Faulty Horn

One of the most obvious features and yet most under-rated is the horn, I can't believe I forgot to check this critical component of the car when I first test drove it in Feb this year. Apparently the left hand side of the horn was faulty and on checking with a few forusm, some nicer fellow bimmer folks said it's probably the wiring and it probably cost less than $10 to fix max. Well guess what, I got it fixed for Free!

I think I will write down a list of checklist of future e36 buyers.

Let me try to take a step by step approach of how my mechanic went about fixing the faulty horn, it took him almost a good 2/3 hours to get the wire connected. Problem diagnosed: Horn on the left hand side was faulty. He took up the BMW emblem using the screwdriver, refer to the pix of the steering on the left. The lobang or hole you see is what happens when the emblem is taken out. He had to unscrew the steering wheel to remove it completely from the car.


On the right is a picture of how the interior of the car would look like without the steering wheel.

The previous owner must removed the wire connecting to the left horn because one of the buttons attached to the horn was broken and as a result, when the wire is connected, the horn is activated constantly, and you can only imagine the sound it creates. Super glue had to be used to glue the broken part so that the spring holding onto horn plate.


For those of you reading this, if you are confused by what I said, it's ok, I am not quite sure if I am relating correctly too, but the picture on the right will show you the contact plate that activates the horn whenever you press on the horn.


So if you are wondering how is it possible I got it fixed for free? Well, it's simple, it's one of the most important tips that any car owners can give you, always use the same mechanic whenever possible to fix your car. Develop a relationship with them, you see I paid them about $30 to inspect my car before I bought it, the mechanic must have felt bad not detecting this problem. Anyway, even though my mechanic has since left the workshop he still calls me from time to time to update me on his whereabout, you can count on me visitng his new workshop for the next servicing.