Horn Not Working

[Oren09]

My horn stopped working when I randomly hit the button.
I had wired in a Cadillac horn and the wire frayed and I think it shorted to ground.
Since then my cruise doesn't work and the horn relay won't click.

I replaced the relay with a junkyard unit and it still doesn't click.

Does the horn run through a fuse? Does anyone have a wiring diagram for the horn circuit? I have a Haynes but it doesn't have a diagram for the horn nor does it describe the horn circuit.

[georgeb]

STOP fuse.

[jjk1224]

If its not a fuse, do a voltage drop test across the horn to check for internal shortage.

[Oren09]

@georgeb
Thank you!

It was a blown fuse. That means I drove across the country without brake lights...

[WmWatt]

The horn is in a bad place down there behind thr bumper where it rusts and loses electical ground continuity. I moved mine into the engine compartment bolted to an unused hole in the fender.

[Oren09]

I live in Texas and my car has no rust at all. I'm not really worried about the horn rusting. If it does, I will relocate it but for now it is fine.

[Movin]

@georgeb
Thank you!

It was a blown fuse. That means I drove across the country without brake lights...

Don't say we don't watch out for each others huh south end!!

[kellen302]

My horn has also ceased functioning, the relay works and the fuse is good. I grabbed some horns out of a 60's full size and jumped them to the battery and they worked. I pulled the gr/r wire into the engine bay to put the horn on one of the extra holes. The horn is a two connector. I added the correct terminal to the hotwire, and ran a ground to the mount, and then to the Chassis ground near the left strut tower. The relay clicks and the horn vibrates once like it's trying to honk. Then it doesn't. The horn itself gets warm, and the wires get warm. Is this because the wiring is too light, or is there a short somewhere?

[Movin]

You need to copy the whole circuit from the donor.
Size of wire, relay , fuse from beginning to end

[georgeb]

If the wiring is too light the fuse will blow. See if you have 12 volts at the horn connection when button is pushed. Clean ground connections and bolt. Touch jumper wire from batt + to hot connection.

[Movin]

A pair of older dual horns is a little more than doubling the amps
through the system. The fuse and wire may handle it but the relay
contacts will not dissipate the heat from the initial spark for long.

Any other corroded or poor connection will show up.Follow Georgeb
instructions.

Horns are like sound systems, poor connectors and small wire will
produce less than stellar results. If you only used one horn off the
60's car you should be able to diagnose the system.

[iceracerdude]

My horn has also ceased functioning, the relay works and the fuse is good. I grabbed some horns out of a 60's full size and jumped them to the battery and they worked. I pulled the gr/r wire into the engine bay to put the horn on one of the extra holes. The horn is a two connector. I added the correct terminal to the hotwire, and ran a ground to the mount, and then to the Chassis ground near the left strut tower. The relay clicks and the horn vibrates once like it's trying to honk. Then it doesn't. The horn itself gets warm, and the wires get warm. Is this because the wiring is too light, or is there a short somewhere?

In the case of a single terminal horn, they've already grounded the invisable secondary terminal to the housing for you. In the case of a 2 terminal horn however, you run the power to one terminal obviously, but then you run a ground to the other terminal, usually just from the mounting bolt is enough! Remember, they don't know if you're mounting this to a grounded surface. If it doesn't fire up, then just switch the wires at the terminals.

It's basicaly just a simple coil inside the horn, and like a simple light bulb, it really doesn't care which way the power goes through it.

Remember, battery seeks ground!

[kellen302]

I'm just trying to get one of the horns working now. The fuse has not blown. We used a jumper wire in the parking lot to test and it worked. I'll check it again tomorrow. I'm using the stock horn wire and some extension wire that came with my kicker speakers. I don't have access to soldering equipment so all I can do is little crimp connectors. Will it work just using the right hand horn harness. If so, any tips on how to get to it? I'll try and track it down tomorrow.
Thanks heaps Bromigos

[georgeb]

Get a male spade connector and crimp to a wire long enough to reach your new horn location. Push it into the original horn connector and feed it up through the headlight area to your new horn. You might have to feed a pull wire down through there to grab the new wire.

[kellen302]

I already pulled the old wire up, the old plug didn't match and was crazy corroded so I snipped it. I've tride using a crimp splice connector then a set of spade connectors to add the extension wire to reach the new horn. Same result