it stopped. When I turned the car back on and drove it to the shop, it wasn’t doing it anymore. And since i’ve bought the car, it’s been making this clicking noise, like the blinkers on but it’s really not. I dont really know if that could be related or not. Well when I got to the mechanic I always go to, he had went out of business : [ So, I went next door to the people that bought himout and they said they’ve never heard that before but would do a “diagnostic” test tomorrow. Anyways..