Lost my horn..

[Jungian64]

..on my 318 Touring..fuse ok, relay smells ok..what else do I check before I replace the relay..?!

Thanks

[johnl320]

replace the horn with a testlamp, lamp lights up = fooked horn

You had the steeering wheel off recently? If you have you may have damaged the carbon brush behind it.

[rich318i]

clean the earth. was you drving in the rain lately? mine sounds like hammond's oliver sometime if its rained lol

[bimanut]

check the column bearing is lubbed as you can loose the earth from dry bearing,i smear a tiny amount of grease on the contact ring on the steering wheel as well

[Jungian64]

Cheers guys, I like several things to go through!

[Rtaylor2208]

I'd go with the spring loaded carbon brush not making contact on the back of the brass ring on the inside of the steering wheel. They wear down and don't make contact.

You can test the horn by disconnecting the wiring to the horn and applying a direct supply to the battery.

[Jungian64]

Ok, so carbon bush & ring on the wheel seem fine..but embarissingly I have to ask..where the hell IS the horn?! ..I'm assuming tucked up under the front splash gaurd, as I can't see it the engine bay or looking underneath..if someone can tell me specifically I would be much obliged!

[Rtaylor2208]

Not sure if it's different on a 318 touring but on my cab it's twin horns either side at the front just behind the fog lights.

[Jungian64]

Ok, looks like I NEED to go to specsavers...anyone got a link to a diagram or a picture of where this frickin' horn is!!...( and yes as soon as someone shows me, I'll go Ahhh, there!)

[Captain_Birdseye]

you lost your horn? There are things on the internet to get it back

[Jungian64]

..amusing, true but not getting me any nearer to locating it ( should point out that my time is limited & the car is not where I live, hence wanting to go straight to it, when I find its location!)

[FinalD]

Not sure if it's different on a 318 touring but on my cab it's twin horns either side at the front just behind the fog lights.

Same.

With Front End:



Without Front End:




If you look at the left fog light hole you can just see the corner of one of my horns, the other horn is just at the wrong angle. This is where they are on my cab, iirc the touring is the same although I've not taken the front end apart on it yet.

You shouldn't need to remove the front end though, I have good reason for taking my car to pieces.

[Jungian64]

Now thats exactly what I needed
Thank you.

[Jungian64]

Question -Ive read on other forums its easier to take the bumper off to get at the fogs & in my case get to the horn...is this what others would do?

[tari]

Its probably the bearing along the steering shaft!

Push the horn quite hard so your actually pressing the steering wheel aswell and it should work. If it does that's your problem.

[FinalD]

Just for you I popped outside to get some pics of my touring (I hope you've not already taken your car apart).

Ok so, my touring has the front wing missing which means seeing the driver's side horn is quite easy:






As you can see, it is in a different location to where it is on my cab, similar, but it is closer to the wheel arch.

Now, to access this normally, all you need to do is remove the front splash guard (if you have one, not sure my touring did when I got hold of it).



Then you can just reach up from below and see/remove the horn:





Passenger side is the same location.



In the above photo you can see the fog light in the right corner of the image.


Hope that helps you fella.

E: As above though, I'd have thought it is a connection on the horn switch rather than the horns themselves having busted.

[Jungian64]

Hey you da man!!

Really appreciate that chap, its what these forum are all about.

Note to moderators - this could be a 'sticky' - pics are soo helpful.

Thanks again

[Brianmoooore]

Position and number of horns depends on whether it's got a proper engine or only a four pot. Six pots have one behind each foglight aperture, whereas four pots only have one weedy horn behind the top of the kidney grill.
First thing to do is to listen carefully to determine if relay K2 in the fusebox clicks when someone pushes the horn button with the ignition on, then remove the relay and see if the horn sounds with terminals 30 and 87 (marked on the relay case) of its socket linked together with a short piece of wire.

[Captain_Birdseye]

..amusing, true but not getting me any nearer to locating it ( should point out that my time is limited & the car is not where I live, hence wanting to go straight to it, when I find its location!)

I know, your problem is important to me, to all of us. Glad to see you got some help. Now chill out.

[Jungian64]

...well wouldnt you know it..Mr Moooore, on the money again..2 clips, undo the kidney grille, there she is..with one wire diconnected!!! how, gawd only knows as I havnt touched it since owning the car & it was as tight as tight to get back on!

Thank you all who contributed..now of to the MOT..

[FinalD]

Haha, glad you got it working.

[Grrrmachine]

Let's resurrect this, since I've got the same problem. Steering wheel button makes the relay click, but bridging pins 30 and 87 gets no response from the horns (and I've got two of them). What would prevent BOTH horns working?

[Brianmoooore]

There's the fuse (7) to consider, but if this is OK, the chances are that one horn as been gone for a while, and you've only noticed when the second one fails.

[scallyally]

As Brianmoooore suggested 4pots have 1 "weedy" horn and my 318is was definitely asthmatic! So I removed the kidney grill and found 2! one disconnected (corroded terminals). This was removed and I cut away the "Bakelite" to expose enough new terminal to solder crimp connectors to. Replaced and jobs a goodun!!