Horn going off when cold

[vl_nick]

Hi Guys,

A couple of months ago the horn on my VT Calais went off.
it was early in the morning and cold
It did it again the next day
I figured out if i unlocked the car and hit the steering wheel it would stop. It has been fine until now,
it got down to -5 degrees this morning (Canberra) and it went off again. If you press the steering wheel like you are pressing the horn it will stop.

Now my question is will it be the horn/airbag assembly or the clock spring? Has anyone else had this problem? I am pretty sure it is the airbag/horn assembly. Can the front cover and airbag be separated to fix this? My thoughts are that in the cold the front of the steering wheel shrinks slightly and contacts the horn and sets it off. It has only ever done it in the early morning around 6.00 to 9.30 and only when it has been very cold and locked.

Thanks
Nick

[Snap-on]

I'd say its most likely the actual horn under your front bar. The foam inside flogs out with age and the plates contract with the cold and touch, hence the horn going off on cold nights! Just replace it with one from the wreckers or what not. Should only be like a few screws and an electrical plug.

[vl_nick]

thanks for that suggestion, i am still on the thought that it is the front cover on the steering wheel as it does stop when you press it. it also only needs the softest of touches to beep the horn normally. i mean you only need to slide your finger over it, barely pushing in to beep the horn.

[brad_m_is]

it cant be the horn under the bumper as there is no power to it when when the horn is not pressed. It will most likely be the horn button on the steering wheel.

[bhopper]

id agree with brad but maybe there condensation getting in there causing it to go off but when you bank it it clears the connection or your horn on the steering wheel could be knackered and that close to touching making her go off with this all it will take is a noisy car or truck to go past and vibrate it to make it go off.

[veeteeesscom]

here in coolah nsw we experience extreme cold weather and its in these very cold times that the horn will activate on its own, the first time it did it was a -6 frost at 3am, after fisting the horn pad a couple of times it stopped, the next morning it did the same, and the next morning after that, i ended up removing the horn relay , i did investigate the actual horn unit and had found no reasonable fault there, so i bit the bullet and replaced the horn pad all together with airbag assembly etc.. it fixed the the problem, i disected the old one only to find condensation and obvious evidence of it being condensated in the past and had built up a residue of some sort, shorting out the horn when things had contracted it the bitter cold, these are only my findings, i am no expert but may be helpfull to my brothers and sisters in the commodore family, cheers..