i have a 94 e150 5.0l. a while back my horn stopped working. a couple weeks later the horn just stared going while the van was sitting in my driveway. i removed the fuse to stop it. i have a haynes manual but it says nothing about the horn and has no schematic diagram of the horn circuit. today i bought a new horn relay thinking that it was the problem, i installed it and re-installed the fuse. the horn seemed to make a quiet gurgling sound for about 5 seconds and then it stopped. does the horn circuit basically consist of the relay, the fuse and the horn itself? if so how can i go about diagnosing the problem?

thanks
jeremy boyd

 

Usually the horn relay supplies the current to the horn itself. The horn relay is activated by the horn button on the steering wheel. Under the horn button pad is a circular piece of metal that when the horn pad is depressed it makes the ground for the horn relay and causes the horn to operate. BEFORE you do any work on the horn pad area DISCONNECT THE BATTERY and wait a few minutes for the air bag system to stabilize. If you are not familiar with the system , get a good manual and check the instructions first. I would suspect something in the steering column horn pad area is making the connection for the relay to operate.

 

so on a four terminal relay the current goes from the battery through a fuse to pin 30, out of pin 87 and to the horn. the horn button is connected between pin 85 and ground and pin 86 is also connected to the battery?

if this is correct can i just wire up the connection from pin 85 through my own button and connect that to ground? buttons are cheap while a new horn button may not be, i also don't want to mess around in the steering column.

jeremy boyd

 

Should work.