I drive a 2003 Chevy Express. The horn honks when I turn a corner. Any suggestions on what is causing this?
The horn wire “clockspring” which is supposed to provide the necessary movement when you rotate the wheel is shorting out which causes the horn to blow. Since there is an air-bag right next to it, this can be a tricky repair for a DIYer…The steering wheel must be pulled…
Agreed. On all points.
Thanks for the information. I have pulled steering wheels before but not one with an airbag. Does this make it a lot more difficult? How much would I expect to pay if I took it to a shop to be repaired?
The danger with the airbag is unintended deployment. A repair manual will show you how to deactivate the system properly to remove the bag. Follow the directions carefully.
Shops vary widely in their shop rates. Call a few locally and ask.
A cheap fix is to disconnect the wire from the horn relay that goes to the steering column. You can buy a horn button that clamps to the side of the steering column and one of the connections on the button goes to the terminal on the horn relay that you disconnected and the other connecton goes to the ground. It won’t look like the original equipment, but it is a $5 repair that will get you a horn.
I had this problem with my 1960 Morris Minor. I pulled the wheel off and a little black tape fixed it. Of course no air bags in the 60’s and they can be deadly so no fooling around with them. Even the pros treat them like bombs and never point it at themselves.
I havent had a 2003 Express apart but I have had many other 2003 GM steering columns apart. I believe that the horn signal is connected to the Turn signal cancel cam. This device does both cancel the turn signal but also has a socket (be it a very weak socket) for plugging a wire from the steering wheel into it and the bottom side of this circular device has a conductive path. Not all horn signals go through the clockspring.
When we had a air bag like this and had to either return it or disable it we would set it fabric side down and light the airbag off, the entire unit went about 25ft in the air.
The real sh**** thing to happen is, say all you need to do was replace the airbag (cosmetic damage to the cover) so you pop the airbag loose and it falls into your lap,when it does this it breaks off the retainer for the horn wire. Now you have to remove the lockplate in order to replace the cancel cam, this is the definition of a bad day at work.