Ferrari Mailing List: Re: I succeeded to make my horn problem even worse.

[Les Thompson (les21]

I've never had good luck with tape and automotive electrical wiring. From your 
description, it sounds like someone started to strip the wire to make a 
connection, then realized they were too short and taped that spot.

Repairing section of wire with damaged insulation, I use heat shrink tubing. 
When I have a section where there are connectors or something else that 
prevents getting heat shrink to the spot, I've had good luck with the liquid 
electrical tape in a can.

Do enough automotive electrical that I picked up a kit (Lisle 56810 Relay Test 
Jumper Kit) it has adapters that you pull the relay, plug the adapter in, then 
plug the relay into the adapter. The adapter has test point for all the relay 
connections, allowing you to troubleshoot the relay with a VOM.

Then there's a gadget (GODIAG GT103 Power Circuit Probe Kit) that connects to 
the battery, then will allow you to probe for voltage or push a button and 
inject voltage into a point. Has really long leads making it great around 
vehicles.

Got both off Amazon.

With most relays you can pull the cover and get access to the contacts that 
way, so the Lisle kit makes it handier. Now the circuit probe, that really 
changes the game and is reasonably priced. You can pull a relay or other 
component and bench test it easily with the probe hooked to a 12v source.

As someone mentioned, the horn button grounds the circuit, usually via a relay. 
So if you ground that wire to any ground point on the car, the horns should 
sound. If they don't, with wire disconnected, put a meter between the grounding 
wire and ground you should see 12v. If you don't, next check for voltage at the 
relay socket. Two sources of voltage at the relay socket, one for the relay 
coil and a heavier, higher amperage source on the relay contacts for the 
compressor itself. Just have to start at one end and work methodically through 
until you find the anomaly.

Hope you find the issue,
Les Thompson

-----Original Message-----
From: Michel Savard <mysavard [at] videotron.ca>
Sent: Jun 1, 2024 1:25 PM
To: Les Thompson <les21 [at] ix.netcom.com>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Subject: [Ferrari] I succeeded to make my horn problem even worse.

Good day, I cleaned my 2 red horns (they were really dirty) this week and put 
them back today.

I took the horn button off, it was very easy. I saw right away a piece of black 
electric tape about 1&rdquo; long loose barely touching the black wire which 
was damaged. Very tiny cut all around the black wire, I can easily see the 
copper wire (or whatever it is). It&rsquo;s not cut or severely folded, 
it&rsquo;s just missing a tiny line of black around all around. I imagine 
someone put the tape around the cut and the tape eventually came loose. 
I&rsquo;ve had the car for 23 years, never took out the horn button.

I put new tape around the cut. Cleaned the female connection on the horn button 
with sandpaper, dust it. Now there is absolutely no sound at all. Completely 
dead horn. No key in: Nothing (remember it used to work with no key in). Key in 
and turned at &ldquo;ON&rdquo; (tested all the lights), nothing (it used to 
work). I switched the relays (Bosch 0332-019151) to see if that could be the 
problem. No change, same results.

I didn&rsquo;t start the car, it took me 90 minutes to do all that. I was too 
frustrated. Tomorrow I&rsquo;ll get the car out and drive it that way (no horn).
I hope my mechanic finds the problem. No room until late june. This is annoying.

Michael Savard (1981 308 GTSi)
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