Audi 80 Cabriolet horn not working.

[Flying Frank]

Ok Guys, here's the problem. The horn doesn't work but the problem is complicated by the fitting of a later steering wheel ( previous owner )
This picture shows the wheel and the airbag removed.

When the airbag was removed, not only was it not connected to anything ( wiring wise ), but also one of the retaining screws was not holding the airbag to the wheel as the thread on the airbag is missing as can be seen on the left of this picture.


Finally with the wheel removed along with airbag, the only wire visible and snipped at its end is the one in this picture. Anyone care to offer a suggestion what the best way to get a working horn out of this situation is ?


I'm thinking that this wrong steering wheel needs replacing, but with what as I have no idea what wheel was originally fitted, presumably non airbag ?

Car is a 2.6 Cabriolet , May 1997 vintage.

Thanks in anticipation.

[Mellis46]

Think the horn works when the yellow/brown wire coming out of that plug atop your column switches is grounded out, pressing either of the switches on the airbag is supposed to complete that route to ground. Of the 4 wires inside the wheel 2 will be for the airbag alone (redundant). An experiment would be first to test the operation of the horn by briefly touching the bare end of the afore mentioned wire to the metal column (beep hopefully).

I would have thought the wires that *don't* connect to the airbag itself (struggling to see which on your photo could it be the detonator has been removed?!) should cause the horn to sound once connected to that loose wire

I might however be tempted to refit a 3 spoke non-airbag Personal or Nardi wheel rather than have the airbag there? It looks like none of the airbag wiring /squib is there and thats where the connection is normall passed on between wheel & column so prob a a retrofit unit as you say. Guessing you dont have an airbag light come on on your dash?

[Mellis46]

Just another thought, what do your column cowls look like? might be an issue when considering reverting back to non-airbag wheel...

[Flying Frank]

Well thanks Mellis 46 for the reply and you're right on all accounts.

1. yes that brown and yellow wire is the live from the horn and the horn does work , albeit only a single unit.
2. the cowls on the replacement are quite different to what I've been trying to fit with a non airbag wheel.
3.Definitely no Airbag light.
4.Nothing behind the wheel for the airbag plug to connect into , unless its all been removed at some time.
5. My old Audi wheel fits ok altho' was a bit of fiddling required to get the wire feed tag out of the way when replacing the wheel. However, I now have a steering wheel AND a horn.

Head scratching time as this car was MOT'd only last April and yet has so many "issues" that it makes one wonder at how it could have passed. Two brake hoses with cuts in them, perrished return fuel line, no horn, one washer nozzle completely blocked,high level brake light missing three bulbs, these can't all have appeared in the past 4 months surely!

the result finally....

[Mellis46]

Hmmm, Suspicious indeed...! Glad you got sorted Frank, that wheel is among the nicest non-airbag options in my opinion and the one I plumped for in my own car

[Martc]

Glad you got it sorted, likely not to have all developed all these faults at the same time.

Check the build sticker codes, that will tell you if it was an airbag car or not

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Martc

Check the build sticker codes, that will tell you if it was an airbag car or not

It did have one, they all did at that age, look to the right of the steering wheel, on the door where it says WARNING

Frank, have you bought another dodgy one? you need the cowling from a non airbag 80/90/coupe, and the airbag warning light will have been removed.

[Mellis46]

Originally Posted by Ben

look to the right of the steering wheel, on the door where it says WARNING :tup

Good spot!
More to it then perhaps, wonder how much if any of the old wiring etc remains, curiosity would get the better of me Frank, I would need to try and know how and why it was taken out...

[Flying Frank]

Originally Posted by Ben

Frank, have you bought another dodgy one? you need the cowling from a non airbag 80/90/coupe, and the airbag warning light will have been removed.

Hi Ben, well possibly another dodgy one, but then most "old " cars have their issues and have been fiddled with by their owners.

I put (stupidly) implicit faith in the fact that the car had a relatively new MOT , but it was obviously a "fixed" MOT. I had thought with the tightening up of regulations that this was no longer possible but obviously not.
I didn't get an MOT with the car, but as everything is now on the GoV computer, its not really required, However, this seems another loophole in the system as presumably an MOT testing station can issue an MOT , with advisories and all, and then the owner of the car can bin the paper test along with its advisories and just proclaim "the car is MOT'd".

Anyway, as regards this car am getting there bit by bit and fortunately had the necessary cowlings that went with the replacement steering wheel. Thanks for your support and info!

best wishes, Frank.

[Flying Frank]

Originally Posted by Mellis46

Good spot!
More to it then perhaps, wonder how much if any of the old wiring etc remains, curiosity would get the better of me Frank, I would need to try and know how and why it was taken out...

Thanks for the help and and just to add that apart from the brown and yellow wire, there is no other wiring apparent that would suit fitting an airbag. I too am curious but have yet to have the V5 returned to me, so again, have little background information to go on.