Fiamm Horm Mystery

After returning from a long weekend in the Smokey Mountains, I decided to clean my bike today. Since I'd ridden in heavy rainstorms on Thursday, the bike was very dirty.

After cleaning the bike, I heard a hissing sound from my left-side Fiamm Freeway Blaster then both horns went off for a second or two. This was VERY strange since the key was not in the ignition. A few minutes, the right-side horn began to hiss and I actually removed the fuse from my Randy's Wiring Harness. The hissing continued for another 20 seconds or so and then stopped.

I put the fuse back into the harness, put the key into the ignition, started the bike and discovered that neither horn works. There is only a clicking sound when I hit the horn button.

WTF?????

IIRC.....The horns on an FJR are hot all the time....the switch is a grounding switch.

So there is always power to the horns unless you have them wired through a relay (powered only when the ignition switch is on). If they were not protected by a relay, it could be possible for them to have gotten water into their coils and shorted to ground.

Just my opinion.....and that is theoretical, at best.

madmike2 said:

IIRC.....The horns on an FJR are hot all the time....the switch is a grounding switch.
So there is always power to the horns unless you have them wired through a relay (powered only when the ignition switch is on). If they were not protected by a relay, it could be possible for them to have gotten water into their coils and shorted to ground.

Just my opinion.....and that is theoretical, at best.

Click to expand...

They're wired using one of Randy's wiring harnesses and there is a relay.

It "sounds" like they shorted from water incursion.....

You've checked and there is no voltage on the "power" side of the horn? With the switch in both positions? If so, then you are going to have to drop one of the horns and check it with a tester to see if has shorted out. Then, you're going to have to determine "why" if the circuit was isolated by a relay.

Perhaps they are just full of water and need to be dumped out and dried so they can work.

Maybe it's the relay that took in too much water and shorted. As stated above, the horn button completes the ground circuit, so the relay has 12v in the energizing circuit and only needs a short to ground to complete the circuit and energize.

Geezer said:

Maybe it's the relay that took in too much water and shorted. As stated above, the horn button completes the ground circuit, so the relay has 12v in the energizing circuit and only needs a short to ground to complete the circuit and energize.

Click to expand...

I didn't have the hose anywhere near the relay. It's tucked up well under the dash. Could one horn short and take the other one with it?

The only horn failure I've had was the relay - on Randy's harness. That relay was tucked into the nose of my 06 - and it filled up with water during a heavy rainstorm in northern New Mexico a year ago, and shorted out.

The symptoms were the same as yours - just a 'click' when I hit the horn button.

If the relay did not get wet, it's possible that the failure was coincidental to your washing of the bike. I would suggest changing the relay first - before suspecting anything else.

YMMV.

I don't have Randy's harness, but the relay that came with my Hellas failed on me, and it was tucked up in the fairing beside the mirror mount point. I replaced the relay with a standard auto one, and sealed the seams on the new relay with silicon gasket goop. I did the same thing to the relay on the Fiamms on my naked XJ750.

I wouldn't have thought of the relay getting wet when it was tucked so far inside of the fairing but....I replaced the relay today and the horns are working again. :yahoo:

Thanks everyone

madmike2 said:

IIRC.....The horns on an FJR are hot all the time....

Click to expand...

Er, no - not so on my '06, nor in the AE wiring diagram, the horns are fed through the same feed that does the glovebox solenoid and the grip warmers.

And, it don't toot without the key turned :fie: