E30 Zone

Previous owner had a Momo wheel fitted and decided the horn push should be in the kick panel



Bye Bye Momo and hello to original Tech 1 (only temporary)
BUT where do the wires go to make horn work from steering wheel? The buttons on the wheel are connected to the inner ring so I presume a connection will be needed somewhere else? Where do the wires from the horn go also....

Should go up through the steering column i think, then connect to the steering wheel.

Yeah that's what I imagined but there aren't any tabs on the inner face of steering wheel, unless a wire is supposed to be connected with a ring connector to the other grub screw?
So I'm guessing the horn will be earthed somewhere and the live running up the steering column to the wheel somehow?

You dont need to attach wires to the steering wheel to fit it, the horn works by completing the ground part of the circuit, the ground is taken from the column through the centre hub and sent back through the slip ring when you press the button

The wiring should be connected to one of these

DanThe wrote:You dont need to attach wires to the steering wheel to fit it, the horn works by completing the ground part of the circuit, the ground is taken from the column through the centre hub and sent back through the slip ring when you press the button

Kool I get that, but where on the column is it usually? The same previous who installed the Momo with custom horn press relocation thought it would be awesome to install these...



My guess is the brown & blue wire come from the original horn loom as they're coming from somewhere at the front of the car (radiator area). So I'm basically trying to work out how to wire in a standard horn again- I really do not wish to use the airhorns anymore!! That's sooo 5yrs ago...

@ bimanut

You mean those two brown wires connected to the stalks? Are they the horn wires then? Or do you mean connected to that bronze hexagonal thing?

suchy wrote:@ bimanut

You mean those two brown wires connected to the stalks? Are they the horn wires then? Or do you mean connected to that bronze hexagonal thing?

I don't even have one of those bronze hexagonal things?! I have the two screws with brown wires attached and one of them has another ring conector going down the column somewhere....

The 'bronze hexagonal thing' is a sprung loaded carbon rod, that makes a sliding contact with the brass ring on the back of the steering wheel, and it has a spade terminal on the reverse side where the wire from the horn relay pushes on.
The two brown wires are earths for the wiper and indicator stalks, and nothing to do with the horn.
You haven't said what E30 you have, but lesser models have the horn wires right behind the top of the kidney grill, while the better models have horn plugs each side, above the foglights.

Hi Brian,
I seem to be missing the carbon rod!! I have the rivet things but on close inspection it looks as though the rod with it's plastic holder (or whatever keeps it in place) could have been broken off





The blue and brown wires shown here are connected into the main loom somewhere near where the horns would be, although I haven't yet taken off the grill to see if they are still there (one would assume they were though!)





Brian, car in question is a '91 Sport

Are the original windtones still tucked up under the bumper,close to the air ducts?

daimlerman wrote:Are the original windtones still tucked up under the bumper,close to the air ducts?

Windtones? Horns? I will go check...

suchy wrote: Brian, car in question is a '91 Sport

In that case, it would have had two horns; one above each foglamp. Follow the wires from the relay, and you'll probably come to the right hand wires, probably less plug.
You will need to fit a carbon brush assembly, either new or second hand, and find a brown/yellow wire to connect to it, which is currently connected to one of the wires coming through the hole in your vandalised under dash panel.

Cannot see or feel anything Malc, but I don't know where I'm looking! Doesn't help not being jacked up either!! I can see the fogs and their connections and I've found one other connector hanging down which has 2x brownish wires and a black moulded plug with 2x round female conections. Is that a horn connector?

It's raining at present so not about to jack the car up, but can do later. If I knew where the horns were... Any clues or should they be tucked up under the bumper, close to the air ducts- was that a clue?

Wires to the horn are purple/yellow and brown.

Brianmoooore wrote:

suchy wrote: Brian, car in question is a '91 Sport

In that case, it would have had two horns; one above each foglamp. Follow the wires from the relay, and you'll probably come to the right hand wires, probably less plug.
You will need to fit a carbon brush assembly, either new or second hand, and find a brown/yellow wire to connect to it, which is currently connected to one of the wires coming through the hole in your vandalised under dash panel.

Kool, thanks Brian. I'll ask our local find it man Adi if he has one in stock or does anyone have a ballpark on new price? I guess it will show on RealOEM?
As I mentioned above I did find a loose connector hanging down by near-side fog but not on the off-side. From the colours on the near-side connector I deduce the two wires I 'red arrowed' on above pic should be the two wires missing a horn connector on the off-side....

Brianmoooore wrote:Wires to the horn are purple/yellow and brown.

Yup that's the fellas

You appear to have found one complete connector,odd that the original horns have vanished!

So your shopping list will include the bits Brian mentioned,plus a pair of windtone horns with mounting brackets and possibly one connector with a bit of harness attached.....

daimlerman wrote:You appear to have found one complete connector,odd that the original horns have vanished!

So your shopping list will include the bits Brian mentioned,plus a pair of windtone horns with mounting brackets and possibly one connector with a bit of harness attached.....

A TechII kit isn't the easiest thing to crawl under in the rain to go searching so I'll jack it up and have a proper look before I go shopping.
Sounds like an easy shopping list, thank you Brian & Malc

suchy wrote:

daimlerman wrote:Are the original windtones still tucked up under the bumper,close to the air ducts?

Windtones? Horns? I will go check...

Sounds more like the description of a musical fart

DanThe wrote:

suchy wrote:

daimlerman wrote:Are the original windtones still tucked up under the bumper,close to the air ducts?

Windtones? Horns? I will go check...

Sounds more like the description of a musical fart

But so much better than the comedy burp of the lesser engined cars!

Thought I would bump an old thread than make a new one.

So I’m having horn troubles, the live from the push rod and brass ring is good. And I can earth it against the indicator / wiper earth connections on the dash to make the horn work...

I’m not however, able to earth it against the steering column splines? As mentioned above, contacting the splines against the bronze push rod should make the horn work too... But I’m getting nothing.

Above, Brian mentioned a carbon brush? And a wire connection? I’m not sure I have these. Could somebody help me with info on how the steering column is earthed, and where? And if the carbon brush/wire have part numbers I could look up?

The joint between the column and the rack the earth can fail so jump that across.

Hey Satan, could you find a pic of where this point is? Is the earth original connection on the outside of the car (to the bottom of the steering column, that earths the splines)

Sy_325 wrote:Hey Satan, could you find a pic of where this point is? Is the earth original connection on the outside of the car (to the bottom of the steering column, that earths the splines)

Try this as the joint in the steering guibo could be failing, check the rubber as mine was kaput and I bought a reconditioned one from dan the on here as normally if you just use bolts you lose the earth continuity.

https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/show ... aft-ground

Thanks Satan,

Ok, so I had a check under the column, I can make an earth contact on the steering column all the way up to the section BEFORE the steering wheel section just behind the wheel, and presumably where the contact meets the splines to earth the horn.

Before I strip off all the stalks and start pulling this apart, do you have any suggestions on how to proceed at this point?

Thanks for the info so far!

Go from the end of the spline that the horn still works from to an earth point on the body.