Beetle horn spontaneously blowing -- at 5 AM

EddyKilowatt

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2006
Location
Carmel Valley CA
TDI
2003 Golf GL 5M
This morning at 5 AM my wife's NB horn suddenly started blowing while the car was parked in the driveway (and had been for 12 hours). After about one minute of steady blowing it stopped, as mysteriously as it started.

An hour later it did the same thing again. Since then, silence.

This is the two-tone road horn we're talking about, not the meep meep alarm (and panic button) bleater.

The horn push on the steering wheel appears normal (has spring tension), but interestingly, the horn doesn't sound when it's pushed. My wife says she doesn't know if the horn has been working recently... she's not a frequent horn user.

The 20A horn fuse (#40) checks good with an ohmmeter and there appears to be 12V on one contact of the fuse socket. I don't have my Bentley here so I haven't traced anything else in the circuit.

Is this an all-electromechanical circuit (switch, relay, horn) or do electronic gizmos have their fingers into the horn function as well?

Anybody else ever seen anything like this?

regards,
Eddy
 

Joe_Meehan

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 3, 2005
Location
Ohio USA
TDI
NB TDI, 2002.5, Silver
Likely the cold temperatures caused a contact in the steering wheel. As it blew it warmed up the contact and returned to normal until it cooled off again. It use to happen rather often back in the 50's and 60's.

I suspect you will end up disassembling the mechanism and doing a little adjustment, however, don't start it right now, there may be someone who is more familiar with the problems of current cars (2003 Golf) and can offer maybe a second possible problem or some specific instructions for checking it out.
 

meganuke

TDIClub Contributor, Vendor
Joined
Mar 6, 2003
Location
VA/CT
TDI
2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid
Try reseating the radio. It's tied to the alarm system as well. The same thing happened on my mother's passat. A quick scan with VCDS will tell you the last few causes for the alarm going off. Just go into the CCM module and scroll through all the channels.
 

PDJetta

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 6, 2003
Location
Northern Virginia
TDI
'04 Jetta GLS TDI Pumpe Duce Platinum Grey w/ Leather
I thought in order for the horn to sound by pushing the horn pad, or if the horn ring contacts shorted out in the steering wheel, the "ignition" had to be turned on. If the horn honks randomly without the key being on, I would suspect a grounding horn relay or faulty wiring after the relay.

--Nate
 

EddyKilowatt

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2006
Location
Carmel Valley CA
TDI
2003 Golf GL 5M
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I'll be able to get to my Bentley tomorrow. The car was quiet last night.

I'll again re-iterate that this was the ROAD horn, not the ALARM horn, that was spontaneously blowing.

Eddy
 

ecodean

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2006
Location
Seagrove NC
TDI
2002 golf, 85 jetta(sold), 03 jetta(sold)
The road horn honks when the alarm is triggered on my golf. Might be the door switch.
 
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