I'm in pretty deep sleep and am becoming aware that a car horn is sounding. Actually I wasn't aware of that, what I was aware of was that someone was calling me on my landline. I'm thinking, what robocaller would call me at 2:30AM? I then hear the caller leaving me a message and it's my neighbor saying my car's horn is sounding. Then I'm aware that the horn is sounding. I pick up the phone and we chat a few seconds, 2 or 3 minutes later we are outside, I raise the hood and he ratchets the negative battery cable off. It's a residential neighborhood, 2:30AM, whew! Neither of us knew how long the horn had been sounding. He'd been sound asleep too.
He figured the horn fuse is inside the car, not under the hood. I'm not so sure. Anyway, I figured (guessed) it's the relay that's not working right. I have the Chilton manual.
Car is a 1997 Mazda 626LX 2.0 liter with less than 35k on it. I've had very little trouble with it, driven it less than 1500 miles/year generally, and less than 500 during the pandemic. I'm starting to play golf again, so will put more miles on it, maybe averaging 30 miles/week.
Other than the golf I've been driving 10-20 miles doing an every other week shopping run, centering around Costco.
I was planning to drive to a 4th of July birthday party today. Oh well, may have to miss that, depending. I figure I could go with horn disabled, but I suppose that isn't legal, don't know, but I'm a really safe careful driver and imagine I would NOT miss my horn, I almost never use it.
So, looking online: I see that it's probably either a bad horn relay or one of the two horn buttons on my steering wheel suddenly is stuck on.
I figure check the relay first. Are those just plug in units? Pull out and push in? Buy a replacement and see if that fixes the problem? I could bicycle over to O'Reilly's.
This car has airbags. Well, I guess not side airbags, but front. I have no idea if they would work. Online troubleshooting a stuck-on horn it says to be aware of potential complications because of installed airbags.
There's something else: There's a car alarm that was installed at purchase, a Crime Guard unit. They have life-time warranty. There's an on again off again issue with the alarm not working. The remote opens and locks the doors OK either way. I have called Crime Guard a few times and was told it's quite possibly a wiring problem, i.e. a bad connection. I suppose this is unrelated to the horn going off. The car alarm started working again around 3 months ago out of the blue and a few weeks later stopped working and it's been that way since.
I had a pretty good mechanic, but he retired 10+ years ago. He worked independently after a while in a nearby shop. I found another mechanic who was good, had a crew of around 4 guys, all certified in AC (my AC had stopped working). I had them fix the AC and next week had them do my 30k service, although I was maybe a couple thousand miles short of 30k at the time. The owner retired maybe 2-3 years ago. I called a recommended shop maybe 2 years ago and was told they won't work on cars as old as mine. I suppose I have to find a good mechanic who will or just sell the car. The state will give me $1500 for it to get it off the road, but fact is it passes smog exams with flying colors. It's not a polluter. Mileage not so hot at maybe 20 mph average.
Maybe pulling the horn fuse I can at least drive a day or two before fixing the problem.
A few minutes after disconnecting the battery and starting to become fairly awake, I realized that since I was planning to use the car today I should make sure the battery wasn't depleted. Multimeter said it was at 12.46v, which is probably OK, but drained a little. I put one of my chargers on the disconnected battery. It's still dark, figure to take a look to find the horn fuse after it gets light.
Moved from OT.
admin allisolm
He figured the horn fuse is inside the car, not under the hood. I'm not so sure. Anyway, I figured (guessed) it's the relay that's not working right. I have the Chilton manual.
Car is a 1997 Mazda 626LX 2.0 liter with less than 35k on it. I've had very little trouble with it, driven it less than 1500 miles/year generally, and less than 500 during the pandemic. I'm starting to play golf again, so will put more miles on it, maybe averaging 30 miles/week.
Other than the golf I've been driving 10-20 miles doing an every other week shopping run, centering around Costco.
I was planning to drive to a 4th of July birthday party today. Oh well, may have to miss that, depending. I figure I could go with horn disabled, but I suppose that isn't legal, don't know, but I'm a really safe careful driver and imagine I would NOT miss my horn, I almost never use it.
So, looking online: I see that it's probably either a bad horn relay or one of the two horn buttons on my steering wheel suddenly is stuck on.
I figure check the relay first. Are those just plug in units? Pull out and push in? Buy a replacement and see if that fixes the problem? I could bicycle over to O'Reilly's.
This car has airbags. Well, I guess not side airbags, but front. I have no idea if they would work. Online troubleshooting a stuck-on horn it says to be aware of potential complications because of installed airbags.
There's something else: There's a car alarm that was installed at purchase, a Crime Guard unit. They have life-time warranty. There's an on again off again issue with the alarm not working. The remote opens and locks the doors OK either way. I have called Crime Guard a few times and was told it's quite possibly a wiring problem, i.e. a bad connection. I suppose this is unrelated to the horn going off. The car alarm started working again around 3 months ago out of the blue and a few weeks later stopped working and it's been that way since.
I had a pretty good mechanic, but he retired 10+ years ago. He worked independently after a while in a nearby shop. I found another mechanic who was good, had a crew of around 4 guys, all certified in AC (my AC had stopped working). I had them fix the AC and next week had them do my 30k service, although I was maybe a couple thousand miles short of 30k at the time. The owner retired maybe 2-3 years ago. I called a recommended shop maybe 2 years ago and was told they won't work on cars as old as mine. I suppose I have to find a good mechanic who will or just sell the car. The state will give me $1500 for it to get it off the road, but fact is it passes smog exams with flying colors. It's not a polluter. Mileage not so hot at maybe 20 mph average.
Maybe pulling the horn fuse I can at least drive a day or two before fixing the problem.
A few minutes after disconnecting the battery and starting to become fairly awake, I realized that since I was planning to use the car today I should make sure the battery wasn't depleted. Multimeter said it was at 12.46v, which is probably OK, but drained a little. I put one of my chargers on the disconnected battery. It's still dark, figure to take a look to find the horn fuse after it gets light.
Moved from OT.
admin allisolm
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