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Seems every time I go out of driving the Vette for an extended period of time, new problems arise from sitting. This time the horn is acting out. It got stuck on while driving yesterday without even touching the horn, I was able to turn it off by tapping the horn. Then it happened again after I parked the car and hit the 'lock' button on the remote. It got stuck blaring out at night in the parking lot; most embarrassing 15 seconds I've had with the Corvette. Today on my commute to work I decided to "exercise" the horn randomly to see if maybe it helped and see if I recreated it. I did get stuck once, but quickly gets unstuck if I tap it again.
Besides the actual horn switch inside the steering wheel, could this erratic horn behavior be caused by something else like a faulty relay somewhere?
If it stops while tapping on the horn switch I'd say it's within the horn membrane...if it came on and stayed on with the FOB that ground comes from the BCM...the only way that both come on if the horn relay may be sticking...hard to say but just swap the horn relay with another 4 pin relay...the fuel pump relay sits caddy corner from the horn relay...swap them and see what happens !!
If it stops while tapping on the horn switch I'd say it's within the horn membrane...if it came on and stayed on with the FOB that ground comes from the BCM...the only way that both come on if the horn relay may be sticking...hard to say but just swap the horn relay with another 4 pin relay...the fuel pump relay sits caddy corner from the horn relay...swap them and see what happens !!
thank you. Are the relays on the engine fuse box or by the passenger foot well fuse box?
I swapped the Horn mini relay with the air pump one, since my air pump is disabled anyway. Afterwards I did a quick tap on the horn on the steering wheel and the horn stayed on, I had to tap it to turn it off. What I don’t understand is if it’s the steering wheel horn switch membrane, what the heck does that have to do with the horn sticking when I lock the car with the fob? I’m confused.
The adventures of the crazy horn continues. The Corvette is being a total brat. The horn decided to go off on it's own at 4am this morning, I'm sure it woke up many in my complex. I decided to pull the mini relay until I find a solution, but I think it's the horn switch membrane. Maybe a good opportunity to upgrade the steering wheel altogether.
Is the horn going off steady like you are pressing on the horn membrane ???
yes, steady on. It was a nightmare this morning at 4am blasting steady on for minutes until I went and tapped the membrane. I pulled the mini relay and left it disconnected. I’m hornless now.
So I decided to "exercise" the horn membrane switch while I had the mini relay pulled, as an attempt to fix it thinking that maybe the switch just needed some cycling. Did this "exercising" randomly as I drive for two days, and connected the mini relay back in to test. Not sure if it was related to this or not, but the horn was working fine afterwards for at least 4-5 days, and now it started to act up again. This time the horn got stuck again when I locked the car with the key fob. I don't get how this could be related because the key fob lock action doesn't trigger the horn switch membrane at the wheel. I think it still might be something else. Looking for some guidance on where to go next.
WOW...horn still blaring away huh ??...to isolate the circuit I would disconnect connector 209 (C209) which goes to the horn slip ring...one end of the connector is a black wire which comes from the horn relay at the fusebox and the other wire says "NCA" which means no color available or assigned...this is on my '01 but your '99 should be the same...with C209 disconnected if the horn still goes off it definitely coming from the BCM's horn relay control and not the steering wheel end !!
WOW...horn still blaring away huh ??...to isolate the circuit I would disconnect connector 209 (C209) which goes to the horn slip ring...one end of the connector is a black wire which comes from the horn relay at the fusebox and the other wire says "NCA" which means no color available or assigned...this is on my '01 but your '99 should be the same...with C209 disconnected if the horn still goes off it definitely coming from the BCM's horn relay control and not the steering wheel end !!
Well, I have yet to do this test but I guess some good news for diagnostic purposes: the horn stuck issue is not intermittent anymore, it's held stuck and activates as soon as I connect the mini relay on the fuse box.
WOW...horn still blaring away huh ??...to isolate the circuit I would disconnect connector 209 (C209) which goes to the horn slip ring...one end of the connector is a black wire which comes from the horn relay at the fusebox and the other wire says "NCA" which means no color available or assigned...this is on my '01 but your '99 should be the same...with C209 disconnected if the horn still goes off it definitely coming from the BCM's horn relay control and not the steering wheel end !!
C5 Diag, going to try to tackle this gremlin this weekend. Where would the connector 209 be housed by? I'm assuming somewhere behind the steering column? If it points to the slip ring after that, I plan to take the steering wheel off.
I was wrong. Horn saga continues. Yes I solved the issue of the stuck horn with the new membrane, but as I reinstalled the wheel back I did notice that the positive lead of the horn (the one that is spring loaded) just wouldn't stay fully engaged on the female socket. It's supposed to go into the female socket in the clockspring, rotate clockwise and stay in place retained by a little plastic peg on the plastic sleeve of the positive lead, and it sits and retains itself in a cammed groove inside the wheel slip ring/clockspring. Looks like the cammed grove on my clockspring was slightly worn or broken.
I put the wheel back together and horn works, but obviously and unsurprisingly it's inconsistent, meaning sometimes I press on the horn and nothing happens. Can this stupid little cammed female receiver socket be replaced?? Or do I need to get another clockspring?
Horn lead that won't lock in place
Last edited by turabo87; Feb 12, 2020 at 03:43 PM.
Crazy horn
