horn issues

my two 95 RMW's and my 96 RMW have inoperable horns..

can anyone point to the usual cause?

thanks

Update: just read your post more carefully.... if your horns don't work at all, check the fuse first, then other possibility if they've never worked since you've had the cars, the previous owner could've disconnected the wires behind the airbag.
Also, before pulling the airbag, check that there are indeed horns under the hood - usu, tucked behind left fender toward front. and check wires are connected/not broken or cut. "always check the simple stuff first.... car don't start? got gas?"

material degradation inside the airbags usually cause the horn wires to malfunction and go off... especially late at night where a lying security guard will get angry at the noise and smash your window in before banging on your door to tell you your alarm is going off and then blame imaginary drunk people he believes he saw nearby in the parking lot.... mmhmm... so before some jerkwad breaks your windows out in frustration, either get that aftermarket cool steering wheel you have your heart set on or do a horn bypass.



i've done it before on my 96 mentioned above. Have video showing what i did and a follow up of how i would do it the next time.

what i did
https://youtu.be/3DjPofX8MeA

and the way i'd do it next time
https://youtu.be/945S8O8FcWw

thanks for the reply, so!? the *usual* issue is degraded airbag/horn button..? i replaced the airbag clockspring in RMW (#3 aka Skippy) a couple years ago and like yours the ^^&$%#! horn went off about 7AM so i went out in my birthday suit to hit the button to no effect so yanked the fuse and it has been that way ever since so i know there are horns in that one, the 92 (Zippy) horns work except for those 92 horn buttons are discrete near where you put those buttons.. my white 95 has a big button near the parking brake release lever SO 2 out of 4 are OK but i would like to have these work as intended BUT with your youtube video (which i have seen before) i guess the answer is it is like other RMW issues, a common thing one must live with.. :-\
i guess next i'll verify the wiring from steering wheel to the wire harness at the steering column base then work from there.. i don't think i'll drill out the wheel and add buttons but it IS a good idea and i'll think on that solution..
but first, that &^%$$!#ing VATS thing is unpredictable..
again, thanks for the reply and your youtube videos.. :-)

yup - sometimes we have to come up with creative solutions to fix aging hardware. If it was a show/museum quality specimen, i would understand one wanting to make it like original, but then these are 90s wagons so i don't foresee them ever being a top tier collectable.

i always felt the dash button horn fix was a horrible solution. very unlikely i'd ever use one as it's not a part of the steering wheel and it's not a clown car.
the 94-96 wheels lend themselves to the button placement as they have adequate foam without compromising the wheel's integrity.
91-93 is a different story. only one of my buttons on my 93 even works, and not well. and being a first generation 30 year old air bag, i'm more than willing to ditch the original wheel for an aftermarket wood one with a center horn button damned my faceplant in an accident.

96 rolls royce wheel has similarly placed horn buttons.. so your fix has been used before..
if it were more cosmetically integrated the placement is a good solution..
though no horn button is a good idea when my red head Irish wife is driving..
maybe if i find a spare wheel someplace i'll check out the horn contacts, hopefully without launching myelf into the next county..

at the time i did the mod, i didn't look as thoroughly as i could've. the main thing was to find a button that wasn't too deep. One could definitely do a better job placing a button better than i did in the video. I used that weird sugro playdoh stuff to fill in the mistakes, which worked ok, but i didn't have the blue color version to better match the wheel

Serendipity96 wrote:

yup - sometimes we have to come up with creative solutions to fix aging hardware. If it was a show/museum quality specimen, i would understand one wanting to make it like original, but then these are 90s wagons so i don't foresee them ever being a top tier collectable.

i'm more than willing to ditch the original wheel for an aftermarket wood one with a center horn button damned my faceplant in an accident.

Well said. I didn’t buy my car to use it as a trophy. I bought it to drive it and mod it how I please.

I will be ditching my air bag this weekend for a nice 15” black mahogany wheel with black spokes.