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Horn stuck, dome light on, battery drain

AnOldBaldGuy

NAXJA Forum User
97 Cherokee sport with the following symptoms:
Horn is stuck on (pulled the plugs)
Dome light stuck on dimly with the door closed. (pulled the bulb)
Still have a 500 milliamp draw with nothing on which needless to say drains the battery.

When i connect the battery I can hear a relay clicking on passenger side fuse block.

Airbag light is on (just happened) as well as ABS light (been on for awhile). Starts and runs fine. I've cleaned the battery ground on the battery and the block.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
Identify the clicking relay.

Drivers door and tailgate wire harness problems are common, often leading to short circuits. Visually inspect, and test wire harness continuity. A faulty clock spring will light the airbag light, and can possibly short circuit 12 volts from the horn switch to the 5 volts OBD sensors CCD Bus as well. Unplug the airbag and/or the clock spring, does the voltage drain get better ?
 
My 97 converted MJ did this exact same thing. It turned out to be water intrusion into the passenger foot well fuse box. Water was running down the radio antenna and dripping into the fuse box.
 
I forgot about that, water in the fuse box is also common and will cause the horn to blow.
 
Well it was water in the fuse block at the passenger kick panel. Everything dried out here in central washington and now the symptoms are gone.

Last fall I removed the stock fender flares and the wheel well liners. Driving in snow and slush caused water to get into the fuse panel. Going to use bed liner spay to seal the area. Should do the trick.

Thanks to all for the input.
 
Huh. Have similar issue, but different circumstances.




- Horn goes off, constantly, for couple of minutes.

Jump outta my skin, go to Jeep, disconnected horns. Disconnect battery.

Checked fuse and relay. Fuse #21 on fuse joint block, 15A is blown, 30A relay seems ok, no clicking, but shows some slight discoloraiton of center contacts. Fuse and relay replaced (RY116 relay used).


Panel looks ok, no signs of corrosion visible, no signs of accumulated water (?) around block, as some have experienced.

Replaced battery. Start car. Fine.

No other issue. Ok, then.

Couple days later, won't start, AGM battery reads 7.8V. Darn it.

Jump, let it run for 20min, battery back.

Next few days, hesitates to start, when it does, won't hold idle, stalls.

Battery put on charger, reads 14.43 while charging, to 12.5V in about 1hr30min; finished around 19:30hrs. Next morning, 10:00am, sits at 11.88V. Start, holding gas, and after 1minute stabilizes. Reads 13.8-13.9V while charging at idle.


Requires to hold gas to 1k RPM, for about a minute, then idle stabilizes. Horn does NOT work. EVERYTHING ELSE WORKS, then.


Horn switch short causing parasitic drain is a safe assumption, then?
 
You definitely have a battery going bad!
 
You definitely have a battery going bad!


Bummer.

However, my chief concern is to not go, replace the battery, then have new one drained within the week, rinse repeat.


Should I assume the horn switch is borked, or could the horns themselves have gone... horn switch is in the steering column, is that right?
 
The horn circuit goes thru the clock-spring.
 
I was afraid of that. Blagh. It's annoying to pull the stupid steering wheel.

Sigh. Now to find part locally, or wait for it to arrive.



The good news is, battery charges, to spec. Vehicle starts smooth, idle holds perfectly, once charged. Besides that parasitic drain short, everything else should be ok, inshallah.



Watch this space.
 
Update.


Replaced clock spring. Inspected horn switch, with voltmeter. Checked all contacts, old and new; the old clock spring had a few numbers kinda meh, but the contacts on the harness looked clean and corrosion free.

As soon as I plug the relay onto its slot, it clicks.There is a tiny drain, but still a drain. Remove relay and fuse, slot still registers hot by a tiny amount, and drain continues, as a trickle.


This is getting annoying.
At this point, I am thinking wire from clock spring contacts to junction block.
 
Update.


Replaced clock spring. Inspected horn switch, with voltmeter. Checked all contacts, old and new; the old clock spring had a few numbers kinda meh, but the contacts on the harness looked clean and corrosion free.

As soon as I plug the relay onto its slot, it clicks.There is a tiny drain, but still a drain. Remove relay and fuse, slot still registers hot by a tiny amount, and drain continues, as a trickle.


This is getting annoying.
At this point, I am thinking wire from clock spring contacts to junction block.




Whoo-eeeee, it's been a minute.

Issue was fixed a while ago. Just documenting.

Horn switch. Dumb lil' horn switch shorted, fried the horns (ever seen molten copper? it's PURDY) and created an intermittent short that eventually drained and flatlined an AGM battery.


The confusing part was, conducted a ground and continuity check on the switch and nothing showed wrong. Still have no idea wth was wrong with that switch. Planning to toss it into a bonfire, sometime, who knows.



On the positive side, I now have a new LOUD set of horns, a fresh spring clock, have scrubbed/brushed/cleaned all the junction fuse block contacts, and now have a SPARE AIR BAG (lol) - which came attached to the horn switch I sourced from eBay ... go figure. And a new AGM, obvs.

Rarin' to hit some trails, sometime, it's been a couple months since fixing it, and a while since Murphy stopped messing my plans.
 
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