GTV6 horn button..she's a not workin

[Mike]

So the first job on the new GTV6 was to remove a rather nasty sport steering wheel (plastic fantastic) and put on my momo which has been on many of my cars.  The boss kit that was on the GTV6 must have come with the steering wheel (autograph wheel with Stig ...forget last name, but it's where they got the name Stig from for Top Gear...excuse my ignorance!)

Anyway, I found that multifit autotechnica boss kits are still available through revolution racegear for 85 dollars.  I picked one up and headed home.  First thing I noticed is that the back of the hub sits too far up on the spline, which means the indicator cancellation ring and the horn spring loaded copper contact do not touch....might explain why neither the cancellation nor the horn worked on the car...well it might have.

Since the boss does come with the necessary indent on the back for the cancellation extension to slot into, I merely got a peice of oil line tube, about 6mm OD, squared it off in the vice and pressed it into the back of the hub, cut to the 12-3mm required.  (If anyone needs measurements I can measure them, please don't take these rough nubers as gospel).  I then pressed into the tub a solid peice of 3mm rod about 4mm long.  This then allowed the little knob on the indicator cancellation ring to located nicely and load up a couple of mm on the spring.  Problem solved, I now have indicator cancellation.

Now for the Horn...hence this post.  The horn had the same issue, with the contact to the back of the hub falling ten to fifteen mm short of the back of the hub.  I pulled the steering column down only to find that the unit is sealed, I wanted to insert a longer piece of square copper to sort it out, but since I could not get it appart, I decided on soldering a stiff piece of wire to the end of the copper contact.  It worked and while I'm not sure for hom long, it did seem to do the job.  The issue I noted though is that the wire supplying power to the column for the horn appears to be dead, as I could not register a voltage from it.  I assume that it has 5v permanently to it or something like that.  Now it's a real bugger so it would seem, to get to the fuse box and find where this wire ends up, and I don't proclaim to be the worlds best wiring guy (I knnow enough to get me in trouble!).  So before I get exicted and rip everything appart, I wondered whether people had has similar issues and had found the cause.  Might save me some time....oh and yes, the firt thing i did was check the fuses in fuse box.  I should also note that I do not have a haines manual or similar for the GTV6 yet so I am flying blind a bit.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers
Mike

[shane wescott]

Hi MAte

All i can tell you is that under the bonnet there is a wire soldered and screwed nto part of the steering column. This wire often breaks and can be the cause of intermittant or totally not working horn.

As the wheel is turned, the wire gets moved and either works or doesnt.

Thats all I can offer I am afraid :-(

Catch ya

Shane

[NigelC]

No solution I'm afraid, but a confirmation that no, you're not going mad.  I too bought a boss kit to fit a momo wheel on my GTV and the horn doesn't work but fortunately this is a Group S car so it's not a problem but I think the issue is poor design of the boss.

[MD]

Mike,

Some interim info. I will do a bit of digging and post more if you need it.

1 The ground circuit is through the steering colum itself as you would expect. There is a short wire bridging the small rubber vibration insulator just above the steering box in the engine bay. If this wire is broken or missing, you guessed it, she no workee.
2 The B+ is 12volts and comes via a relay located in the fuse box. Can't remember exactly which one now. This is the voltage applied to the sweeper ring. If you have to, by pass it and replicate the nature of the circuit.
3 Don't forget to test your horn by itself (er..no, the other one).

[Al Campbell]

Mike,

Be careful if it isn't lack of connection between the steering wheel boss and the column...

One thing to check - if the braid/wire bridging the rubber joint in the steering column is broken, this can be as a result of the rubber failing, with consequent loss of steering.

People have reported the horn not working for a while and then suddenly changing lanes with no steering input from them. Could be fatal.

Have a look on the American Alfabb or the transaxle site.

Al.

[Mike]

thanks guys, I'll take all this on board and take a look see