You know what? The horn consistently worked for a few more days, but it's been nothing but trouble after that. Occasionally the horn sounds when I press the horn button, but often not. Sometimes it will work in the morning, but it's silent in the afternoon. The horn won't beep at 50 mph, but it will beep at 30 mph. I've cleaned the contacts on the steering shaft with sandpaper, scrubbed the wire connections with steel wool, and I smeared dielectric grease on both ends. I still get the same results. It doesn't make sense. But I think I know why the horn is such a pain.
I bragged about how well it worked.
Charlotte, the Greeks called this "hubris", and the word means excessive pride or self-confidence. I call it "bragging".
There's a fine line between bragging and humor. When the three of us are shopping at Target and Daphne says, "Char and I are going to go look at dresses. Where will you be?" If I reply, "I'll be in the Beauty section... where I belong," that's humor. When the three of us are shopping at Pet Smart, and I tell someone we have the prettiest dog you've ever seen (she isn't), then that's bragging. It doesn't matter if we think our dog is pretty; it's an ugly comment to make.
But bragging isn't just ugly; it causes you trouble. The world has a way of dealing with you when you brag about yourself. It might not happen right away, but you can bet trouble's coming your way.
However, I can't fix my horn by simply admitting that I was wrong to brag. The world doesn't work like that. I still have to fix my horn problem, and I think I did.
While researching the hard start relay on my Bug, I discovered that people have used relays to get their horns to work. The idea is that the relay can boost what little electricity is getting to the horn. I was curious if I could make my horn more reliable, so I bought a 6-volt relay from Amazon.
The most helpful wiring schematic I found was created by Samba member, Glutamodo. link 2
Even the most basic schematic can confuse me, so here's my version.
I mounted the relay right behind the horn, and I tried to keep the wiring as neat as possible.
We have an old tube of clear silicone sealant in the garage, and I used that to help weatherproof the connections.
For now, my horn is much louder and its pitch is higher, but I have no idea if it's more reliable. Time will tell. But I have to believe that a louder horn adds some safety value.
And on that note, here comes the ironic ending:
No comments:
Post a Comment