Horn won't quit honking after new clockspring. Need wiring advice.

I installed the elcheapo 39 dollar clockspring from eBay. Everything now works except I can not get the horn to stop honking. I have pulled the fuse. The radio controls work, cruise works and my airbag light is out. Now I tried clicking my unlock button, charging my battery, pulling apart my airbag, horn switch etc. I am contemplating switching around these black and red horn wires that I am pointing to with the small screwdriver. I think something might be mixed up in my cheap knock off clockspring. What's the worst that can happen if I switch around this wire? Blow a fuse. Or best case scenario it will just work by switching the red and black wires.

 

Why did you pick those two wires? My prints show the horn ( one wire ) is Green with a Red Stripe. The horn circuit is very simple:

10 Amp Fuse ~__12 VDC> ____ Relay Coil >________Horn Switch>_______Ground.

10 Amp Fuse ~__12 VDC> ____ Horn Relay Contact>__The Horn>____________Ground.

The wire between the Horn Switch in the steering wheel and the Horn Relay Coil is the Green W/Red Stripe. The wire going from the Horn Relay Contact to the Horn(s) is Grey. The ground is in the steering wheel. The 10 ampere fuse is common to both legs of the circuit the power wire is White with a Green Stripe.

Note: The wire colors could change as I am looking at a 2006 manual. The circuit should be the same.

 

Yup.

Red and black are not the horn wire. My '08 without steering wheel controls only had the two airbag wires and the green wire until I installed cruise.

You've got another bad clockspring. The horn wire is shorted to ground.

 

I guess the reason I picked those two wires was that was the only way I could get my horn to stop honking by pulling that 3 wire connector! Lol. I am not to good with the wiring aspect of vehicles. I did disconect the blue wire what seems to be a ground to the back I the airbag, and it did nothing. I did buy two of these cheap clocksprings, so maybe door #2 will have the solution to my problem.

 

i ran into this same problem when installing a replacement steering wheel in my wifes 4runner. My problem stemmed from tightening the bolts that held the airbag in too tightly, which caused the horn contacts to stick to the center of the wheel, and honk all the time. lesson learned, never go full retard. might be a good idea to check the contacts before you go rewiring the truck....

 

Correction.... The blue wire is the horn wire.
My truck has only the small 3-wire plug. Red and black go through one cover for cruise, and blue (with a silver dot) goes through the other cover to connect to the back of the airbag for the horn.

This is my old connector, removed when I installed the cruise stalk.

 

I took the 1st eBay clockspring out about 5 times checking everything for connections etc and horn sticking etc. Horn still honked. As per Rich's suspicions, maybe my cheap jobber clockspring was defective. When I put in the second one, everything worked flawlessly. Horn honks only when I push on it! No airbag light. Full stereo control and cruise control! Now as long as this jobber part actually works in the event of a crash where I really need my airbag then I will call it a success! It was a good thing I bought two clocksprings. Being from Canada, it is a hassle and a hoff to get stuff from the US so that is why I ordered two! Now I wonder if it is even worth my time and energy to return a defective part. Sure beats the hell out of $640 from the Toyota dealer way up here. Friggin criminals. I wanted it repaired under safety concerns. No airbag or horn. Toyota dealer and Toyota Canada both told me to go pound sand.

 

Elevate the situation to corporate.

You have a 2011 that I assume is still under it's 36,000 mile (60,000km?) warranty and you have a failed spiral cable resulting in the failure of two safety related items.

 

EDIT: The spiral cable (aka clockspring) is listed under the SRS system in the parts catalog. The SRS warranty is 5 years/100k in Canada.

The dealer may have mistakenly quoted you the price for the actual airbag module. The clockspring itself from Toyota of Dallas' online portal is only $234: http://tps.toyotaofdallas.com/parts...roup=AIR BAG COMPONENTS&component=Clockspring

 

I would imagine so, since a failure of the unit will prevent the airbag from blowing.

 

^That isn't a good reason. A dead battery will also prevent the airbag from blowing. Anyway, looks like the spiral cable (aka clockspring) is listed under the SRS system in the parts catalog.

 

Ya, but the dead battery won't trigger a solid SRS light once you get it started.

 

I had it in about a month ago, at 99,xxx km's. They told me the clockspring was not covered under warranty. Only to 60,000 kms. Ken, I am not sure what the parts guy was quoting me. I gave him my VIN and asked for a clockspring, he told me $640. I said no thanks! Maybe I should call again just to make sure it is really 600 + dollars. I know we get ripped off in Canada, but even from your $234 price up to $640 is crazy.