Horn relay
 

My 2010 horn started honking on it's own. It would beep once every couple a miles but the farther I drove the more it would honk until I couldn't stop it. It even honked when the power was off. The battery died and I replaced because it was 8 years old had been slowly dying. When I replaced the battery the honking stopped but so did the horn, it no longer works so I was thinking it was the relay all this time. I bought the relay from Honda and went to put in when I noticed the numbers didn't match. I can't seem to find a diagram that shows me where on the fuse panel the horn relay is. Can someone show me where the horn relay goes on the fuse panel. I'm assuming it's on the panel under the dashboard but of all the relays, none match the one I got from Honda.

There is more than one horn "relay" location-- depending on equipment.
One possible version has the horn relay INSIDE the fuse box, it's an internal part of the MICU (Hondas name for the body computer). Not a cheapo deal.



Other possible version has relay located above the fusebox.
Remove the knee-high panel on drivers side of dash so you can see the top of the fusebox
To the right of the 10mm nut at the top of the fusebox there are 1 or 2 relays. Left is for foglights if equipped, right is horn. (according to my wiring diagrams)
Random image grabbed from interweb. Ignore the red lines

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fit...7560751d3b.jpg




Most parts people don't know a whole lot about the cars. I bet they found any relay they had in stock and sold it to you. Nobody knows if it's right or wrong until you find out for yourself.

Thanks
 

Horn relay
 

No dice
 

Swapped out the relays and still no horn. Went back to Honda and they said it is the right replacement relay. They wouldn't take it back though because I had tried it in my car so I'm stuck with the relay. Is there an easy way to test the relay or the horn for that matter. I guess I will try to change the horn and see if that solves it. I'll check back when successful.

Replacing random parts needlessly can be expensive.

Understand how the system works so you can perform tests to determine what's really failed.
A voltmeter or a simple $3 test light (or a 12v light bulb with 2 wires) might be all that's needed to diagnose it, if you understand how it works and how to use the equipment.


Connect test light to ground,
Disconnect horn wire (single wire)
probe (make contact with) the horn wire connector terminal with the pointy end of the test light.
Have someone push the horn button.
Does the test light light up?

If it lights up, that means power is reaching the horn and therefore the horn is bad. (EDIT: horn is grounded through the mounting bolt)
If it does not light up, there is more work to do.

Thanks Ezone
 

I will give that a try and report back.
I didn't get a chance to test the horn but I did notice that my cruise control set button stop working also, in other words I can turn cruise control on but I can't set the speed. So even if the horn is shot, that doesn't explain the cruise control.

No dice
 

I tried what you said Ezone and I got no light on my tester. Assuming I did it correctly. I'm on the verge of taking it in unless you can think of anything else. One interesting footnote; When I turn on the car, but not the engine, the steering wheel symbol with an exclamation point comes on and when I remove and reinsert the number 24 fuse I hear clicking coming from behind the fuse box, any clue?

Giving up
 

Ok, I think I've done just about everything I could do other than going in through the steering wheel which I don't want to do because of the airbag. The clicking and the fact that the relay is always hot, even when the car has been sitting for hours has me a little concerned. It seems like there's an open circuit somewhere and it's feeding power to the relay. Going to take her in next week. Thanks for the help.

Quit pulling fuses out.

Need to see what the EPS codes are
Diagnose for cruise inop, could be related to horn problem as both systems share the clockspring

Need to see what the EPS codes are?
 

Is this a do-it-yourself job or for the professionals?

Mechanic
 

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. From the first read I could tell it's the contact ring in the steering wheel. When you have a horn that likes to honk seemingly randomly, it's almost always the brass ring in the steering wheel that has failed or corroded.

I had it happen in a car back in the '90's. Was embarrassing just getting the car home.

Yea that should be the clockspring that he found failed (also called 'cable reel', spiral cable', and a few other names)

So was that an easy fix for that could have saved OP $200+ or is OP right to take it in for the service?

Depending if the Fit uses a brass ring or pin and spring.. looks like it could be less than 20 dollars in parts

I'm really not sure on the Fit.

