RideTheWorld

1998 Forester S automatic.

I lost my horn and cruise control today

Fused together or??

Tau137

Yep. Should be the 15A fuse in the main box (under the hood). You'll need to find why it blew though....

SuperRu

Your cruise and horn switches are on the same circuit. After checking all your fuses the next thing I would check is the horn relay. Both circuits go through it.
Good luck,

__________________

Richard
04 XT.... 98S

RideTheWorld

Thread Starter

Thanks guys, I found my owner's manual and it shows underhood fuse position 23 as the horn and hazard flasher fuse, no mention of the cruise control. I'll start there...

RideTheWorld

Thread Starter

Fuse looks good and flashers work.
Pulled the horn relay and found a replacement from a discarded Impreza wiring harness. The one from the Forester is a RC-5001 7YM, the one replacing it is a RC-5001 81C, but it's physically identical.
I'll try that and see.....

RideTheWorld

Thread Starter

Switched the relay and the fuse, no joy. Still no horn and no cruise. Cruise button lights up per usual, but that's it. (Btw, the airbag module in the car is u/s but the horn and cruise have been working regardless). Wondering if it's a wiring deal at the steering wheel...

Tau137

Did you check ALL the fuses? My manual says fuse#6 (not 23) in main box.

RideTheWorld

Thread Starter

#6 for a '98?

I'll check.

RideTheWorld

Thread Starter

Page 11-6 of the owner's manual says position 23 (under hood) is the flasher/horn. Page 11-4 inside fuse panel shows #6 as the SRS airbag and #18 as the Backup light/Cruise/ABS control. Regardless, I'll check them as well.

ferret

If the fuse is good, and the horn relay, I would suspect the "Rollcoil" or "Clockspring". Here's how I would diagnose it.

Remove the Airbag from the steering wheel.

With a voltmeter or 12v trouble light, Check that there is 12v at the horn contact.

If not , and I suspect there isn't, then there is an open circuit from the horn relay coil to the horn contact in the steering wheel. Only moving part is the most likely suspect ( and the most expensive ).

Subaru uses the ungrounded side of the horn relay to feed the cruise switch for Set/Release/Reset. It saves them another conductor in the rollcoil/clockspring.

__________________
04XSPP, 98S (8 Subaru's since 1978, 7 were 5 sp) ILuvSubaru's

RideTheWorld

Thread Starter

Hello Ferret,

I'm in the midst of preparing a car and equipment for the 100 Acre Wood Rally in Missouri, but when I get back I'll run that test as I suspect you're right. I'm wondering if there's also a tie in with the airbag module being unserviceable.
Thanks for your direction, I'll let you know how it goes.

ferret

??? I saw that reference in your earlier post. What do you mean 'unservicable' ???

P.S.... was in Buffalo a few weeks back, boy how I wish we had a Tim Horton's closer to us here in NJ .........

__________________
04XSPP, 98S (8 Subaru's since 1978, 7 were 5 sp) ILuvSubaru's

RideTheWorld

Thread Starter

I bought the car 'wholesale' from a local dealer 'as-is, where-is'. The airbag light was on and I had them do a diagnostic. The report came back with a 'broken' airbag module as the cause. (I work in aircraft maintenance and 'unserviceable' is the term used for broken, not working, damaged, time expired etc.)

2.5x_sleeper

IIRC when the airbag light is on, the complete system is disabled. I don't think I'd be driving around with no air bags! If you get injured in a wreck & the insurance company gets wind of this, it could be a reason to deny a claim!

Bobby...

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'07 FSXT - COBB Surgeline dyno Protune - Stage 1+
'03 X +AVO turbo kit = XT (son's)
'95 Neon Sport

RideTheWorld

Thread Starter

I posted this 'plea' for help about a month ago.

There were several helpful suggestions and thanks to those who took time to answer!

'ferret' was the closest to hitting the nail on the head with his suggestion to look towards a malfunctioning 'clockspring'/combination switch. I had an inkling this was part of the problem.

Allow me to give you a breakdown of events that led to the solution...

-Bought the car wholesale from a local Suby dealer. The 'Airbag' light was on. I had the service department do a $125 diagnostic. They came back with a failed airbag module indication. That will be $1200 + sir (+ install)
Thanks, but I'll take care of that myself...

-On to Ebay, searching for an airbag module and I get a bunch of hits...
One of them was a fellow selling the module and driver/passenger airbags.
He had bought them to remedy the same issue apparently. He went on to say "I'm selling these because it turns out they weren't the problem, it was an expensive little part called a clockspring or combination switch" or words to that effect. Bingo! I parked that little nugget of info for later use.

-Posted my request for help here and consequently, with some good direction, looked for and found a combo switch (and as a backup, doh!) a module and a pair of airbags from the same vendor on Ebay for about $110 all in.

-Yesterday, thanks to the use of space in my cousin's kayak factory (warm and dry, ya know), I was able to swap the 'bad' clockspring with the 'good' one and while we were at it, install the Momo WRX leather wheel I bought from Kamil212.

-Re-connected the battery and tried the horn...Success!! One down, two to go. Airbag warning light? Gone! Two down, one to go. Cruise control? Out for a loop, switch on and engage...Success!

I hope this helps someone else with a related issue.

Thanks again to those who took the time to answer and I've got to say here that of all the forums I currently subscribe to, this is the friendliest and most helpful group.