horn sounding continuously

[unclebob]

Hi all , I bought my 98 1.9 in October last year which is in need of some tlc, found this forum which is great and I've enjoyed reading through some of the threads. Was hoping someone could help with couple of questions. The car is sorn at the moment , hoping to tax April. A couple of days ago we had a rare few hours sunshine so was out faffing round the car trying to decide what jobs to tackle first come the spring . I went to start her up and nothing , battery dead so removed and put on charge .
Yesterday replaced battery , car started 1st time , let her run for a bit when suddenly the horn started sounding continuously I pressed the horn push and it stopped only to start again a few seconds later . Only way I can start the car without horn sounding is to remove the horn fuse.
Question is , is this an alarm fault or something to do with the horn push ?, the car is heavy with condensation inside and the steering wheel had mould and water under the airbag shroud .
When alarm sounds would it be the horn noise or another siren type noise . The car has manual central locking. Cheers guys .

[Del]

Hi and welcome.

The "factory" BMW alarm operates a separate siren not the horn. Sounds as if your problem might be moisture in the wiring around the horn push buttons.

Different cars I know - but the VAG group has problems with certain rear wipers where wash water gets into the mechanism and one symptom is that the rear wiper will not stop

[unclebob]

Hi Del , thanks for the welcome and reply . Good to know that it's not an alarm fault then as previous experience with a fiat coupe was a nightmare. I took off the airbag shroud and cleaned up and dried what I could see , didn't help so may have to dismantle further to find the cause. Cheers Bob.

[unclebob]

Just an update on this in case anyone runs into the same problem . Since the weather has improved and the car has been aired the problem has gone ! , so looks like moisture was to blame .

[Z3Jeremy]

Thanks uncle bob, i,ll pop my fuse back in tomorrow as have had intermittent horn sounding issues thru the winter, last time had my stereo cranked right up so couldnt hear the horn sounding, wondered why everyone was staring at me!! was going to have a prod and a poke around the steering wheel then read a comment somewhere - ooh hope the airbag doesnt self detonate , or whatever they do... aarrgghh! Byee.

Cheers Jeremy

[bertiejaffa]

welcome to the forum - glad it is all sorted. The steering wheels and connections are pretty standard. I had a little issue with the wiring on mine when I changed the wheel recently, never got to the cause but fixed it with some additional wiring and connections rather than the OEM connector.

Just ensure the rest of the car is dry... under the carpets can hold a lot of moisture (dry to touch on top); not sure where the car is tired but a lot of people store them with the hoods unlatched and windows down.

Enjoy