Drove to work this morning in the wet.

As I was approaching the last set of lights befopre I arrived at the office, I heard a strange metallic noise. Not even sure if it was my car I continued and then heard it again as I was parking up. After letting the turbos cool a little I switched off and climbed out and the noise continued.

 

It turned out to be my horn !

Some kind of intermittent short circuit causing it to blip and squeek. I open the bonnet to listen closer, but it stopped. I reset the alarm and it seems to be cured (?) - although I don't think the alarm circuit is linked to the horn at all.

 

Is there a component of the horn that's liable to getting wet? If so is there a cure?

 

Or is my car possessed by the devil (a suspicion I have developed on various occassion when driving in the wet!)

Can't answer that one but I can ask do you have splash guards on ?

If you mean those rubbery flaps hanging off the backs of the wheel arches, then yes I do.

 

Is that a good or a bad thing??

 

(I've had to have them re-fixed already cause they were lose having lost the bottom fixings in 3 out of 4 cases).

That's a good thing, but you should also have some directly under the car.

You have the two side ones which wrap under from the front of the wheel arches, then you have a front splash panel which attaches to the front bumper and the bottom of the engine mount, then you have another smaller one which sits just behind the sump tank.

 

The front splash panel will be the one protecting your horn's (both of them). There is also a smaller splash panel which sits under your air box or pop charger (induction) which ever you have.

 

If you haven't got these I would recommend giving AndyZ a shout to see if he has any 2nd hand ones going cheap.

sounds like I have to get under my car to look at this - oh god! do you know how low it is!

 

I was considering buying some ramps, but I wasn't confident I could drive up them without catching something!

Standard Ramps are no use at all.

The car is too low to get up them without taking the front bumper off. Which is about an hours work (first time anyway, after that its about 30 mins).

 

I'm currently modifiying my own ramps with steel so that the 300zx can just be driven up there without any problems.

 

You should be able to see whether you have a splach guard just by looking at the front bumper.

If you can see any of the floor through the front bumper, then you haven't got one.

Stuart, sadly, didn't get to read your post before the car went in for the interior and ICE installation yesterday. I won't get it back before next Sat now, but I'll have a look then.

 

By the way - should get the speaker templates mid next week, so I'll post them on to you.

Shouldnt worry too much about not having splash guards, so much water gets in to where the horns are when you drive it in the wet not having splash guards wont make any difference. Sorry.

...and do the symptoms I described sound as if it was just a bit of water on the horn connections? I've not had any further problems since posting the original message.

 

Maybe I could wrap the connectors or something to reduce the likelihood of recurrance?

No, the connections getting wet will make no difference, I doubt the problem is anywhere near the horns themselves.

Could be a relay, but dosnt feel like that, maybe the connection on the steering wheel? Hard to tell.

It could be the horns are full of mud and water like happened to mine.

One made a slight buzz and the other was completely dead.

 

I took them off and bought twin air horns - £15 from Harry Halfords and fitted in 15 mins.

Mounted the horns and compressor under the centre panel well out of the way of all the muck and water that gets in the stock ones.

 

Now I can scare old ladies at 500 yards ;) :D

So having horns full of mud makes them work all on their own?????

LOL

Maybe one of the wires is loose, i know that when i had my astra the horn gave a little blip when you reconnected it after disconecting it, not sure if its the same on a zed or not??:confused:

Thing is, a loose wire would still be loose now that it's dry again !??

 

The symptom became apparent only when I drove the car on the first really wet day since I bought it. Now this could be a complete coincidence, but I doubt it, knowing how well water and electrical circuits get on together.

 

I like the idea of replacing the horn, but if the problem is the signal from the wheel (or somewhere along the route to the Nissan sounder) then this might leave me with an intermittent fault on a bloody loud air horn!

 

So I'm afraid I'm really not much wiser, yet.

It's most likely to be mucky connectors on the horn.

 

Could be the relay as the horn can't sound without power getting to it?!

Unless it is a switched earth which is a possibility but should stop it working not make it sound?

I know the fogs work by switching the earth which had me confused for ages when I had one not working.

 

Take off the horn and clean the connectors and mounting plates.

 

The horn button is unlikely to have been used enough to wear it out and the only other bit is the relay which you can swap for a couple of squids anyway.

Thanks Chris, I'll have a go at the cleaning bit first. Steering wheel is coming off in a week or two - to have stereo controls fitted to it - so I'll have a look at the switch connections then. Many thanks.

I had a similar problem, my horn went off outside on its own, during a severe downpour.

the car was parked half on the kerb, therefore leaning out.

I have air horns so it was pretty load.

I just ripped out earth wire till it stopped raining.

When I re-connected it still went off and when I went to drive off car would not go above 2.5K and kept hunting!

Power light started flashing indicating fault with gearbox!

 

Some time later fault was traced to water ingress from drain outlet to targa roof in the 'A' pillar, split in plastic pipe wasletting water drip on main connector block by drivers door.

 

Once dry and new plastic pipe installed all now OK, touch wood.

 

This may be where your short is occuring??

mine done this aswell nigel mine turned out to be the steering wheel push button. i ignored this for a while , and two weeks later i returned home one evening late, to find that my horn was perminently on and had been for over two hours so my neighbours tell me. LOL all i know is that it was bloody loud. i have since bought a momo steering wheel and now and have had no problems since.:eek: