Ah, yes. I see now that I misinterpreted his description. Thanks for setting me straight.
Horn problem - with potential solution!
- Thread starter lazwa
- Start date
Ah, yes. I see now that I misinterpreted his description. Thanks for setting me straight.
mbumpus11
Member
Can you tell me where you bought it from on eBay...do you have a link, or can you confirm this is the right one?
eBay Link: Clock Spring Cable For 2010-2016 Toyota 4Runner Scion 84307-30090 Clockspring | eBay
Watched a few YouTube vids and seems pretty easy in reality.
That looks to be the right one yes, but I can't be 100% certain. I would also try to buy it from a reputable seller. I just tried to find the link for the one I used but unfortunately it says the listing has been removed.
mbumpus11
Member
New Wrinkle
Team - I haven't done anything yet to try and fix my horn issues I have been having as a result of what seems to be the clock spring.
Yesterday, as I was driving, nobody was near me so I just tapped the horn to see if it was still messing up. IT HONKED. Loud and proud, like nothing was wrong.
What would that indicate? I don't understand how it can go out, then come back if the clock spring is the issue.
Team - I haven't done anything yet to try and fix my horn issues I have been having as a result of what seems to be the clock spring.
Yesterday, as I was driving, nobody was near me so I just tapped the horn to see if it was still messing up. IT HONKED. Loud and proud, like nothing was wrong.
What would that indicate? I don't understand how it can go out, then come back if the clock spring is the issue.
Well, that's odd.. maybe there's a loose connection somewhere that is causing an intermittent connection?
El Dusty
Member
Its most likely your clock spring / ribbon of wires in there failing but not yet fully failed. The ribbon wraps and unwraps every time you turn the wheel and it does wear. As it continues to wear out it gives intermittent horn at certain steering wheel angles. I found mine wheel had a bad ground when pointing straight and replacing the clock spring solved it.
Just my two cents but it is your main air bag and your safety on the line to save on a part you may have to replace once or twice in the life of the vehicle. Anyone who can budget OEM should go that route. BOL
mbumpus11
Member
Don't get me wrong, I definitely think there is a clock spring issue, but it is odd that the horn would honk again with the wheel back in the "straight" position. I diagnosed the clock spring issue previously by being able to honk with the wheel turned either direction, but wasn't honking while straight. No issues with any buttons on the wheel, no lights on the dash, etc. Now I'm curious if it could be the grounding wire at the bottom of the wheel (when apart) going kaput.
Definitely listening about the safety item, and I'm capable of the replacement (check my thread although admittedly I haven't done nearly as much as many on the forum), so it isn't an issue of expense for the basic replacement or cheaping out. Just very odd in the way it came back to life!
SC01
Member
So I did this last week (switched out the clock spring) and it did not solve the problem. Still no horn sound. When I press my panic button the horns will activate as intended. Also after I reassembled the steering wheel, my dash lights up upon ignition to tell me that my multi terrain select is unavailable, and my steering wheel light illuminates as well.
I am in a 2012 TE.
I am in a 2012 TE.
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SC01
Member
El Dusty
Member
Can you clear the dash lights / codes using an obd scan tool? or do they come right back?
Did you use totyota or aftermarket parts for the replacement?
Start by checking your ground on the steering wheel with a multimeter.
I had similar lights on after removing my steering wheel and re-installing for a heated steering wheel mod. You may need to do a ZPC, zero point calibration. I did this and downhill assist calibration and it cleared the lights.
Yaw Rate and Acceleration Sensor Zero Point Calibration (for Regular People)
SC01
Member
- I can do this but did not think of trying it. I will.
- I used an after market clock-spring from clockspringexperts.com specifically for 2012 TE bc apparently they are slightly different depending on trim type.
- What setting should my multimeter be set to? I'm an electricity challenged person.
SC01
Member
Thanks! I'll take a look. Especially if I clear the codes and they come back again.
El Dusty
Member
All good, Set the multimeter to resistance / ohms / the little Ω symbol. In this mode it should beep and give you a resistance reading when you touch the probes to a continuous circuit. Test it on two points of a piece of continuous metal.
Now set one probe to the steering wheel metal and other to the door frame (put it to any non painted bolt / metal). It should give you a beep meaning the steering wheel is grounded to the the body of the car / continuous (good). If you cant get a beep, the wheel is not grounded you likely have a problem with clock spring still.
RBLACAUSA
Member
Fixed it!
My horn stopped working this past January.
All the controls on the steering wheel work, radio, etc.
I replaced the clockspring with OEM back in June 2023 and everything worked fine from then to this past January, when horn stopped working.
I swapped out both 10A fuses (one in dash fuse box and one in relay box under the hood) and still no horn.
