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Horn not working, intermittent wipers not working

Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 2:34 pm
by jackdelamare
Hello,

I have a 1996 Suzuki Vitara JX (5 door) 1.6 16V. It's a great vehicle but I have a few minor electrical problems.

The horn works fine when the car is off, but as soon as the engine is running, the horn won't work. It's really bizarre. Any ideas?

Also, the intermittent wiper setting doesn't work, the other two settings work fine but when it's on intermittent it doesn't stop inbetween each wipe.

Hopefully someone has some ideas!

Thanks,
Jack

Re: Horn not working, intermittent wipers not working

Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 4:14 pm
by windsor
Attack everything with wd 40 and chek all the fuses when the horn stoped working on the van type it was down to a hairline crak in the fuse that wasnt visable buy eye

Re: Horn not working, intermittent wipers not working

Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 9:45 pm
by Darrell
Well I can't work it out :oops:

The horn has 12v regardless of ignition switch position.
Its just earth's via the horn switch.


I suspect the wiper intermittent relay is at fault but have no diagram to let me know what's going on inside the relay.
The relay is part of the switch unit so is not replaceable other than swapping the whole unit.
Sorry I can't be more helpful :oops: .

Re: Horn not working, intermittent wipers not working

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:06 pm
by jackdelamare
windsor wrote:Attack everything with wd 40 and chek all the fuses when the horn stoped working on the van type it was down to a hairline crak in the fuse that wasnt visable buy eye
What exactly would WD40 do and what would I attack with it? So you're saying a faulty/cracked fuse might be causing the horn to partially work?
Darrell wrote:Well I can't work it out :oops:

The horn has 12v regardless of ignition switch position.
Its just earth's via the horn switch.

I suspect the wiper intermittent relay is at fault but have no diagram to let me know what's going on inside the relay.
The relay is part of the switch unit so is not replaceable other than swapping the whole unit.
Sorry I can't be more helpful :oops: .
So it's not possible to fix the intermittent wiper setting unless I replace the whole switch unit? That's quite a difficult thing to do, isn't it? The wipers in any state don't stop at the bottom where they should, they stop wherever, haha. I guess this is part of the same issue.

Re: Horn not working, intermittent wipers not working

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 1:22 pm
by turbo-tom
Clean all earths.

Re: Horn not working, intermittent wipers not working

Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 6:49 pm
by Darrell
Now you have said the wipers don't self park I'm going to say it's the switch within the motor playing up. This controls the self park and gives a signal to the intermittent relay. You can check this out if you have a multimeter. :thumbup:

Re: Horn not working, intermittent wipers not working

Posted: Mon Oct 14, 2013 8:54 am
by scotty167
I have the same issue with the horn on my '93 Vitara. I took off the steering wheel and plastic cowlings on Saturday to check all the wiring. No issues there. Wiring from horns into car is intact. Tiny earth strap between upper/lower steering column/coupling in engine bay is clean and dry. Going to try replacing the relay today as someone on a different forum suggested a broken earth at that point.
The other possibility is that "someone" has previously wired an alarm into the horn but has since disconnected the alarm - but then why would it still work without the ignition? Confused dot com

Re: Horn not working, intermittent wipers not working

Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 5:48 pm
by Cyprus Geoff
When I fitted power steering (jimnyPAS to Samurai) I eventually noticed the horn was not working with ign on, but did with ign off? I puzzled over this for ages cleaning earths etc - it turned out to be the steering column!!

The earth travels down the column and I which I had shortened, now I have to run a bridging cable between the top half of the column and the lower which is seperated by the steering knuckle thingybob.

All OK now.

Re: Horn not working, intermittent wipers not working

Posted: Sat Aug 21, 2021 9:37 am
by Mhrn1994
Hi! I have Vitara 1994 5 doors , I found Horn and Stop lights not working but I checked 15A fuse , it’s ok. But I can’t find where is Horn and stop light relay located?