I Have No Horn, What Do I Check???

[F1GT]

The 20amp fuse under the hood is still good. What could it be??? I recently added an amp, sub, and a pair of tweeters to the stock system, could this affect it?? I also have 80watt headlight bulbs installed recently and 50watt fog bulbs for a couple of months now.
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[Blue Flame V6]

Check your cigar fuse.

[strange_trp]

get a haynes book. follow the instructions and schematics, start at the horn and check for power with the horn depressed (you may want to jump the horn switch while you do this, unless you have someone willing to sit in the car pressing the horn switch). start backtracking your way up the circuit until you have found the problem.
procedure for checking/testing: haynes pg 12-12.

[ May 13, 2002: Message edited by: strange_trp ]</p>

[Reg Kmet]

lol, my horn sound slike someone is bashing a seal over it's head with a club, any remedy to this? i mean its a mean looing car, with a pushover horn [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[strange_trp]

okay, twist my arm... i'll break out the 99 factory manual and give you a step by step.

look in the underhood electrical center and locate the horn minifuse. it is a 20 amp fuse. using a digital volt-ohm meter, check voltage drop of fuse (fuse still in the fuse block, meter set to autorange on dc volts, place red lead on one side of the top of fuse and black lead on the other side of the top of the fuse) you should get close to 0 volts dc if the fuse is good. if you get 12 volts, replace blown fuse. (sometimes they can blow on the edge and its kinda hard to see jsut by visual inspection. i always test fuses with a meter.) fuse good? proceed &gt;
locate horn relay in underhood electrical center. check voltage between power feed for relay (E6 or E8) and ground. you should get batt volts. yes? proceed &gt;
look at the relay and locate the diagram drawn on it. there should be a switch on one side and a funky looking squiggly line with some other stuff on the other side. the switch represents the high-current side of the relay. notice which terminals in the fuse block that these plug into. using a jumper wire (at least 10 gauge, with a 20-amp inline fuse) jump these two terminals together at the underhood fuse block. your horn should blow and it should not blow the fuse in your jumper wire.
okay.... if your horn blew when you bypassed the relay, you know the horn and its ground are good. you do not know about the control side of the circuit though... here goes:
connect meter or test lamp between terminals E6 and F8 of underhood electrical center and press the horn button. did you get a light or batt volts when you pressed switch? yes&gt; check for poor connections from wiring to relay; if okay replace relay.
no&gt; connect meter or light between E6 and the horn switch wire coming from the steering column. this will be in PIN G of an 11-pin connector attached to the base of the steering column. press the horn button. light or batt volts? yes&gt; repair open/poor connection between pin g of connector 216 (the one you've just disconnected to do this part of the test) and the underhood electrical center.
no&gt; test for open in black wires attached to horn brush slip ring, test for contact at horn brush slip ring, check for clean tight ground at the case of the horn switches. if all are okay replace horn switches.

sure there are easier ways to diag this problem and i'd probably do it differently but this is right out of the factory manual. the basic premise is this: rule out fuse. rule out relay. rule out horns. rule out switch. if all these are good, repair poor circuit.

have fun [img]smile.gif[/img]

[strange_trp]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Reg Kmet:
lol, my horn sound slike someone is bashing a seal over it's head with a club, any remedy to this? i mean its a mean looing car, with a pushover horn [img]tongue.gif[/img] <hr></blockquote>

i know.... what a gay sounding horn. you can rip one off an old oldsmobile and rig it up to work, provided they're both rated at roughly the same amp draw. or you could get one of those horns that play the General Lee tune or something.

[F1GT]

Whoa StrangeTrp, Thanks.
Well, my bro in law asked if there might be some sort of cable problem. So he told me to turn the wheel and hit the horn. Sure enough it worked when I turn the wheel to certain positions. He said it could be some sort of horn cable, that's how it is in Hondas (He is a Honda mechanic). But I don't know if Chevy is like that. My friend said he took off some steering wheels b4 and said something about metal plate being dirty and that there are no "cables", cuz it will get tangled up.
Whatever the case, it honks when I steer it left or right and the factory horn alarm still works. Any thoughts??
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[strange_trp]

there are "slip rings" that are really just metal contacts and the horn buttons have leads out to 2 brushes that ride on the metal slip rings. this lets you turn the steering wheel and still have an electrical circuit.
disable sir, pull the steering wheel, and clean these metal contacts. also check connections at slip ring terminals and at the horn button terminals, where the brushes ride on the rings.

[F1GT]

Thank you for the help. I will take off my steering wheel this weekend and hope that everything will turn out ok.
LateZ
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[F1GT]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by strange_trp:

disable sir, pull the steering wheel, and clean these metal contacts. <hr></blockquote>

Disable sir?? Wazzat?
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[FirebirdSlickG94]

Remember that actions speak louder than horns :) Just shake your fist at people....or throw them the "bird"
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[strange_trp]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by F1GT:

Disable sir?? Wazzat?
[img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img] <hr></blockquote>

sup infl restr... airbag
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[Blue Flame V6]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by strange_trp:


i know.... what a gay sounding horn. you can rip one off an old oldsmobile and rig it up to work, provided they're both rated at roughly the same amp draw. or you could get one of those horns that play the General Lee tune or something.<hr></blockquote>

Thats what happens when you get water in them. Took 6 sets before the dealer mounted them upside down where they wouldn't collect water.

[cixelsyD21]

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by strange_trp:


i know.... what a gay sounding horn. you can rip one off an old oldsmobile and rig it up to work, provided they're both rated at roughly the same amp draw. or you could get one of those horns that play the General Lee tune or something.<hr></blockquote>

OR!!! You can go buy airhorns w/ a compressor. Pretty easy to install and are so loud they even echo in open fields =]

[Birdie2000]

Who needs the horn when you have the finger? :D Like the bumper sticker says, "Horn broken, watch out for finger."