98 Lexus ES300- Wife kissed a concrete divider, then had the car repaired. Looks great, but no horn since the accident. The horn does honk with 12v applied (jumped from battery). All fuses inside car and under hood check good. Pressed the horn button & the relay clicked weakly compared to the new horn relay now installed, but still no Beep. Should I run a jumper from inside the relay/fuse box directly to the horn for a permanent fix?? Thanks for all suggestions. (I’m working under the shade tree- difficult to get under this car.)
Don’t by-pass the relay. It is there for a reason. Check to see if the relay is getting power to the high-amp side from the fused circuit, then check the continuity to the horn from the relay. It sounds like the low-amp side of the relay works fine.
Remove the relay and test its socket. Ensure that two of its terminals are getting +12v when the ignition is on. Then test the ground terminals. One should be a good ground always, the other is grounded only when the horn button is pressed, open circuit otherwise. Your results should give you a clue where the fault lies.
The horn may have been damaged, or the wire broken. Have you found the horn? Sometimes, they are placed in weird places.
I suggest you purchase a test light probe so you can see where power is getting to. The problem may be with a connection point between the switched side of the relay and the horn but you first need to verify that power is getting to the relay switch contact.