Silverado horn not working, not the fuse

[yeloblammo]

2000 silverado 4.8 4wd

My horn had been working intermittently and then stopped working.

First thing i checked was the fuse. Not blown.

I swapped the horn relay with another from the compartment with the same number (AC maybe, i forget) and i got nothing.

Funny thing is i had a hard time getting the relay out so i used some pliers. When i squeezed the relay the horn honked. So we know when the contacts are closed the horn actually works.

Where else can this system fail? I can't imagine there is anything between my steering wheel button and the relay in the engine bay...
I'm afraid I have to pull the airbag??

[j cAT]

the passenger side horn fails because of its location ..in the rust belt this pass side horn fails after a few years...when it fails it shorts out . the relay may be damaged because of this ...remove the feed wire to this horn and see if the driver side horn now works...these horns are about 25.00 ea....


using a fused jumper wire give the horn feed a quick hit with the 12 v and see if this is all correct..on my guessing before buying parts.. also use meter with horn feed wires removed to check for relay operation,,,

if the horn[s] are rusted shorted out on replacing make sure you glue on to the horn opening a mosquito fiberglass screen ,, this will reduce salts road chemicals from geting to these horn coils...

same thing happened on my boat horn !

[MikeD266]

If the horn activates on the alarm the issue may be in the wheel itself, Yelo. Pulling the airbag isn't a huge production on these trucks. Pop two clips after disconnecting the battery. Biggest problem I had was seeing/feeling what I was doing on the back of the wheel. Since I didn't have a mirror handy I snapped a couple of pics with a cell phone camera and a flash light and blew them up on my monitor to get a better view of the unknown territory. After that it's fairly self-explanatory. Haynes manual covered this sufficiently for me to tackle this for the 1st time a few months ago... http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=973717

All it took was a little cleaning of the contact for me. Definitely lucked out...

[yeloblammo]

yes, the horn sounds when i lock/activate the alarm.

MikeD, I'll try what you've done and hopefully it works.

Thanks for the info

[yeloblammo]

i checked at 9 and 3 oclock with a mirror and see what i could find.
there is a rectangular cutout on each side. Both have a torx bolt which hold the plastic on the backside of the airbag, next to it is a deep square hole.
I stuck a flathead in it expecting to find a clip or something of the sort to unclip but there didn't seem to be anything to unclip or push in.

[MikeD266]

Clips will be there. They ARE difficult to feel out especially if you've never done this before. These two clips will be releasing their hold on two posts that the airbag mounts onto. Nothing more than pressure clips.

You may want to wait until the cab is warmed up for awhile as I don't remember, off the top of my head, if these are plastic or metal clips. No sense in risking snapping plastic parts on cold days. Today probably would've been ok for you to try this if you had been parked for awhile with the cab collecting solar heat. Once you get one to release you should feel the entire horn/airbag/center of steering wheel loosen up. Just make sure that the battery AND your airbag fuse are both disconnected for obvious reasons before attempting this.

[yeloblammo]

clips were a piece of cake once i figured them out. I was hesitant on forcing anything in fear of breaking something.

It ended up being dirty contacts. I ran some sand paper over them and the horn was working no prob.

Thanks guys