hi

 

57 laurin + Klement.  cars been stood for 4 days, when i started driving again this morning, the horn comes on when i press the brake pedal!  ive heard of this done as a bit of a prank, and half thought my mates may have done it, but its been locked for those 4 days and has stopped doing it now.  i dont want this to happen again tho so would like to get to the bottom of it.

 

if it helps diagnosis, it was a different tone to the normal horn, more of an embarrassing 'small car horn' if you know what i mean.  some people say horns are either single or double tone, not sure what they mean about that but if i sound the normal horn its quite deep, depress the brake pedal its a quieter tone.

 

any ideas whats happened here??

 

thanks

Weird, does the normal horn operate properly? When the fault was there, or now?  Did it operate when you pressed the brake pedal at the same time? It sounds like a central electronics problem but I wouldn't have thought the horn goes through can bus or the convenience module. Hopefully someone along with a more definitive answer.

24 minutes ago, TheClient said:

Weird, does the normal horn operate properly? When the fault was there, or now?  Did it operate when you pressed the brake pedal at the same time? It sounds like a central electronics problem but I wouldn't have thought the horn goes through can bus or the convenience module. Hopefully someone along with a more definitive answer.

yep, horn operated normally, both when fault was there and now.  the 'rubbish horn' sounded exactly the same time as brake pedal so it would be same time as brake lights too.

 

thanks

Could be due to a faulty earth somewhere.  If the electrical current can't get back the way it's supposed to from its intended electrical thingy, it can take weird and wonderful short cuts through other electrical items back to the battery: but the current will be limited to the draw of the faulty item, hence the feeble sound from the horn.  A difficult fault to trace, but sounds like it's a bad earth in the brake lights.  Check their earthing returns to the chassis - it's not unusual for water to get in around the lights and corrode these connections.  Dismantle, clean, replace and splash a bit of WD40 on 'em.

Just a thought but its not a low braked warning sensor?

im no sparky so dont really understand those answers, but ill ask my mate who IS an auto-electrician to have a look and ill ask him to check these suggestions.

 

thanks a lot

What skodacarman is suggesting is start with the rear brake light assemblies, remove them, clean up an corrossion, especially on any bolts or areas connecting earth on the light assembly to bodywork. re-assemble with wd40 or similar. See if that solves it! Not a big job if it solves it, probably little more than what you would do to replace bulbs.

On a similar note.........went for a bike ride one day with a mate, we traveled in my van and then rode from there.

 

He had full suspension bike but mine had none at the time and he took me on a track (Viking way iirc) where they test land rover's. I didn't know the track was coming up or what it was like until it was too late. I did very well to get 3/4 way down before going over the bars and totalled my bike.

He had to go and fetch my van and I heard the horn beep occasionally as he drove up towards me. (I thought 'you don't need to beep, I can see you').

Upon getting out he asked me what was wrong with the horn, and he said it had been beeping occasionally on the way back to me. It was news to me.

It would then beep every time you turned the steering wheel.

 

Eventually I found that the internal springs had been damaged (underneath the steering wheel cap) and once replaced it was sorted.

He never admitted it but i am convinced that when he returned to fetch my van he took his frustrations, that i had buggered up his ride, out on my steering wheel by bashing the living daylight out of it with his fists, hence the damage.

 

It came to light later on as to just how selfish a person he was. I would have expected him to tell me that my bike was unsuitable for that particular descent, or at least give me a heads up what it was like. (large boulders).

He showed absolutely no concern whatsoever as to my knackered bike or the gash in my chest where i fell.

 

Just thought a true story you may find amusing...........

 

 

 

skodacarman/client - ah thanks, so just open up the back light cluster as tho i was going to change a bulb and see if theres anything obvious, loose wires or rust yep?

it hasnt done it since but it makes sense to have a bit of a look before it embarrasses me again :-)

 

mrgf - sorry, not very car savvy, dont really understand that.

 

tilt - haha, thanks for the story, did you ever tell him what you suspected? :-)

 

 

grrrrrr.......... sorry for wasting your time, but i spose its the best case ending..... it WAS a prank!!  a workmate had bought something from ebay that plugs into the towbar electrics to do just this!  he also nipped it off whilst i was asking the others if they knew anything about it, hence it not happening any more.

 

feel a little foolish now, but at least i know these things exist and i hope i wont get caught again, just sorry i had to waste your time, but appreciate the replies.

 

thanks again.

Well, at least you have solved the mystery. It did sound like an unusual one.