Horn probs

Hi got a prob with the horn not working its a mk1 g60 covertion u press the horn an u can hear the relay click
An the horns make a donk noise its got 12v I ran a earth wire from the batt to the br wire with one horn disconnected an turned the ign on an the horn sounded without touching the horn switch
I buzzed out the earth wire at the horn end with a multimeter an it buzzed so every things working but it dont lol WTH is going on its done my head in

The horns are a very simple circuit.

Grounds for the horn start at the Steering rack mount to the steering gear box, up the center of the shaft to the one side of the horn button.  Once the Button is depressed your ground is then at the outside of the steering wheel to the wiper finger on the windsceen wiper bracket, from there is goes down the loom and to the horn relay where it is picked and switches ground from the Start Cluster to the horns.

The Horns have 12v sitting on the black /yellow wire from the fuse.

So if you apply Ground to the horn brown wire and they both honk then your horns are good.

So you need to check the horn relay that there is continuity from the brown wire on the horn to one side of the relays large spads… from the other side of the spad you are going to frame ground.

The clicking is the relay energizing, the Donking is that the horns aren't getting a good connection to ground via the relay.... so you what to see that pin 30 of the relay to the Start connector is 0 ohms.  Then the Wire to the horns from pin 87 has continuity between there and the brown wire of the horns. So you have a ground issue or that one of your horns are bad, as when I replaced my horns with a Ultra loud horn, I wired them so that the one horn was in series to the other instead of parallel and then you could hear a distinct time difference between the high tone and the low tone....  Relays do go bad, where as your relay a stock 53 unit may have burnt or misaligned contacts.  To test this you would remove the relay and run a jumper wire from pin 30 to pin 87 if it honks then bad relay if it grrrs, then you have a ground issue between pin 30 of the fuse panel and the star cluster on your inner firewall.


 

Excellent thanks for such a good replay I'll try all your suggestions Sunday

On my GTI the two horn setup was always playing up. It would work on the way to the MOT and then do has you describe,  relay click and then 'donk' noise and fail test…. sometimes worked ok with engine running and an extra bit of ummff from electrics.

The old horns just require too much current. A quick fix is to simply disconnect one of the horns. The eventual way I fixed it was to ensure the steering rack/column earth link to the body was squeaky clean and use new horns not 40 year old seized up ones.

And as Braino highlights VW do it the opposite way to the rest of the world and send earth to the 12v horn, rather than 12v to an earthed horn.

Think I found the prob only 3 too 4valts at the horn end how do I go about fixing that

You have proved that the +12v seems OK by running an earth direct from the battery and getting a noise from the horn.

I'd suspect the steering rack/column earth. It's located out in the elements, clean up and/or replace making sure everything's shiny clean.

Cheers going look at that Monday I tested the voltage at the relay it was  11.6 volts bit low an tested the steering coloum was getting a earth it was 9v when bridge to the cig lighter live so not a great earth I'm hoping it is the steering rack earth

Exactly the same problem ,

I've controlled and cleaned the 16 & 18 fuses ,

I replaced the relay 53 , check and cleaned the ground , and all works fine.

Made a new earth wire for the steering rack buzzed out after but still no horn

Be here now said

Made a new earth wire for the steering rack buzzed out after but still no horn

Does it work with just 1 connected (try both in turn)?

Got it working one off the horns weren't working took that one off an it works now

ta-dah!

As suspected on my 1st post. I bet if you try the 'dead' one direct to the battery it will work too.

If you still want/need twin horns get two new ones. Ones that have been outdoors and blasted by water and debris inches from the road just don't work after 40 years

I'm sure Cleaning the earth made a difference, no one off the horns was broke just running one now but it's intermittent now hoping it's my battery being a bit low
That's causing that