Not all the time. But I never know when. just a quick toot, sometime a double. Best I can remember it is always as I return the steering wheel to straight.

I pulled the horn pad and drove home without it tonight.... still toots. So I am leaning toward the ring and the spring contactor. I pulled the wheel and the ring and everything looks fine. the spring contactor seems to have a nice worn spot.

I removed the ring and pulled the wire thru.

how does this thing work anyway? when operating properly what touches to ground the horn? With the horn pad removed, I can touch the wire connector to the steering column and the horn works.

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You need one of these ...


Horn bushing/ insulator

As you've figured out, it works by grounding that circuit. so you need to figure out what's grounding when you don't want it to. Could be the contacts on the back of the wheel, could be the wire that's coming through the wheel, could be the contacts inside the wheel pad.

Remove the horn pad and tape off that wire, see if the problem continues. If not then you know it's that wire or outside. If it does then you know it's that wire or behind.

Yes, I drove home last night with the horn button removed. Got a few "toots" without the horn pad mounted.

When I got home I pulled the wheel and snapped the photos above.

Rain forecast, so I am not driving it today.

If no rain this afternoon, I will re-stall the wheel without the ring and see if I get any toots on my test drive.

Between the red marks in the photo below, the ring has worn a bit more. There is a slight depression that I can feel as I run my finger around the ring. You can see a scratch and a place where something has even worn the plastic on both sides of the slot for the wire (below the red marks).

I guess I need to search for a new ring. I bet VW used the same one.

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Be careful doing that. I don't recall the details, but when I was installing my Momo I remember seeing that running it without the horn ring would cause the "brush" arms on the steering hub to contact the back side of the wheel and potentially bend them.

Horn rings are inexpensive and plentiful. It is a VW part. <$20?

Thanks, I'll be sure to check the back of the wheel with no ring on it. Maybe tape it up for the test drive. I can't remember what is under the ring. Might just be plastic.

On my 75 there is a fuse that just does the fog lights and the horn. I had to remove the fuse to get the horn to stop working on its own. On my car the new horn ring was not sitting flush. This and a loose raised screw was causing the problem. It was a Momo adapter that had some burrs that was causing the horn ring to not sit flush. One of the screws that holds in the turning indicator / wiper assembly was slightly loose and was hitting the horn ring.