So, can someone please explain to me how a relay functions in a horn circuit?
The horn on my ’92 Pathfinder stopped working the other day. The fuse is good and I can hear the switch in the steering wheel when I press, so I assume I am loosing power somewhere.
I have a bank of relays under the hood – one of which is labelled “Horn Relay”. I removed the relay to check things out. It is a 3 pole relay.
I checked for 12v power on all 3 poles of the relay when I pressed the horn - - nothing. Should this tell me something?
So what does this relay do? Does it sound as if I am just not getting power to the relay? If so, I’ll try and check if I have power coming from the horn switch, to see if I can run a new wire.
Any help here would be appreciated. Thanks.-------------
Zilverado,
Backyard Mechanic
1986 Chevy Truck & 1992 Nissan Pathfinder
OOPS... let's try again...
So, can someone please explain to me how a relay functions in a horn circuit?
The horn on my ’92 Pathfinder stopped working the other day. The fuse is good and I can hear the switch in the steering wheel when I press, so I assume I am loosing power somewhere.
I have a bank of relays under the hood - one of which is labelled "Horn Relay". I removed the relay to check things out. It is a 3 pole relay.
I checked for 12v power on all 3 poles of the relay when I pressed the horn - - nothing. Should this tell me something?
So what does this relay do? Does it sound as if I am just not getting power to the relay? If so, I’ll try and check if I have power coming from the horn switch, to see if I can run a new wire.
Any help here would be appreciated. Thanks.
-------------
Zilverado,
Backyard Mechanic
1986 Chevy Truck & 1992 Nissan Pathfinder
OK, so I just noticed in the "Vehicle Information" on this site that the horn wire in my column is a (-) signal. This might explain why I didn't get a 12v signal when I tested the terminals, right? It might also explain what the relay is doing - reversing the polarity to the horns???
I assume the horns themselves need a 12v signal, since they only have a single conductor running in and they are grounded (I assume) to the vehicle frame.
Is there a way I can test all of this, including the relay?
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Zilverado,
Backyard Mechanic
1986 Chevy Truck & 1992 Nissan Pathfinder
So, all is well again.
I talked to the Nissan parts people today and they told me what to look for. So I tested everything again, but couldn't get it going. So I pulled the fuse one more time and took a look - - - BURNED!!!
So I replaced the fuse and all is well. I'm not sure what happenned there, because I am pretty positive the fuse was fine when I first checked it. I may have fried it with my testing, who knows. Oh well, whatever it was, it's OK now.
Thanks.
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Zilverado,
Backyard Mechanic
1986 Chevy Truck & 1992 Nissan Pathfinder