I was driving my Civic the other night, and I take a turn and the horn honked briefly. I told myself, ok, I'll give my car the benefit of the doubt and say maybe I hit the horn accidentally -- even though I was pretty sure I didn't. Well, my hand is no where near the horn button again and it honks a little when I'm slowing down at a light... and it honked again briefly once more. The guy in front of me probably thought I was a douche since it was still red.. anyway.

This happened about 5 more times that night, all times I was absolutely no where near the button. The funny thing is that I can hear what sounds like electrical arching where the button is, and sometimes it honked and sometimes it didn't. It may not have been long enough to actually energize the horn. Sooo... is the switch on the steering wheel replaceable, and if so, how does one go about disassembling it?

 

the two buttons in the steering wheel just connect the wire circuit, which then runs back into the SRS reel. It could possibly be something with the srs reel

 

It's possible, but the arching really sounds like its coming directly from where the actual button is -- more specifically the left one. I was looking at hondaautomotiveparts.com's parts listing and I'm not sure the switch is actually replaceable. They list a "left button" but I think that might just be the plastic and not the contact points.

 

bump

 

dude you know what the circuit looks like. You said you went online and checked it out. Just tear it apart and see whats up. Pull the airbag and start looking around

 

I saw a barely discernible parts drawing and my question was whether or not the part was replaceable. So yea, I guess ripping the stupid thing apart without being able to replace or even detach it would be a good approach

 

you answered your own question. The part is only a button as seen on the online diagram. From there its just some wires leading into the reel.

I was just implying that its most likely a short in the wiring system. Tear it apart and you'll see what is failing. Then get what you need to replace or fix it from there

 

Sounds like your clock spring (Called a cable spool or cable reel in a Honda) is going bad. That is what connects all things electrical on your steering wheel to the rest of the car. Remember, the steering wheel turns and so any wires going to it will break unless something is done about that, this is the clock spring. When I bought my '95 Civic Del Sol, they guy told me the horn did not work. No big deal I thought, I can fix a freaking horn, right?

Turns out that not only did the horn not work but the cruise control did not work either, the master dash light would come on but I could not activate it because the buttons to do so were on the steering wheel. Air bag would probably not work either with no electrical connection to it. I tested the horn, it was good, something wrong in the steering wheel to make all that electrical stuff not work, the clock spring.

Surprisingly, you do not need many tools for this job at all, I just bought the 19MM socket and small extension to fit my ratchet to get the steering wheel off. I also had to buy a T30 ratchet head in order to get the air bag retention bolts out. I tried it with a T30 screwdriver and no dice, started to strip the screws. I bought the right head for the ratchet and they came right out.

Anyway, this stuff is real easy to take apart and then you can find out what you need to fix this, I will give you some great links to help you out.

This link tells how to get the steering wheel off with pictures and list of tools needed.
http://www.honda-acura.net/for...50251

This link is the picture set to go with the above link. You can click each picture to make it larger and even go full size with them, they get pretty big with lots of detail in them:
http://community.webshots.com/album/49459198Cjsfnx

Here is another link for steering wheel removal but not as good as above:
http://www.acura-legend.com/vb...74422

Here is a video on how to re-center your clock spring before installing it, this is Important if you have to replace the clock spring. If you do not do this, the new clock spring will break.
http://s106.photobucket.com/al...1.flv

A cable reel from Honda (clock spring) costs $326. I got mine from ebay for $21. It arrived in a few days and worked perfectly. I took my old one apart to see what went wrong with it and there is a long (20' or more) white ribbon of conductors. It was broken off, right at the center hub.

Anyway, by following the instructions and pictures, you can have your air bag out and be checking the horn buttons in about 20 minutes, easy to do. Then you can decide what parts you need, order them, and have at replacing them. I did my clock spring at 8:00 at night after work and got done at 11:00 that night. Took it for a test drive and everything worked perfectly. Horn worked, cruise control worked, everything worked!

I did take the time to save each and every one of the pictures to my hard drive in full size so that when it got down to doing the job, I had access to all of the full size pictures without having to click and download them all, one at a time.

<FONT COLOR="red">Very Important, Pay Attention! The SRS airbag is an explosive device and can hurt you pretty bad if it were to go off. Remove your negative battery cable and wait for 10 minutes before doing this job to give the capacitors a chance to discharge. Remove the airbag first after taking out the two T30 screws and be sure to insert the dummy plug into it to disarm it and store it, face up, in the trunk until you are done and ready to put it back. I needed a short 6" extension for my ratchet to get the 19MM bolt off of the steering wheel so I drove to Advance Auto Parts with the airbag in the trunk, got the tool, went back home, and finished the job.

Remove the negative battery cable, allow ten minutes, pull plug on SRS air bag in steering wheel, insert the dummy plug, remove the two T30 screws, then remove the SRS airbag and store it, face up in your trunk to avoid accidents.</FONT>

This is really not as hard as it sounds. Go read the links, save all the pictures full sized, and when you have an hour or more to spend on it, go have a look under the wheel as to what is going on. If you need a clock spring for real, get one on ebay, way cheaper than the $326 from Honda.

Good luck,
Paul


Modified by Ohmster at 3:18 PM 8/13/2007

 

very extensive, thanks. when i get a chance, i'll go ahead and give this a shot

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by "Blk00EJ8" &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
very extensive, thanks. when i get a chance, i'll go ahead and give this a shot</TD></TR></TABLE>

This all sound very hard to do, I would never have done a job like this, always took this kind of stuff to a mechanic. But when I bought a 119K Mile car out of necessity, a Honda, of course, it became clear that I would have to "get good" at this maintenance and repair stuff or go broke fixing all kinds of little stuff that was wearing out and would result in BIG repair bills if I did not do something, fast;

honda-tech.com was the answer, this place has everything! Everyone is no nice here and very, very helpful. If you cannot get help here, then you cannot get help anywhere and that is pretty much the truth of it all.

Good luck,
Paull