Horn stopped working when it's cold

[rnxw]

Hi,
I'm running into a problem, where if I park my car outside for a few hours, the horn would not work. If we bring it to a indoor parking garage and parked there overnight it would start working again.

This morning when we left our garage, it was working fine, I got on 404 and drove for about 25 minutes, some car tried to merge and I tried to horn, and the horn didn't work.

Any ideas?:bang:bang

[rnxw]

oh and it didnt just happen once, first time we found out was Sat, and it has happened everyday. The routine is not always the same but it would usually stop working if we park it outside for a few hours

[greyseason]

maybe take a look for corrosion around the terminals, and do you have a multi meter? you can see if its getting the proper voltage

[rnxw]

It's a 2010 Mazda 3 GX..sorry I forgot to mention.

I don't have one but I could probably borrow one. What would you mean by around the terminals?

[greyseason]

Im thninking it could just be corrosion (like on a busted battery) causing a crappy connection. Let me see if i can get a google pic

[greyseason]

http://www.familyhandyman.com/automotive/car-horn-repair-tips/view-all

This is what corrosion can look like,. This is a car battery
http://www.agcoauto.com/content/images/electrical/transient/corroded_terminal.jpg

Hopefully another member can give you some more help

[r4mi5awi]

DAMN!!!! That's nasty.

[TheMAN]

from my experience, battery terminal corrosion can be greatly reduced by NOT banging on battery cables onto the battery terminals during installation.... excessive force breaks the seal around the terminal post and outgassing occurs there where it shouldn't be... there are special battery cable terminal spreader pliers you can get by a little brute force using regular pliers works too....

battery outgassing itself can be greatly reduced by keeping the battery maintained and charged full... a lower charge makes the car's alternator put out high current which makes the battery's electrolyte "boil" and outgas more than a well charged battery...... the result is a slimy acid mess on top of the battery

I used to have lots of problems like these with domestically sourced batteries rather than the original Japanese made batteries, they just aren't built as well.... the precautions I used practically eliminated those problems for me on domestically made batteries
if you're using a hammer to beat the battery cable onto the battery, you're doing it wrong!!! I see lots of people do this, and I used to too

[rnxw]

Thanks for the advice. The battery does not look like that at all.

I'm taking it to dealership on Saturday but was just wondering if anyone ran into similar problems before.

[rnxw]

Went to the dealer on Sat, they said it's a broken horn, and got it replaced. TY for the help!