Horn?

[gpibambam]

Hey guys,

I have a 74 02 (love it) and need someone with more expertise to share some knowledge. More specifically: in regards to wiring and the horn.

My horn works inconsistently. Sometimes I will have to push it four or five times to get it to work. Sometimes once. When it does work, it works great. There's no warble in sound and its always loud, it just doesn't honk every time I depress it. So my two questions are:

1. How do I remove the horn part of the steering wheel without damaging

the steering wheel?

2. How do I rewire it to work correctly; all of the time.

Oh, and new to the site. I like it!

Thanks!

Max

[tyjoja]

Its probably the horn contact, which consists of a round brass ring and a plunger/contact that has a spring to keep it in contact with the turning wheel. You can easily take the wheel off by pulling pad off the wheel and taking the large nut off and working the wheel side to side while pulling. Make sure the ring and contact are shiny. You can use some steel wool or fine sand paper. when I pulled mine apart the contact was obviously broken, so I rigged up a piece of foam to keep contact. What I should have done was go to Maximillion Imports ( good parts source with cool diagrams) and bought a new contact for 10.00 dollars. Make sure the wheels are straight when you take the steering wheel off as to help make sure it's aligned when you put it back on. Welcome to the forum, Its always been my best source for info. Bob

[gpibambam]

Thanks very much Bob!

I'm gonna take a look at it tomorrow (curse you daylight savings).

Thanks!

Max

[c.d.iesel]

...

... . . . . . .

. . .. . . . or ? the horn (s) themselves ?

give the adjusting SCREW a tweek

[gpibambam]

the pad you depress in the center of the wheel doesnt always elicit a honk.

i want it to.

is there a way to get the pad off of the wheel without damaging it?

and without taking the whole wheel off =)

[SteveJ]

In case it has not been said, check/clean all the grounding points. I prefer to half-split when I troubleshoot these circuits: Disconnect the leads at the relay. Apply 12volts to the lead and see if the horn sounds contantly. If it does, then your problem lies further upstream. Using a test light, does the light stay on steady when you press the horn button? How about when you turn the wheel? The common failure is that the horn contact ring gets out of place on the steering column. Good failure- horn is intermittent, bad failure- horn is on constantly.

Also, use a test light instead of the horn itself. Both you and your neighbors would much prefer a flashing light over the horn, over and over, and over...

[gpibambam]

Will check, clean, polish and test grounding points. That much I know how to do.

I havent taken apart the horn or steering before so where will I find the leads/relay?

and what I meant before was how do I remove the center part of the horn (shown in image) without breaking the plastic clips? I gave them all a fair amount of delicate force to try and unclip them but the squealing plastic made me nervous. Is there some trick to this or was I doing it totally right and just... got scared for my car? (I also dont feel like buying a whole new horn/steering wheel)

Once I'm past that, will I find the relay in the center column?

Thanks!!

[ingraham]

The horn relay is under the hood. It's one of the three relays on the left fender wall near the front. The other two relays are for headlight low beams and high beams. Use the horn wire colors to identify the horn relay. You have a wiring diagram, right?

I haven't worked with that steering wheel (320is, right?) before, but if I were, I'd bend the three plastic tabs carefully as you have been doing. You might need to bend all three at the same time.

First, though, I'd have a close look in the gap between the steering wheel and the steering column covers. You should be able to see in there well enough from the side to tell whether the two sides stay in contact as the wheel turns. I suspect that is where your problem is.

Some adaption in the electrical contact was performed when that steering wheel was installed, because the 320i setup is different from the 2002 setup. Read about some options here:

http://www.bayarea02.com/techtips/320_wheel/horn.html

Determine which was done on your car, and fix it so it works consistently.