Horn and Headlights Problem

[Ryn1727]

Hey guys I’m hoping someone can help me with a problem that just came up out of nowhere, I have a 98 GST. I went to turn my car on yesterday and once the motor started up my horn starting going off like someone was holding down the button. My head lights and fog lights also turned on and stay on even though they are set to off (all the lighting that turns on with the headlights stays off unless I switch it on, and the tail lights don’t light up either until I switch them on). When I turn the car off the horn still stays on and the headlights/fog lights also stay on until I disconnect the battery. Besides the horn and the headlights/fog lights everything else works fine. I don't really understand how the horn and headlights tun on when I turn the key so hopefully someone here can help me out. Thanks

 

[Boost92awd]

Do you have an alarm on the car?

 

[hubz91talontsi]

Have you done some changes to you car? Proformance wise..Im going to guess its just the start of a bad ecu. Might wanna open that puppy up and look around for any bruns or ooze. Usually this happens if you do some a/f tuning, and doesn't happen again if you get it corrected. Correct me if im wrong please. I don't want to give bad information.

 

[Boost92awd]

Does your car smell like rotten eggs? This will be a sign of a bad ECU.

 

[Ryn1727]

thanks for the replies guys. I have the stock alarm system installed and I havent done anything with it. As for the A/F tuning ive had an SAFC installed for about a year now and I had no problems before this. There are no bad smells coming from anywhere either. Could it be the ECU even if my car still runs fine? I also just noticed one more thing. I have two glowshift gauges that when you push a button on the gauge face you can change the backlight color. Both the gauges are wired into the fuse box on the drivers side but for some reason now both the gauge backlights are dim and they wont switch when i click them. Could this be a problem with the fuse box then?

 

[kenamond]

Check your battery. I've heard a very funny story about our DSMs that I assume is true. If the battery is low, the horn can be turned on but doesn't have enough juice to turn itself off (not enough juice to trip a relay or something)...so it just blares. This is different than your symptoms, but it made me think of that story. The dim gauge lights might be related to low voltage. Could be...or maybe something different. If something shorted that's not fused, it could be draining your battery...or it could be pulling voltage away from other electronics. Also, if the voltage is too low, the ECU starts misbehaving.

 

[DSM_PWR]

trust me when i say... i know what it is.. its your alternator fuse.. Check it and you'll see the problem. If you ever touched your alternator with a socket ACCIDENTLY without disconnecting your bat, then you've had this problem

Same thing happend to me when i was driving and flashed my high beams... i was like "who keeps honking at me" then i realized it was me

Replace it and your problem will go away

 

[crimsondragon]

Does your car smell like rotten eggs? This will be a sign of a bad ECU.

They actually say it smells like fish.

 

[Boost92awd]

They actually say it smells like fish.

I'v smelt it before, it smelled like rotten eggs to me. Your cat-converter will also give off this same smell when its taking a crap.

 

[Ryn1727]

Hey everyone thanks for the tips, ill hook up a volt gauge and check my battery to see how low it is. Ill also check the alternator fuse, I replaced the alt belt about a month ago and when I tightened it after a couple hundred miles I'm pretty sure I still had the battery connected.

 

[Boost92awd]

Hey everyone thanks for the tips, ill hook up a volt gauge and check my battery to see how low it is. Ill also check the alternator fuse, I replaced the alt belt about a month ago and when I tightened it after a couple hundred miles I'm pretty sure I still had the battery connected.

Or you could just drive to autozone and they will check your battery and alternator for free.

 

[DSM_PWR]

I replaced the alt belt about a month ago and when I tightened it after a couple hundred miles I'm pretty sure I still had the battery connected.

yup that would short the alt fuse

Or you could just drive to autozone and they will check your battery and alternator for free.

they CAN check the alternator but wont tell you that the fuse is bad, i did the same thing with a "slightly" burnt alternator fuse and had it checked...The guy said everything was fine next thing i know im stuck there and had to buy the fuse

somehow the alternator, horn, headlights fuses are connected because if you take out the horn fuse.. your headlights turn on and so on..

 

[Boost92awd]

yup that would short the alt fuse



they CAN check the alternator but wont tell you that the fuse is bad, i did the same thing with a "slightly" burnt alternator fuse and had it checked...The guy said everything was fine next thing i know im stuck there and had to buy the fuse

somehow the alternator, horn, headlights fuses are connected because if you take out the horn fuse.. your headlights turn on and so on..

Obviously thats all they do is a load test on your alternator. The fuse your going to have to check yourself.

 

[Ryn1727]

quick update when my car is off my battery has about 12.5 volts and when its running its at a solid 14volts. Ill look at/go buy an alt fuse later and replace that to see if that is the problem.

 

[DSM_PWR]

any update?

 

[Ryn1727]

I'm actually having trouble finding a place that sells the fuse, but I'm back at school now so I will try the auto stores up here and hopefully have more luck finding one Wednesday, I'll update then too.

does anyone know a place online that I can order the alternator fuse either the places around me dont carry it or I keep talking to people in the auto stores that arent looking in the right places because i cant find one.

 

[DSM_PWR]

autozone. its a "100A" fuse

 

[Defiant]

Tell the dolts to look under "Fusible Link".

 

[Ryn1727]

Just fix the problem. Turns out back when I first got the car I wired my radar directly into the fuse box, and what happened was my radar wasn't plugged in and the cord was on the ground, it got snow on an expose part, and blew the fuse that I had my wire jammed under. Theres a classical example of why you should not be lazy like me and jam the wire under a fuse to get power.