spurfan15

I've been trying to figure out a horn failure on my 96 Accord. I recently bought it, and I uncovered a rat's nest of wires behind the glove box -- one of the worst excuses for electronics work I've ever seen. Anyway, I traced the problem with the horn down to two wires, both blue/red, but with different dot colors. As far as I can tell, there seem to be two blue/red wires entering the relay connector. Both seem to have brown dots. I checked the wires behind the glove box, which were very very poorly spliced, and the blue/red + brn dots wire has 12V when the horn switch is pressed on the steering wheel. My ohm meter mode shows me that the blue/red + silver dots wire is the one that makes it out to the horns. This matches up with the colors I see going to the horns. So my question is does anybody know what the difference is between the blue/red + brown and the blue/red + silver wires? I can't seem to find any information differentiating the two.

tech8

The Blue/Red wires from the horn relay should lead to a 14-P brown connector (Connector C210) located behind the passenger dash area. Are you seeing that they lead to the 14-P brown connector? The harness from connector C210 should lead out to the engine compartment and horns.

If they are what I am thinking they are, the Blu/Red (with brown dots) are on the horn relay harness side; and the Blu/Red (with silver dots) are on the mating connecting harness leading out to the engine compartment.

spurfan15

Thanks. That sounds right. I will look for that connector tomorrow and I'll see if I can track down where the problem lies. Is that connector C210 where the 12v red/blue wire from the relay branches to cruise control and the horn?

tech8

I am not sure what Red/Blu wire your referring to. The Blu/Red wire from the horn relay goes along a right side dash and floor harness (inside the cabin) and connects at C210 which connects to a right side engine compartment harness. The right side engine compartment harness branches to the right headlight, right front turn signal, right front side marker light, left horn, right horn, A/C pressure switch, and radiator fan.

The cruise control wire harness are on the left side dash and floor harness.

spurfan15

I thought there might be some connection to cruise, because on the wiring diagram for the horn circuit I see cruise. I guess it's somehow hooked into the ground side of the relay. Should I be able to see the brown 14-pin connection on the passenger side with the glove box removed, or will I need to remove more of the dash to get to it? Finding that connector should help quite a bit in diagnosing the problem.

Edit: is it one of the round connectors next to the engine fuse box?

tech8

The Blu/Red wires coming from the steering wheel cable reel supplies the ground for the horn relay, they connect to a 20-P Blu connector (C413) located above the left kick panel. At the connector C413 harness, the ground would then travel through Light Grn/Blu wires to the horn relay.

There are two different grounds at work in the circuit. This how the horn circuit works for the 96-97 Accords. Battery voltage is applied to the horn relay contacts at all times. The horn relay is a normally open type of relay. When you press either of the steering wheel horn buttons, ground is supplied through the horn buttons to the horn relay, which energizes the relay (the ground coming through from the steering wheel horn buttons to the relay are only to energize the horn relay to close the relay), this in turn closes the horn relay and allows the battery voltage (+) through the relay to the horns. Both stock left and right horns have a common ground (-) from the car chassis in the engine compartment.

Connector C210 is located inside the cabin, on the right side (passenger side) of the dash.

spurfan15

So this morning I discovered that the blu/red + brn wires were both leading to the socket connecting to the relay (the same relay pin). These were connected together by whoever did the wiring last, so it was basically just a useless wire loop. The blu/red + slv wires each lead to a different horn and they were connected together in another useless wire loop. Not sure how the wiring got this way to begin with, but I'll need to connect at least one brn to slv. I'm about to swap in aftermarket horns, so I'll be modifying the horn circuit anyway, just using the existing horn signal as a relay input. The new horns will have a new fused circuit with larger wires going to the battery.