Gremlins messing with the horn...

[TopherS]

I have a strange, but infrequent thing happening. Every once in a while, not very often, my horn will sound for about 1/2 second. Each time this happens, my hands are on the wheel, not near the horn. The wheel is straight or slightly turned, not during a sharp turn.

I'm not seeing any other strange things happening at the same time, but wonder if this is something that happens to a lot of these cars. My wife's Rendezvous has the same steering wheel style, but has never had anything like this happen...so...go figure.

This is usually more of an annoyance than a problem, except when it honked while I was behind a line of cars at a stoplight and our light was still red. I got a couple of angry looks on that one. One time actually saved a life, I believe, though. Coming in the dark, in the rain, I was coming toward a crosswalk which is not lighted and the horn honked. At that same moment, a person in the crosswalk, dressed in dark blue turned around a little to where I could see a white t-shirt under their dark blue hoodie. I don't think I would have seen them until it was too late, had the horn not honked. Devine intervention, I say. (and I'm looking to get the city to install better lighting there, too).

I don't know if this is a wiring problem, a problem in the steering wheel, or something else. Not sure where to even look...

[Loekee75]

This one's hard to say. You could try simulating vehicle movement (vibration) to the wheel and column. The contacts in the wheel may be a little too close together, just enough to close the circuit needed to sound the horn, and just the right amount of movement at the right time could be sounding it. Horn relay could be going off for a second, also.
Does the horn sound about the same as it does when you arm your keyless entry alarm?

[TopherS]

Sometimes (when there's nobody else near me), I try different movements with the steering wheel to try to get the horn to sound. But nothing so far, it appears the gremlins are when I want it to happen. I hadn't thought about the relay...maybe replacing that would work.

As far as the keyless entry, I'll have to check that. I have my memory settings saved so that the lights flash when I arm/disarm, but without sounding the horn. I'll have to change that setting and see if it is the same duration as when the gremlins play... Thanks for the input. I hadn't thought about the alarm, either.