Wifes car horn going off all by itsself in middle of the night ( no alarm system).

[glacialhills]

For the past couple nights the horn just starts blowing till I go out and hit it. couple hours later same thing. I removed the fuse last night. It seems to be a moisture issue. any ideas to fix this?

 

[Redox]

I'm gonna guess the horn relay? They are usually mounted on the firewall or a fender under the hood and are exposed to the weather. Disconnect the wire to the horn and get someone to press on the horn button while listening for the clicking. It's probably about a $10 part; cheap enough to replace just to rule it out as the problem. If it still happens, then it is probably a wiring problem and will be much harder to track down. Look for chafed wires that may be shorting out on a metal part or a problem in the steering column, which can be a REAL pain to get to. Maybe buy the wife a new car? :roll:

Chris

 

[granpajohn]

My wife's '97 Jetta had a self-activating horn for a while. Could be totally unrelated, but if any of this applies to you, check it:
-Car had been in a bad wreck (previous owner)
-Air bag not working right.
-Steering wheel related, eventually.

When I pulled the air bag and wheel, I found 2 additional mounting screws slowly extracting themselves and grounding the horn switch. "Fixed" by tightening the (long) screws. But, it came back. (By this time I had placed a piece of masking tape on the appropriate fuse to make it easier to pull.) Used Loctite the second time. Been fine for years now. In our case, the thing only went off when driving, but that's because VW horns don't work without the key in the ignition. (Thank Goodness.)

She says this was very embarassing, expecially one day when she was stuck behind the school bus on a one lane road.

I have repaired a similar case, and it was also in the steering column. Horn circuit worked as designed.

Good Luck; there's few things worse than an electrical gremlin!

 

[cousinles]

I had an 1990 chevy lumina that did that it was the horn botton itself.

 

[JustWood]

Hair dryer then silicon or some grease

 

[burntime]

Name it Christine and go back to bed.

 

[Hogwildz]

Had an old pickup did the same thing.
Found that metal contacts in the steering wheel were worn. Replaced and that solved that.

 

[rowerwet]

could be in the clock spring wires for the steering wheel, then it gets expensive if you have an air bag.

 

[Devo]

For the past couple nights the horn just starts blowing till I go out and hit it. couple hours later same thing. I removed the fuse last night. It seems to be a moisture issue. any ideas to fix this?

Park it every night in front of a neighbor's house, one who happens to be a mechanic and doesn't live too close, until it's magically fixed.

 

[sleepie]

or park it in front of the neighbor that has that big dog--that dumps on your yard every week!!

 

[raybonz]

Bought a new Chevy C10 back in 80 that had that happen.. Disassembled steering wheel and found a burr left from production was loose in the horn switch area and making the switch intermittently.. Horn would go off at any time and got me some dirty looks when it did.. Some people have no sense of humor

Ray

 

[LeonMSPT]

Throw a jumper between one of the blinker lights and the horn relay for some real fun... every time the light comes on, the horn will blow.

Sounds like a ground fault somewhere in the horn wiring, bad relay, button...

Is the wife a raving hornblowing lunatic on the road? Might have worn that button right out.

Had an old bronco and the horn button went bad. I rewired it to a push button on the floorboard, right by the high/low beam switch. The guy I sold it to was dumfounded... I told him, "It's so I can blast the horn and flip them the bird without taking both hands off the wheel."