Why doesn't my horn work?

[DropTopDon]

Horn hasn't been working since I got my jeep 4 years ago. It has a small button wired with speaker wire screwed into the dash which acts as the horn if you press it. It's wired to a horn located right next to my windshield washer fluid reservoir which I believe isn't factory. The reason I am just now trying to fix this is because I was 14 when I got the jeep and didn't really care. The little button stopped working and I want to troubleshoot and find the reason why the OEM steering wheel horn isn't working. I have read that it could be a bad clock spring, but that usually is accompanied by an air bag light and the windshield wipers not working, and I am not experiencing any of these symptoms. The relay in the fuse box is also good. Where should I go from here?

 

[RubiconRic]

Sorry, I don't remember details, but when my clockspring went bad it caused all sorts of issues/codes/lights, and I remember there were two very small connectors behind the steering wheel near the bottom (once you unscrew the steering column) and I disconnected one of them, which "fixed" the symptoms but my horn no longer works. If I recall correctly, there's a small connector for the horn, which is the one I disconnected, and the larger one is for the airbag, which I left intact.

In other words: I have no horn, no air bag light, and my windshield wipers indeed work, all because my clockspring is bad and I disconnected that small connector. So my recommendation, if you haven't already, would be to take off the lower half of your steering column and look up in there behind/underneath the steering wheel to see if there is a plug & connector not connected together. If that is the case, I would suspect the clockspring is bad and needs replaced, and the previous owner choose to rig up a new horn rather than replace the clockspring.

 

[qslim]

A failed clock spring could certainly be the culprit - it's just a ribbon harness with several separate circuits. There's no reason the horn circuit couldn't fail by itself, but I wouldn't just throw a clock spring in there without some diagnosis.

Are you handy with a multi-meter? We've had a few threads on here with step by step instructions to figure out exactly where the problem is.