When I push on the horn I hear a click by the dash fuse box so I assume the horn relay is working.
I have another 4Runner so I swapped out one of the horns with it, and the replacement horn wouldn't work either, but the original horn from 4Runner #1 that I put in the other 4Runner does work, so I feel I ruled out the horns themselves being an issue, at theast the one on the right side that I switched out.
Using a multimeter, I'm not detecting 12V at the horn plug (unplugged, with Pos into the plug and Neg at the neg battery terminal, multimeter set to 20VDC) then the attempt to honk the horn is done at the steering wheel.
And I just replaced the horn relay anyways with new OEM today and still, doesn't work.
Any suggestions? This is a 4th gen BTW, but I'm hoping mods won't delete as their systems are pretty similar and there's way more 5th gens on ther road.
EDIT: FIXED IT!
It ends up that the horn on the left side (when standing in front of the engine and facing in) has two wires feeding in to it. The horn on the right has only one wire feeding into it.
The two wires on the left horn are: one feeding power into the horn connector, then one feeding power back out of the connector and into the horn connector on the right.
In short, the two horns are wired in series and NOT parallel, despite what I read elsewhere, maybe here in T4R somewhere.
Even though we tested the wires for continuity from the relay socket to the connectors to both the left-side and right-side horn connectors and got zero reading, we didn't realize that there were two contacts that we should've tested at the left-side connector. We were about to run a new wire from the relay to the horns when we decided to test for continuity one more time and had the epiphany when I must've touched the second contact while manipulating those wires and got a reading.
From there it was downhill. Simply open up the loom to expose a little more of the wires, cut off the bad connector for the left-side horn and solder on a new 1/4" female flat spade receiver and voila.
We probably could've figured it out if we had a signal tracer and I actually ordered one yesterday but hasn't arrived yet. Oh well. Glad that's over with. It ate up most of my weekend.
So, after 22 yrs of service (it's a 2004 4th gen) , I'm guessing road vibrations (the horns vibrate on their single bolt mounts) caused the input wire to become disconnected in the connector. Not sure if the 5th gen horns are wired the same. If so, hopefully the mods will keep this here since 2030 is just a few yrs away : ).
My horn stopped working this past January.
All the controls on the steering wheel work, radio, etc.
I replaced the clockspring with OEM back in June 2023 and everything worked fine from then to this past January, when horn stopped working.
I swapped out both 10A fuses (one in dash fuse box and one in relay box under the hood) and still no horn.
When I push on the horn I hear a click by the dash fuse box so I assume the horn relay is working.
I have another 4Runner so I swapped out one of the horns with it, and the replacement horn wouldn't work either, but the original horn from 4Runner #1 that I put in the other 4Runner does work, so I feel I ruled out the horns themselves being an issue, at theast the one on the right side that I switched out.
Using a multimeter, I'm not detecting 12V at the horn plug (unplugged, with Pos into the plug and Neg at the neg battery terminal, multimeter set to 20VDC) then the attempt to honk the horn is done at the steering wheel.
And I just replaced the horn relay anyways with new OEM today and still, doesn't work.
Any suggestions? This is a 4th gen BTW, but I'm hoping mods won't delete as their systems are pretty similar and there's way more 5th gens on ther road.
EDIT: FIXED IT!
It ends up that the horn on the left side (when standing in front of the engine and facing in) has two wires feeding in to it. The horn on the right has only one wire feeding into it.
The two wires on the left horn are: one feeding power into the horn connector, then one feeding power back out of the connector and into the horn connector on the right.
In short, the two horns are wired in series and NOT parallel, despite what I read elsewhere, maybe here in T4R somewhere.
Even though we tested the wires for continuity from the relay socket to the connectors to both the left-side and right-side horn connectors and got zero reading, we didn't realize that there were two contacts that we should've tested at the left-side connector. We were about to run a new wire from the relay to the horns when we decided to test for continuity one more time and had the epiphany when I must've touched the second contact while manipulating those wires and got a reading.
From there it was downhill. Simply open up the loom to expose a little more of the wires, cut off the bad connector for the left-side horn and solder on a new 1/4" female flat spade receiver and voila.
We probably could've figured it out if we had a signal tracer and I actually ordered one yesterday but hasn't arrived yet. Oh well. Glad that's over with. It ate up most of my weekend.
So, after 22 yrs of service (it's a 2004 4th gen) , I'm guessing road vibrations (the horns vibrate on their single bolt mounts) caused the input wire to become disconnected in the connector. Not sure if the 5th gen horns are wired the same. If so, hopefully the mods will keep this here since 2030 is just a few yrs away : ).
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