The low horn quit working on my van - not sure how long ago because wife drives it. High horn works with either steering wheel or remote close. Fuse under hood is good. Since horn works, is this possibly something with the low horn itself? How do I access the horns behind the left-side bumper/fender well? Any tests would be appreciated.

 

You must be kidding, you have 2 horns on the same circuit and one works.... Imagine the horns are light bulbs and you have 2 in a light fixture in your house... if one quit working what would you do to fix the problem? would you go to the circuit panel to see if the breaker tripped? to access the horns, you need to have someone raise the vehicle off the ground and remove any obstructions interfering with the ability to remove the bad horn.

 

Actually, yeah, this was just a big joke.

Houses and light bulbs I can understand and work with. Cars with devices that are controlled by computers and circuits are another.

 

at least you can screw a light bulb . but really, the 2 horns come from the same wire, and have a splice within 6" of the connector to each horn. so if one works, the other has failed OR the short wire from the splice to horn has failed, OR someone stole that horn off your van leaving you with only one horn to get you all kinds of confused how one could work but not the other

 

Thanks. I'll check this out. In relation to one another, which is low and which is high? I'd prefer not to lay next to them and have someone tap the horn, but I will if necessary.

 

At this point, it would be best to have you take the vehicle to a repair facility since it's posing a complexity beyond your capacities.

 

Now that winter has subsided, I had the chance to crawl under the vehicle and check out the horns. Here's the answer to my question to 22Chrysler and my final resolution.

The low and high horns are on separate support brackets but attached beneath the driver's side headlight with a common bolt. The "high" side horn is closest to the center of the vehicle, the "low" side horn is closest to the fender. The wiring for the horns comes from a common feed that splits to each horn. The connectors have a slide lock that must be released in order to get the clips off the individual horns. The inside horn clip lock faces down while the outside horn clip lock faces up. The easiest way to reach these clips to release them is from the top. Remove the driver's side headlight (3 screws from top side of light under the hood). There is a narrow gap through which one can reach the clips. After releasing the lock clips, use a wide blade screwdriver to pop the clip loose from each horn.

Unfortunately, there isn't enough room to get a wrench on the 13mm bolt head from the top side. You will need to get to it from the underside of the van. Using a philips head screwdriver (stubby), remove the lower two screws in front of the tire on the fender wheel well. This loosens the wheel well splash guard, so you can get to the horns and ultimately get the horns out of the vehicle. Once the screws are removed, you can move the plastic trim and see up to the underside of the headlight platform where you will see the two horns attached by a single bolt. Using a 13mm socket and one or more extensions (mine totaled 17" plus the socket), loosen and lower the horn assembly. Because the two horns are on separate brackets, they will swivel which will allow you to work them through the available opening in front of the tire. The "low" horn bracket is threaded, so you will have to fully remove the bolt to separete the horns.

Each horn has a single nut attaching it to its bracket. One could remove this nut vs. taking the whole assembly out. However, because this is a single nut, loosening the nut tends to twist/rotate the horn on its bracket and never loosen it. Taking the whole bracket out was easier for me. I picked up a pair of horns from a wrecking yard and replaced the whole bracket and horn for the low side. I connected the horn to the wiring using the gap in the headlight bay and tested out the replacement before reinstalling the assembly.

Reassembly is mostly just reversing the removal. The high horn bracket has the pin and slot "key" on it and has the threaded bolt hole. Place the low horn bracket under the high horn bracket and align the bolt hole and the slot "key" such that the horns are side by side. Thread the bolt through and start it in the bracket threads but only far enough to catch the threads. Fit the horns through the wheel well opening from the bottom (may have to "unlock" the brackets from each other and let them swivel to get them through, but the bolt will keep them together. Once in the opening, reposition the brackets so they are "locked" properly. Face the horns bowls toward the front of the van. At this point, I used a helper from the top-side to reach through the headlight gap and align the bolt and the bracket pin through the key hole and hold the horn assembly in place. Again, the horns need to face the front. The wiring clip attachments will also face the front of the vehicle. From the bottom side, tighten the horn bracket bolt using the 13mm socket and long extension. Reconnect the wiring clips and lock the clips from the top side. Replace the two fender well screws into the wheel well splash guard. Reinstall the headlight.