nesluopetan

Guys, I will try to make this as simple as possible, this is so hard to explain, here it goes :-)

I had a remote starter in my car.. It was hooked up to my horn also, and everything was working great, I could be driving, and if someone cut me off, i would lay on the horn, and it would sound so ever nicely :-) But then I was sitting in a parking lot with my car turned off, and my cell phone rang. all of a sudden my car started! so I turned the car off, turned it back on and was driving down the street, and then my phone rang again, and the car tried to start while it was running, (worst sound in the world) and then I had it, I got home, and went under the lower dash panel and took out the remote starter. Ever since I took it out, The horn has not worked. I think I know why.. I think its because my circuit is not now complete. For instance, when my remote starter was installed, my horn relay came from my harness, into my remote starter, and then to the horn right? But now I yanked out my remote starter assembly, and cut the horn wire obviously to take out the starter. so now my horns are still wired, but when I press on the horn, the circuit is not complete so it does not go off. This is my problem.. I yanked out my starter two months ago, and never got around to fixing the horn.. and now I opened the lower dash, and see all my wires, but I have no idea which wire is what. I forgot. How I hooked up the remote starter was I spliced into the wires that came out of my harness (ignition, brake lights, horn, etc) so those wires are still there, thats why my car still works excellent, its just that somewhere my horn wire is cut, and I cannot figure out which wire it is.. what wires do the horns control? what color are they? this is so hard to explain, maybe if you guys need more questions just ask, heck I can even go take a pic of under my dash if you want.. please try to help, emissions and safety are coming up soon, and it wont pass unless my horn works.. thanks guys, i tried to explain it as best as I could, if you need more explaining on a specific thing, just hollar, thanks again! you guys rock..

NATE

92BLKL98

From your fuse block you have an orange wire to terminal "A" of the horn relay in the convenience center. Pin "B" with a black wire seeks a ground through your horn button/switch. Pin "C" is a Dark Green wire through the C100 (firewall) connector to the horns. The fuse is the courtesy fuse a 20 amp fuse. Good luck
Mike

nesluopetan

Question, where is this exactly? orange wire to terminal "A" of the horn relay in the convenience center? whats the convience center? thanks for posting, and keep them coming.. do I explain things well enough?

Nate

Jza

The "convenience center" is a flip-down bank of relays to the right of the fusebox, behind the ALDL connector.

Chris Luongo

nesluopetan,

I do remote start installs for a living....and I've hooked up the horn-honk feature on many....... I've never had this problem, but I'm sure we can figure it out. What brand and model is the unit you installed?

Did it have a specific "horn-honk" output, or did you configure some other output of the unit to honk the horn? Did your unit put out a - pulse, or did you buy an aftermarket relay and convert it to a + pulse? Where did you hook this into the car, and what color was the car's wire?


92BLKL98's info sounds accurate and very useful; if you don't understand how relays work, go to www.the12volt.com and click on Relays... you'll have a better idea then.

But basically, the horn button on the steering wheel only puts out a very low-powered ground pulse.......... it doesn't have enough power to operate the horn.... and furthermore, the horn needs a + signal anyway. The relay is used to make the horn button's - signal turn into +., and the relay can also pass a lot of power through it, enough to operate the horn.

So........ the typical installation involves a remote start that has a low-powered - output............... the installer will typically hook this to a thin black wire in the steering column harness (there may be more than one black wire, so you'll have to test them all). If one wanted to, he could also attach the remote start's wire to the black wire at the relay 92BLKL98 mentions..... it is the same wire.

If there were an installer who wasn't aware of how this all works, he might use his own relay to turn the remote start's output into a high-powered + signal, and splice it directly to the green/white going to the horn......... again, no one would ever bother to do this, because it's a lot more work.

But, again, which way did you do it? We won't make fun of you if you did it the hard/wrong way; it'll help us figure out where your problem is.

P.S. On many remote starts, there IS a wire that, when it receives ground, will cause the remote start to turn on..... ... if you mistakenly hooked this up to the horn wire, yes, honking the horn WOULD activate the remote starter.

nesluopetan

Hey Chris, I apprecaite the long reply.. I am an idiot when it comes to this, I will try to answer your questions. I bought the remote starter off of ebay.. the brand i am not sure of, if you mention a couple generic ones I will know which one it is.. I know the box had an older 57 chevy on it. My friend put it in for me, he has since moved away.. i watched him put it in, but I can vagely remember it. All i remember is he was playing with the harness that comes out of the steering column. He kept playing with wires until he found the accessory wire, the start wire, brake wire, and horn wire, and he then had these little crimper things that spliced into those wires and gave him a lead off wire, which connected to the remote starter box. I think you got a little confused, you said when I honk the horn, it can activate the starter, that didnt happen at all. my cell phone actived the starter. the horn worked with the starter until i yanked it all out. and how the horn is dead. I actually do see a thin black wire coming out of the steering column, it is not connected to anything right now that I am aware of. where is it supposed to go? if you want, i will do as you say.. I can go take pics of the wiring under my dash if you want :-) whatever helps you.. I am not good at explaining things, and I shouldnt of thrown away the box to the starter.. i actually thrown away the starter too, but maybe its still in the garbage? should i try to find it? let me know what you think, and i will do waht i can to help you out.. thanks again, and ill be looking forward to hearing from you :-)

Nate