Saturn L100...Horn won't work

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I’ve been having an issue with my Saturn L100 horn.
After an altercation with a huge log, meant to be an indicator of row spacing in a dirt parking lot, my horn no longer works properly. Even after being replaced twice, and working properly for a few days, it has reverted to a barely audible noise, akin to that of a strangled goose.

The log was low on the ground, and my car was parked at the very end of it, so it was not visible in the dark. I drove up on to it, so part of the passenger side of the front end was actually on the log. I backed off of it, and it made the front bumper pull out a bit. The next day, my horn sounded strangled and the volume of it was lower, by the second day, the horn was even softer, then just stopped making a sound at all.

I went to the autoparts store and got a replacement, which was installed. It worked properly for a few days, and then the volume started lowering, and the sound started turning screechy again.

I went to my mechanic. He replaced the horn mechanism. The same thing happened; a few days of a normal sounding horn, then the volume lowered and the sound became strained and screechy. My mechanic is at a loss to figure out why this is happening.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why this keeps occurring?

2

Horns are often grounded via the bolt that attaches them to the car. If that bolt works loose, the ground isn’t good and you get weak/no horns. Make sure the bolt isn’t working loose.

3

Clean and tighten the horn ground. The wiring may have been damaged. So give it a good look.

4

I’ll also vote ground. I had a problem similar to this on my Dodge Dakota. I just moved the horn. It seemed to work better and was definitely louder.

5

This should be pretty simple to discover the cause. It’s either the horn itself, or the electrical power input to it. The first thing to determine is whether the horn is receiving the proper power input or not. Use a DVM to measure the voltage between the two horn terminals (or the one terminal and the horn metal case). When you press on the horn button, does it measure around 12 volts?