Technical Horn problems

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Hello! I have problem with the horn. Sometimes it works with no ignition but not with ignition on. Sometimes it's vice versa. Sometimes it only works with car running but not just with ignition on and vice versa. It never works in all three of these circumstances. Reading threads here, it sounds likely to be an earthing fault at the ignition switch. Does this sound right? Could it be a general earthing fault? I have had some earthing gremlins so I do need to check the negative lead earth to the body.

 

[jackwhoo]

The battery -ve lead runs from battery -ve post to a fitting on the bulkhead then to gearbox/ engine.
Over time the movement of the engine/ gearbox can loosen the crimp connector at the bulkhead causing many problems.
To rule out the above fit an extra cable from the batt -ve to the vehicle body.

Or it could be slip ring between steering wheel and steering column-if it has one

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

Thanks. I do plan to do this. I had a problem with no indicators for a while that cleaning the hedgehogs didn't fix. Strangely, that problem disappeared on its own. I've checked and cleaned the horn contacts on the wheel. I don't think they are the issue as the horn sounding or not seems to be dependent on ignition. When it works, it works positively. <Edit> slip ring is something different to the above? Will this affect earthing?

 

[Dragon Man]

its built into the steering wheel, best thing to do to check if thats working is to press and hold the horn button in while turning the wheel.. if the horn cuts in and out as you are turning the wheel then that could be the issue.
sadly Talon is a little.. buried... for me to go and have a look how the horn works. i think the horn gets a constant (or ignition switched) live going to it, and its earth switched via the horn press button in the middle of the steering wheel.

extra earths are always good. theres a 13mm bolt on the back of the intake manifold near the dip stick you can put a cable on and just attach it to the 13mm bolt that does the earthing point under the battery. Talons one is like this extra as well i have a lot of lighting on Talon and they sometimes looked dim when the engine was off but brightened up when i used a jumper cable direct from the engine to body.

still on the hunt for land btw.. i keep getting out bid at auctions! damn economy.. with the devaluation of the £, everyone's sinking what money they have into buying land.. if this was last year or hell 2 years ago i could have bought a whole field!

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

its built into the steering wheel, best thing to do to check if thats working is to press and hold the horn button in while turning the wheel.. if the horn cuts in and out as you are turning the wheel then that could be the issue.
sadly Talon is a little.. buried... for me to go and have a look how the horn works. i think the horn gets a constant (or ignition switched) live going to it, and its earth switched via the horn press button in the middle of the steering wheel.

extra earths are always good. theres a 13mm bolt on the back of the intake manifold near the dip stick you can put a cable on and just attach it to the 13mm bolt that does the earthing point under the battery. Talons one is like this extra as well i have a lot of lighting on Talon and they sometimes looked dim when the engine was off but brightened up when i used a jumper cable direct from the engine to body.

still on the hunt for land btw.. i keep getting out bid at auctions! damn economy.. with the devaluation of the £, everyone's sinking what money they have into buying land.. if this was last year or hell 2 years ago i could have bought a whole field!

Thanks John. Only just noticed this. I'm going to clean up the earths I have and run another as you suggested. The horn operation seems very random, so I'm going to try to eliminate general earthing issues first. I've had other intermittent fails on indicators and dash lights too. There is an unreliable earth somewhere.