Tacoma Horn randomly goes off

My 2001 Tacoma recently started setting the horn off randomly. It’ll go off in the middle of the night, and keep blaring for ten minutes, and I have to pull the fuse to stop it. Other wise the horn works normally when I need to use it. I tried looking for the relay, but from my understanding it’s integrated into the ECU. Anyone have any suggestions on what I do to fix this? Thanks!

 

Welcome to TW!!!

Just out of curiosity, did your CEL (Check Engine Light) come on when you pulled the fuse? My horn was damaged in a rear-end collision back in August 2015, but the problem didn't manifest itself until about a month later; I beeped at a guy who ran a stop sign and the horn stayed on. I ended up having to pull the fuse, and when it did, the truck totally shut down; When I started the engine back up, the CEL was on. I have had my truck since it was new (more than 11 years) and am getting ever closer to 130K miles, and I am proud to say that is the only time my CEL has ever been on!

 

The horn return spring is probably worn out, possibly broken it's just a thin piece of cheep stamped flat steel.

Sometimes you can get away with pulling your airbag and rebending the spring.

It's also possible the contacts are arc'ed up and it's sticking (welding) together until current is removed.

You can fix that by again pulling the airbag and sanding the contact pads back to smooth clean copper.

 

I dunno? That doesn't sound quite right. I could understand that happening when you press on the horn on purpose. Randomly happening at 3 in the morning sounds more like an alarm issue.

The clock spring could be bad, but I've found that usually means a horn that does not work at all.

Does this truck have a glass break sensor? Maybe disconnect that?

 

No check engine light ever came on

 

I’ll give that a shot! Thanks!

 

The truck doesn’t have any security system I don’t believe. I only use a key to lock and unlock the car, no alarm system.

 

Perhaps you have parts of an alarm system it happens all to often.

Neighbors messing with you?

The horns works normal at all times.

When it goes off in the wee morning hours the only way to shut it off is remove the fuse?

Then when the fuse is replaced the horn starts up again or everything is normal to the next Morning at 0300??

The horn never goes off at random while driving??

Sure points to an Alarm or parts of one or someone Having Fun. I would have loved to have done this to the Sperm Donor as a Kid.

 

Things cooling overnight may have something to do with why it does it in the middle of the night. I'm with the return spring/contact arcing crew on this one.

 

Well I went ahead and sanded and cleaned all the contact points of the horn. So far so good! I guess I’ll update in the future, thanks for the help!

 

Has this continued to work? My 2001 just started blasting the horn in the middle of the night and had to pull the fuse.

 

Could Be Worse……

https://youtu.be/SfxfjUW-HVs?si=Das8SBDJA3o18S_9



start with cleaning all of connections like the guy in 2021 did

 

I was going to. Just wanted to know if it was still working for him before I went through the trouble. He said he would update in the future, so I was just asking for the update.

 

Your truck is horny. Find a 4 runner to solve the problem. Waka Waka Waka.