horn stopped working

[sickpuppy1]

This is mostly for CT Scott as he seems to be the go-to man for this stuff. Installed A set of Stebel horns a year or so ago, but they have gone to pot,basically falling apart since then....seperate issue. About 6 months ago, they started working sporadically, sometimes yes sometimes no. Thought it was the horns. Got a new set of horns yesterday and put them in. They worked for a couple of times and then sporadically!!
So to start,yes I have a seperate relay and yes it is wired correctly. What I am measuring is 12 volts to the relay (both the one I used with the stebel and the new one) but it wont pull in the relay all the time. You can measure 12 volts to the relays but they wont pull in. I even went to Oreilly auto and tried 3 different relays off the shelf. It will show 12 volts at the relay when the horn button is pushed,but wont close the relay...voltage but no power. I can even feel the relays kick,but they wont close the contacts. How weird is this....

[CrankyOldMan]

I've had similar issues with mine. The relay corroded and started burning out the 10A fuse. I took off the custom wires and went back to the stock harness w/an aftermarket horn. It's not blowing fuses anymore but it only works when it wants to, which is pretty much never.

[CTScott]

Check the continuity of the ground side of the relay coil, as since the +12V is there, it is likely that the ground connection is poor.

[jcboy]

check if your horns are grounded correctly. you can ground both your horn's negative terminal and pin 86 of the relay through the battery's negative terminal.

relay clicking means current through 85 and 86, also means connectivity of 30 to 87, meaning power to the horns. the question is whether your horns are grounded correctly to use that current.

Relay : What
85 : OEM/original horn wire
86 : ground (together with Horn's Negative wire)
30 : batt +12V
87 : Horn's Positive wire

[sickpuppy1]

Originally Posted by jcboy

check if your horns are grounded correctly. you can ground both your horn's negative terminal and pin 86 of the relay through the battery's negative terminal.

relay clicking means current through 85 and 86, also means connectivity of 30 to 87, meaning power to the horns. the question is whether your horns are grounded correctly to use that current.

Relay : What
85 : OEM/original horn wire
86 : ground (together with Horn's Negative wire)
30 : batt +12V
87 : Horn's Positive wire

I have the horns set up for chassis ground, but I can run a ground to the battery also for it too.The relay is grounded to battery,I'll redo the ground to the relay, but understand, with either the after market relay or the new relay that came with the new horn the relay getting power and you can feel it click but it doesnt close the contacts in either to pass power for 12v+. So no 12v+ on the output side.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by sickpuppy1

I have the horns set up for chassis ground, but I can run a ground to the battery also for it too.The relay is grounded to battery,I'll redo the ground to the relay, but understand, with either the after market relay or the new relay that came with the new horn the relay getting power and you can feel it click but it doesnt close the contacts in either to pass power for 12v+. So no 12v+ on the output side.

Measure the voltage between the two coil terminals with the horn pressed.

[sickpuppy1]

I will do that. Wondering if the OEM built in relay can be weak? doesnt this set up (refering back to your stebel install a few years ago) go thru the oem relay too?

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by sickpuppy1

I will do that. Wondering if the OEM built in relay can be weak? doesnt this set up (refering back to your stebel install a few years ago) go thru the oem relay too?

If you are using my DIY from my Stebel install, the OEM relay is still used, but only to drive the coil of the second relay, which draws very little current. The Stebel horn is a tad over what the OEM wires (as opposed to horn relay) are rated for.

If your relay is clicking, but you don't see the power through it being switched through the contacts, then it may be a case where the relay contacts are not being pulled in all of the way, due to the voltage to the coil being too low. That can occur if you have a bad ground connection.

[sickpuppy1]

interesting...12.87 volts across the coil under load, sporadic operation. tried different relay, same results, actually no work at all. but the stebel worked once out of 20 hits on the horn. verified the coil is not closing and no 12 volts output to horn. Even ran a new ground to relay directly to battery. no work. this is ,uh, puzzling. same results with 2 relays. Do I dare try to run it directly with the OEM relay? and how much of of a pain is it to get to the oem relay?

[CrankyOldMan]

The OEM relay is easy to find, but hard to find cheap. Even on ebay they're $75-100 each.

[CTScott]

Originally Posted by sickpuppy1

interesting...12.87 volts across the coil under load, sporadic operation. tried different relay, same results, actually no work at all. but the stebel worked once out of 20 hits on the horn. verified the coil is not closing and no 12 volts output to horn. Even ran a new ground to relay directly to battery. no work. this is ,uh, puzzling. same results with 2 relays. Do I dare try to run it directly with the OEM relay? and how much of of a pain is it to get to the oem relay?

The OEM relay is part of the integration relay assembly. How are you connecting to your relay? You may have a bad crimp if you used female spade connectors.

[sickpuppy1]

The negative side is going from the relay directly to the battery. The positive is going to the green wire coming out of the harness as per the stebel instructions(P1?) I have run a new ground and also replace the connector on the + side. I'm trying to cover my bases man,lol I'd love to get to the incoming side of the integration relay........from the horn button.
I really dont want a button on my dashboard! (kidding)