# Horn Not Working On My 2012 Cruze



## notaxjack (Jan 12, 2015)

My Cruze horn quit working. I can hear a click in the big fuse/relay box under the hood. Fuse # 51 is good. Everyone tells me to replace the horn relay. I cannot find the horn relay, can someone direct me to it? I have tested the horns and they will work when I put power to them. I called Auto Zone they looked up the relay and said they don't have a listing for one. Maybe it works off of the body control module, don't know. Can anyone help?


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## carbon02 (Feb 25, 2011)

Is this a crash repairable that you're working on? Either way I think your out of luck. The relay is part of the electrical box, and is not serviceable.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Ha, this post made me walk out to my garage to blow my horn, still works, haven't used it for months, maybe years. 

Kind of like a door buzzer circuit, closed contacts that energize an electromagnetic solenoid that opens these contacts causing the diaphragm to vibrate at a fixed rate. Usually a screw for not only making that initial contact, but also a secondary means for tuning the horn.

Sometimes by rotating that screw a quarter turn CCW closes those contacts, but then turn it back in a quarter turn again. Would be okay if they used tungsten contacts like they did for ignition points. 

Ha, one of the first things I changed when I first got my 88 Supra was to install American horns in it. But had to replaced those when I took it out of storage, was something like around ten bucks each at Fleet Farm. Cruze horns are okay for sound.

Think the last horn I had with screws on it was on my 30 Olds, those contacts could be cleaned. Boat has a horn like that also, all chrome with screws that I could take apart and clean the contacts. For the most part, automotive is throwaway. 

All of the relays are replaceable in the Cruze, but with some, need a desoldering tool to accomplish this. But even if you have a climate control with a switch held on with two screws, won't sell you that switch. Figure a mechanic doesn't own a screwdriver, so force you to buy a whole new climate control panel for only $$$$$$.


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## Jim Frye (Mar 16, 2011)

I think back to the '92 Saturn SC I owned. All of the relays in both fuse panels were plug replaceable and switchable. The horn relay would run the fuel pump if that relay failed. Used to pull the fuel pump relay when I parked in bad neighborhoods visiting a client. Figured it would at least slow a thief down. Also used a steering wheel club. Not to prevent the car from being stolen, but to keep the airbag from being lifted.


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## Chevy Customer Care (Oct 29, 2011)

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that you are experiencing difficulties with your horn, noraxjack. I understand that you are seeking advice on how to fix this issue yourself. Please let me know if we can help and look further into this matter for you. Feel free to send us a private message with your VIN and more information if our help is needed. Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Kristen A.
Chevrolet Customer Care


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## BU54 (Nov 24, 2014)

Just use the single digit salute when needed instead of the horn.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Almost too much for me, certified FAA/FCC technician, electronic engineer with over 50 year so experience. Under the main under the hood fuse PCB are three other boards loaded with more components. Took me long enough to locate the fog lamp relay, labeled X1, X2, and X3. 

Never seen so many connector pins in my life and all had to be perfectly aligned, blind, if one pin would be bent over, would have been screwed.

Circuit isn't that bad, hitting the horn switch, applies a ground to a BCM terminal through the air bag clock spring, the in turn fires up the BCM fed by firmware stored in flashram, that energizes the horn relay. Contacts are always hot applying 12 V to the two horns under the left headlamps in parallel.

Shop manual only goes as far as stating to disconnect the two wires to the horns and hit them with 12V. Also claim the three block boards, X1-3 are not serviceable, but the shop manual fails to state where the horn relay is at. 

Had a difficult time plugging that pin into pin 31 of the front block, hole was covered with flashing, so was bend over with a magniflying glass and a #2 X-acto blade to clean it out. And knew I would only have one shot at inserting that pin. No way I could see to remove it, if I hit the wrong hole. 

This is the trend with all this new stuff, a microcontroller with firmware energizing relays. Have these in my range, dryer, washing machine, microwave, dishwasher, and most important, my furnace. Cross referenced all the relays and purchased spares. But because I did, never had to replaced them.

Thought about this with the Cruze, a bit too much, ha, if it goes bad, might just toss it and buy another one. But looking a many different new cars, they are all going this route.

Back in the old days, used a healthy switch on the horn button to directly hit the horns. In later years, added a horn relay, apparently cheaper than using a heavier gauge wire. Now this BCM stuff.


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## mspaeth (Mar 12, 2015)

How hard is it to pull the fuse PCB to get at the ones underneath? 
I'm more than comfortable soldering and swapping parts as long as I can get at them


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## mspaeth (Mar 12, 2015)

Turns out the horn relay wasn't m problem, but it was just a nut to take off the 12V source wire, and 3 bolts to disconnect the X1, X2, X3 connectors, and the fuse block just lifts right out.

There are no boards underneath, just one board with fuse and relay connectors and relays on top, and tabs on the bottom for the X1-3 harnesses to connect. Everything self-aligns pretty well thanks to the bolts.

I don't know what kind of solder they use on that board, but my 600degree iron had no luck melting it. Anything on the 12V plane is going to be a major pain anyway due to the high thermal mass. 

Turns out my problem was just a dirty horn connector, which was accessible by pulling off the black piece of bumper fascia on the driver side, but I needed to pull the fuse block to fix the fuse connector I mangled shoving my too-big multimeter probes into trying to trace the circuit initially.


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## Daisy81 (Jun 17, 2012)

BU54 said:


> Just use the single digit salute when needed instead of the horn.


Sadly in Virginia that isn't enough to pass the annual safety inspection.

I hope that the Op is able to get tis fixed at a reasonable cost.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Lead free solder, takes a lot more heat to melt it, started this around ten years ago, claimed all this electronic crap ending up in landfills was polluting the water. But in this country, still a lot of leaded pipes are used that doesn't seem to be causing any problems. 

Major problem with electronics is built in obsolescence.

I broke a fuse apart and soldered a wire to the tabs for testing to avoid this problem.

By any chance were those terminals in the horn terminal housing of the insulation displacement type? Ran into these, just cut of a piece of the insulation off the base of the terminal, had to reach pure copper with a small wire brush on a Dremmel so I could solder that to the base of the terminal.

Was a nice way to spend a weekend. We had automatic wire cutters and strippers, cut the wire to the exact length and stripped the insulation off it. Have no idea who came up with saving this stripping step, depending on a small brass point to make contact to a non-plated wire. Really dumb. 

Also were doing this on spark plug terminals, would generate an arc eating away at the carbon until you got no spark at all. Would have to decrimp these, shove in a 2 inch piece of bare plated wire, bend it over than recrimp. Then they would last forever.

Have enough problems as it is, but very good at creating new ones.


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## BIG SAL (Jul 19, 2019)

My Chevy service department told me that the horn ground is not making contact with the steering wheel pad. I was told that I need to order a whole new steering wheel. Please tell me it is easier to fix that that!!!!


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