A while ago the horn in my 2003 Chevy Silverado stopped working. I checked the fuses and the relay and everything was good. At the time I did not want to remove the airbag to check the switch so I bought a horn button and hooked it up and the horn worked this way.
Fast forward to recently and a car pulled in front of me and my instincts were to still hit the steering wheel and not the button. So no horn, but luckily there was no accident, but decided it was time to fix the switch.
I bought a new switch, cleaned the area where the switch attaches, and put it all back together and removed the old horn button. Unfortunately there is still no horn sound and not even a click from the relay. The fuses and relay are still good, but I am not sure what to check next. I saw some video where people put solder on the tip of the switch, but I wouldn’t think I would need to do that on a brand new switch. Any idea what to do next? Thanks!
You can test the new switch easily. It’s probably OK, and the problem is in the connections in the steering column including what’s called the clock spring.
Meanwhile, I am reminded of a favorite bumper sticker:
Horn Broken - Watch for Finger
Those switches under the air bag provide a ground for the horn relay, through the contact on the end of the wires as shown in the picture, then through the clockspring and the contact on the multifunction switch (I think–the 2003 wiring diagram doesn’t show the path through the clockspring or multiswitch. The 2005 diagram shows it going through the turn signal cancel cam to the multiswitch). That ground path has to be checked all the way to the relay.
Thank you. I will check the clock spring, multi function switch and the grounds next. Thanks for your suggestions - I will let you all know what happens.
I had no idea that the multi function switch had anything to do with the horn. I found some sites where it says that button gets worn down and will cause the horn not to work. Learn something new all the time. Definitely going to check that. Thank you.
