Hey everyone, recently there's been a bad smell coming from the air vents on start up, then it goes away while driving. So I decided to pop the hood and asked a friend to start the car, and there it was, smoke comes out of the connector / harness that connects to the heater (which was later confirmed by the mechanic). The smoke just comes out briefly then stops. So I went to check with a mechanic and said that connector goes to the heater, he simply disconnected it and the smoke stopped. He said I need to buy a new heater he will source it our for me. Anyone care to clarify what's happening here?

I attached and image of what it looks like.