Brennen01

Hey guys i need some help.... i have searched through some older post and i have not been able to find an answer. I have an IS300 steering wheel and my horn has not worked for as long as i owned the car (2 years). The cruise control works and really the only thing that doesn't work with the car is the horn....so i ruled out the clock spring . I have tested the horn and it works just fine when i supplied 12v directly to it. The grounding point is nice and clean has no corrosion at all. The fuse is good under the hood.

So i think i have narrowed it down to 2 things; the horn relay or the actual trigger mechanism inside the steering wheel.

My question to you guys is do our cars even have a horn relay, if so where ? And which do you think is more likely to the culprit?

Thanks in advance,

Brennen.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

If you pull the airbag / horn button (disconnect the battery first), you can test whether the contact point is working by touching various parts of the steering wheel frame with a metal object. Maybe take a pic of what you're working with so we can see if there's any obvious error in how the horn wiring was hooked up on the IS300 wheel.

Brennen01

Thank you t2d2, I'll take a look tomorrow.

Brennen01

So i replaced the horn relay today... figured out where it was(all the way at the top of the driver side kick panel) and it didn't fix anything. after that i went ahead and took apart the steering wheel/air bag cover and i discovered that the horn connector ( smaller one in the pic) was not plugged in and there was no where to plug it in from what i saw. So i am stuck.

is there a way to splice it into the is300 wheel ?

Thanks in advance,

Brennen

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

I suspected it would be as simple as the connection not being made.

In the first pic, the black horn wire passes to the right of a spade connector (with a clipped wire?) on a stud. That's where the newer steering wheels have the horn connect, as opposed to the older ones that have it riveted to the frame.

If I'm seeing it right in the shadows, you'll want to clip off the end of your horn wire and crimp on a female spade connector.

Brennen01

Hey man thanks for response, and sorry for the crappy pics... here's a better one...and youre saying take off that is on that stud now and crimp a spade with the the Black wire on into it? There was defiantly residual solder left on that stud from what I could tell.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

I still can't see clearly what's going on there. Can you pull the old IS300 horn wire off the stud/lug/spade/whatever?

The big connector hanging down in the middle is for the archaic phone controls. You could de-pin that from the clockspring and get it out of the way.

Brennen01

I'll get some better photos tomorrow , I had to put everything back together I have to drive it to work tomorrow.

And yes I believe I can get the old wire off with some pliers.

And ahhhh okay I thought that plug was for the horn for some reason... the black wire up in the top right goes to the horn? And in connection to that stud I'm just grounding it right ? Does it need to get power from anywhere ?

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

Just connecting the black wire on the ride side of the harness to the stud on the steering wheel should do the trick.

Brennen01

Awesome thanks for all the help, I'll do that tomorrow and get back to you.

Brennen01

And my horn works !!!! Thank you t2d2!

This was the issue, the black wire was not connected to anything.

t2d2

iTrader: (8)

Glad that worked out for you. That pic shows clearly what it should look like.