I bought a car about a few months ago. The horn has never worked and the radio worked for the first month and stopped and hasn’t worked since. I finally got around to checking out the fuse box and found one 20A fuse missing. According to the guide on the plastic fuse box cover it said:
20A
HORN
RADIO AMP
I tried to replace it and the fuse I was using shorted as soon as I put it in. I tried another one and the same thing happened.
The odd thing about it is that the radio suddenly started working agian.
So what the hell happened and what do I do about it??
A short in the electric system. Look for any add on work clues. The radio circuit is where they like to tap into the system. Look for a loose wire tucked into the dash or such. It might have a bare end, and when it moves around it can short to metal on and off. Radio system modifications are a good place to check also. Redo any wire connections you see some splicing has occured. The horn may be shorting out the whole thing. Find the horn and disconect the wire going to it at the horn. You may find the electric problem is seperate from the horn, and the horn is bad. Replace the horn with a new one. Good luck.
Troubleshooting such problems can be easy. Make a 12 volt light that you can plug in across the two fuse terminals. If anything is drawing any kind of power, the light bulb will light. Then use a wiring diagram, available at many public libraries, start unplugging things in that circuit till the light bult goes out. Plus check the wire routing looking for any damaged wires or wire pinch points. I have found getting access to the wiring to be the biggest pain in the butt.