We had one poster that had a near $1,000 bill to fix the issue. I don't recall off hand if it was a GE or the GK, but the clockspring (thanks ezone, I couldn't remember the name) was part of the air bag assembly and the whole thing was replaced by the dealer.

I'm sure a competent mechanic could fix just the broken parts, but the dealer replaced the whole assembly.

In my case, it was fixed just by cleaning the contacts.

There is no brass ring and spring loaded contacts. That's from the olden days before airbags.


The cable reel MSRP might be as low as USD 127, as high as USD 290 depending on your cars trim level and other stuff. (see majestic honda parts catalog)
Plus labor and checkout fees.

Thanks ezone! I will now know what to replace if ours goes haywire!

Horn relay
 

Thanks all for the reply's. The part was ordered from California and hasn't arrived yet. My mechanic, which I've had for sometime and trust completely, said the part was 200 and then an hour and a half install so looking around 350 to 400. I just dropped 1,200.00 on my Ford Sporttrac so 400 is not a big deal. I had just spent 6hrs banging out the huge dent on the door because my daughter got hit on the driver side door, no police record so no insurance involvement, I would rather handle it myself than have her rate go up since I pay for it. Anyway, it was shortly after that when the horn started going nuts. I'm sure it was just coincidental as far as timing but maybe not. I'll report back when all done.

Horn Update
 

Update on the horn, my mechanic changed the clockspring in the steering column, which he said was broken but the horn still is not working nor is the cruise control. They are perplexed as everything else seems to be working properly. I don't want to take it to Honda but that might be my only recourse.

So here is the latest in the horn saga for anyone still following. I received a new horn from Honda and proceeded to install it. I attached the male/female harness and all was well or so I thought. When I went to bolt it on to the frame a spark flew up and the horn started vibrating in my hand which scarred the crap out of me. So it seems that there is continues power being supplied to the harness, the car was not turned on. I took it to Honda and they seem to think that the mechanism in the steering column is somehow being pinched perhaps by the airbag assembly or something because as he pulled back on the middle of the steering wheel you can hear the relay switch engaging. Anyhow, looks like I'm going to be spending a lot of money on a stupid horn. I'll let you know what Honda comes up with, I take the car in next Saturday.

Sounds like a faulty ground.. this is nuts! Thanks for the updates..keep em coming

Thanks Sean and your right this has been nuts, but their was a resolution today because I refused to give in!!!! On Thursday I dropped the car off at Honda for a $128.00 diagnostic to finally try to get an answer to this almost three month ordeal. I showed the service rep that when you wiggle the middle of the steering wheel you can hear the relay clicking so their is juice flowing to the relay. He said it seemed like maybe something was pinching the contacts and causing the continues stream of electricity to the horn, which doesn't explain why the cruise control wouldn't work but OK fine. I hadn't heard from them all day so I decided to call. He told me the technician left early and he didn't get a chance to talk to him. The next morning another service rep called and told me that I needed a new horn, because this new one wasn't working, and a new clock spring, which was on back-order and take two weeks to get, it would cost me $700.00 bucks after tax. Keep in mind that I had already spent $400.00 on a new clock spring installed by my mechanic and I bought and installed a Honda $50.00 new horn. I just couldn't figure out why it was getting continuous juice, my mechanic said it had to be a wiring issue but they can't access Honda codes so that's why I went to Honda. Needless to say I was pissed off and picked the car that night from Honda and took it home. I got a call from my neighbor at 4:00am because my horn was going off, that's right the horn that was working. I unhooked the horn so my neighbors can sleep. In the morning I reconnected the horn and was able to wedge a piece of cardboard in the gap to break the connection so it wouldn't honk. As soon as I drove into the Honda service hub I removed the piece of cardboard and let everyone listen to the horn blaring away. It created quite a scene. After two hours of a real exam it turned out to be an open circuit in the airbag connection, which they had fixed under the airbag recall, $128.00 later for the diagnostic cost the horn issue was solved and not even an apology from them, except for the part time mechanic who missed it. Long story short, and there is more to this story, don't trust what they tell you, do the detective work.

Wow, that is quite an ordeal. I am glad you were finally able to find resolution.

So glad this story has a happy ending. You would think when you went to buy the relay the first time they would notice you had a recall..! Good on you, Im sure this will help someone in the future.