ketel

Gang,

My horn stopped working a few days ago. I checked the fuse but it seemed fine. The manuals I checked said little about horn troubleshooting.

I pulled the fuse panel and pushed the horn (when ignition key is on position 2 but engine not on) and I am hearing a "click" sound. Does that sound to anyone like a bad relay. If so, how does one check a relay to see if it has gone bad?

If it's a relay, is this something I can get over the counter at Kragen's or would this be a special Porsche iteam ($$$) I'd need to spring for.

Thanks for all suggestions. Never realized how much I'd miss my horn now that I don't have one . :-(

ketel

elbeee964

Depends where the 'click' is coming from.

My horn didn't work for the longest time.
Turns out the button contacts in the steering wheel were corrosion-coated. That, and the button spring metal was a bit permanently squished.

If the click's coming from the steering wheel, the button may not be closing the relay input circuit and therefore the relay wouldn't be getting activated.
If the click is coming from the relay, then either relay, the relay's output wires, or the horn are likely broke. If so, a simple multimeter could be your friend in tracking down what lead isn't showing "12+ VDC" when the horn button is pressed.

ketel

The "click" is definitely coming from the relay/fuse box.

Is there a way to swap another relay in its place (like with a fuse) to check if it's the relay that has failed before I drop coin on a new one?

ketel

springer3

My problem was preceeded by intermittent operation of one and, a while later, both horns. Both horns had cold solder joints on the magnet coil connections. The DIY fix is to get the horns out, dissassemble, and re-solder. I still need to patch up relationships with neighbors from the time spent with hearing protection while I adjusted each horn for maximum effect. Both horns blast a glorious hi-lo tone now.

It is just a handful of phillips head screws to remove the fender liner in the front of the right-side wheel well. Then just two bolts and four spade terminals, and you get the horns out.

HiWind

-----old thread bounce-----

Springer - you still there?

Any chance you have some detail on how all the little bits of the horn fit together?

Andy Roe

When my horns stopped working I decided to replace them with some much louder twin air horns. It was easy to make a bracket to hold the new ones and now the horn doesn't sound like it belongs on a toy car!!

HiWind

Cheers Andy ... But twin tone of the 911 is core DNA ... Wouldn't wanna lose that

Twood

I have an admission-I have had the car for 8 years and always thought what a pathetic horn but it works.
Followed your directions and now I have a proper sounding Porsche horn. One trumpet was working but the other not. Disassembled, re soldered all the joints but nothing. I found that I had to wind in the 8mm adjustment nut further (tighter) and then everything works as it should.

thanks for the help.

HiWind

yes the nut is the tension adjuster for the steel diaphram as far as I can tell
be careful not to over tighten
but you shd be able to adjust the loudness with that