Honda Civic Horn Going Crazy

Back in August the horn on my 2001 Honda Civic started going off by itself in the middle of Los Angeles rush hour traffic. The only way to stop it was to take the fuse out, but then I found myself in situations where I actually needed to use my horn. I took it to a mechanic and they told me the summer heat was probably warping a metal contact on my horn pad. All they could do was give me a new fuse and send me on my way. Periodically my horn would still go off and I would just take the fuse out for a few days. Since the weather got colder I’ve been driving for several months with no incident until last week. I noticed this time my horn would go off when I turned my steering wheel left or drove over a bumpy road. I took it into the Honda dealership and they couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? I’m desperate to figure out what is going on. I’m literally scared to drive my car because it’s embarrassing for people to think I have road rage when it’s just my car being possessed.

I agree that the problem is probably the metal contact in the horn pad. It may be possible to disconnect the horn switch in the horn pad and have a button installed that clamps onto the side of the steering column. I had to do this on a 1950 Chevrolet pickup truck that I once owned. This was the cheap way out for me. I don’t know if auto parts stores still sell these auxilliary horn buttons, but the electrical connection is easy–a wire from the horn relay to the button and another wire from the button to the ground. Aesthetically, it doesn’t exactly have that original equipment look, and you may want to do it on a vehicle as recent as yours, but it is a cheap way out of your problem.

You could have a short in the steering column or anywhere in the wiring harness.