Horn Not Working - Help

[Tasng4]

Hi,
I have a 2000 MGF and the horn switches on the steering column don't work, the horns themselves do work as they sound when the alarm goes off.
I have removed the air bag but can't figure out how to get at the horn switches. They used to work but were always a bit flakey. I checked the fuse in the front compartment (labelled horn/stop lights), funilly enough the stop lights work with the fuse removed.

I've tried a multimeter on the connector behind the airbag but can't seem to get a reading.

Any ideas?

[C-J]

Hi,
I checked the fuse in the front compartment (labelled horn/stop lights), funilly enough the stop lights work with the fuse removed.

Hmmm. In my simple mind that would suggest to me that either there is a 2nd circuit to the brake lights or crossed wire / earth leak / additional power source leaching in somewhere. Or that despite the label, that is not actually the correct fuse. I know that my ZS handbook had some incorrect info relating to headlight bulb positions, but wasn't aware of any other mis-labelling.

When you remove that fuse, does anything else stop working?

The only other thing that springs to mind is that on my ZS the horn did occasionally blow the fuse - at which point the horn and brake-lights stopped working. After happening loads (10 fuses in 1 year), it then hardly happened again. (Nb: Most of the 10 fuses were when I tested it rather than aggressive horn use). I have no idea why it started or how it largely repaired itself.

I don't really get on well with elec-trickery though so best ignore all the above!

[Tasng4]

I think I found the problem, there's no earth connection on the 'slip ring' behind the steering wheel (part YRC100300). Now I have to find one and they're not cheap new.

[Neil Rushton]

Quite a few reasonably priced on eBay?

[talkingcars]

There are several connections through the rotary coupler (aka slip ring) that are unused in the F/TF, they are there for stereo control and cruise control in the Rover 45.

You can use one of these to carry the earth across the rotary coupler.

[Tasng4]

Mmm, I hadn't considered moving the pins in the plugs. Not sure how easy that would be as the pins are quite delecate. But as others have suggested there are a few on Fleabay at the moment.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

[maxgyllsdoll]

It can be a real pain. I remember when I had issues with my old Jeep's horn, and it turned out the contacts in the steering column were all gunked up from years of use. Have you tried giving the horn switches a good clean with some contact cleaner? It might help if they're just a bit stuck or dirty. And if you're thinking of upgrading, I've heard good things about the bosshorn for a louder, more reliable sound. Might be worth considering if cleaning doesn't do the trick.

[Notanumber]

Slip ring ? If you mean the clocksping then this contains multiple internal helical wires, some of which may break over time. Now on manual Fs and TFs it is practical to swap to an unused pair of wires as some of the clockspring wires are spare as they are only ever used for the gear shift buttons on Stepspeed automatics. Check the connections here with a multimeter to establish which sets of wires still work and then jiggle the wires in the plugs to use these instead using a very small jeweler's screwdriver or picks. Several people have done this successfully to save buying a new clockspring.

In case you are concerned,although Internally the airbag wires in the clockspring work just the same they have their own dedicated connectors which cannot be confused, so there's no way you could mess up the airbag by repinning the horn button connectors

[talkingcars]

Slip ring ? If you mean the clocksping.........

the rotary coupler?

[Notanumber]

thats the baby