Dear Tom and Ray:

We have a 1989 Dodge Shadow. In the middle of a frigid winter's night, we thought we heard a car alarm going off at about 2 a.m. It turned out to be our car horn. It seems that any time the temperature drops below 32 degrees, ice forms behind the steering wheel and sets off the horn. When we brought it to the "car place," they said we have to bring the car in when it happens. Since it happens in the middle of the night, that's not realistic. Now what we've been doing is disconnecting the horn on any night when we think the temperature is going to drop below freezing and then reconnecting it in the morning. It's getting tedious. At this point, even our 10-year-old son knows how to disconnect the horn. Can you help? -- Fran

Ray: I don't think it has anything to do with ice itself behind the steering wheel, Fran. It's much more likely to be either the horn contacts in the wheel or the horn relay.

Tom: There are metal contacts in the steering wheel, and when you push on the horn button, those contacts touch. That trips the horn relay, which makes the horn blow. If the contacts are out of adjustment, cold weather could cause the contacts to shrink and touch, tripping the relay and sounding the horn.

Ray: The other possibility is that the cold weather is causing the horn relay itself to close, skipping the steering wheel contacts all together.

Tom: So here's what you do. Buy your 10-year-old son a "puller." And on the next really cold night, have him use it to remove the steering wheel. Then take the wheel to bed with you. That'll take the horn contacts out of the circuit. Then, if the horn blows in the middle of the night, you know the problem is the horn relay.

Ray: If you don't feel like sleeping with your steering wheel, you can ask your mechanic to just go ahead and replace the relay (it costs about 10 bucks) and see if that fixes it. If it doesn't, then you know it's the contacts in the steering wheel and you can ask him to fix or replace those next. Good luck, Fran.

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© 1999 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

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