Hi all, ive had a bit of a search and found some useful info. The 2 problems i have r with the horn, and the speedo.

The speedo likes to work intermittently. Sometimes it will stop for 3 seconds, other times... 3 minutes. Ive crawled under the car and it has an electronic sensor, but from what i have read, its not normally the sensor at fault. Has anyone successfully replaced the burnt out resistor in the cluster that causes the faulty speedo gauge? If so, any pictures and specs for the resistor would be awesome. If not, what else has been the culprit?(i would like to avoid buying a new cluster)

The horn likes to go off randomly at times, the previous owner told me about this and advised me the hazard/horn fuse had been pulled to prevent this. I have an aftermarket steering wheel and horn button currently installed, and one of the connector tangs inside the horn button has been removed, so the problem must lie somewhere else, because pressing the horn does nothing at all. From doing some reading (normally the issue is the horn being stuck on) ive found that these dont use a relay for the horn, and its controlled by the ecu. Has anyone successfully fixed a malfunctioning horn without rewiring the entire thing? Is it normally caused by something shorting in the steering column itself? Ive read that it earths through the steering column itself, so if there a bit of metal in there somewhere that it shouldnt be it can cause issues. Where exactly should i be looking?

 

Uh, just what did you read?

Based on my experience and the experience of a half-dozen on this site, your symptoms are caused by a faulty VSS1 sensor 99% of the time. You can test the sensor directly, but you have to provide 12v to two terminals and watch the voltage on the third as you turn the driveshaft. Before you do that, see if you can catch the speedo dropping to zero, and WATCH THE ODOMETER. If the Odometer stops too, it's clearly NOT the combination meter. Also, get it on cruise control; when VSS1 drops out, it will drop off cruise. Again, nothing to do with the combination meter.

I've never heard of a "burnt out resistor" connected to this problem. There are a handful of resistors in the combination meter, and if one of them fails it would certainly cause some problem, but resistors are just about the most reliable component in any electronic system. Do you have a reference to this?

Again with the "reading"? This time, we know you have it wrong: http://web.archive.org/web/201204170.../2powersou.pdf I'd start by GENTLY tapping the relay to see if that triggers the horn; if it does, just replace the relay (they are a very standard part). If that does nothing, try driving around a while with the relay out. If the horn still goes off, you know your short is on the other side of the relay (not in the column). If that gets you nowhere, put the relay back, and ground the column connector to confirm that it DOES work the horn. Then wiggle the wiring in the column to see if you can get it to trigger the horn. It's only about 12" from the column to the relay, so you won't have many places to look.

And no, the ECM has NOTHING to do with the horn. Whatever it was you've been reading ....

 

I hope you did not pay much for this.

By chance does this have some parts of an after market alarm?? .

I had one the person I got the vehicle from had no idea it was there .

Almost needed to get the 5 gallon gas can and flares till I found the left over parts.

Horn would blow and the vehicle would shut down or would not start.

In this case the darn Alarm was wired into wires going to the ecu so in this case The horn was tied into the Ecu what a mess .

 

http://www.toyotasurf.asn.au/forum/v...ic.php?t=20596
this is the thread where the sensor wasnt the problem and it was a burnt out resistor...i did read other threads where the cable or sensor wasnt the culprit and they just replaced the cluster and solved the problem...so that leads me to believe it was probably resistors on them aswell.

the reading i did on the horn issue was probably wrong as i think they were all referring to late 90's and early 2000 models.
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/3rd-ge...-problems.html
the case being that whoever was writing about it referred to the bcm as the body ecu. and apparently they have no relay, the relay/switch is built into the bcm...so yes, the ecu has absolutely nothing to do with it. i only skimmed over the threads, but i should have picked up on this.

wyoming...it cost me a whopping 2k. everything else on the market was either $4500-$7000. and i really just wanted a cheap hack. theres not all that much wrong with it. everything that ive come across was pointed out to me by the seller (apart from the funny clutch). the other stuff im doing to it is purely because i enjoy tinkering with cars, an no, it doesnt have an alarm of any kind.

I used to have alot more time to actually pull stuff apart and figure it out myself...but with a 6month old, time is a little scarce for me to do that...thats exactly why im annoying the more knowledgeable, to cut down on the time i need to spend diagnosing...and put it towards actually fixing.

i appreciate the guidance guys. so where exactly is the horn relay located on these? its not under the hood, and i cant find any labelling for the relays in the footwell...only the fuses

next issue. im finding reference to several different relays/part number
on toyodiy, when i enter my vin, it tell me i need 86530-20070
other relays that have come up are 90987-02006, and 90987-03001. anyone know which one is correct?

 

nevermind...i got 5 minutes to go and have a look. turns out the crafty little bugger was hiding behind the kick panel, out of sight...at first i thought there was only 2 relays, one clearly states that its for the tail lights (see pic) and i couldnt access the other one...then i removed the whole cover to see if i could find a marking for the black relay, and then i spied the little grey one. so i removed and LO AND BEHOLD! the horn relay. I think this is definately the issue, it was setting the horn off while i was trying to remove it. so there we go. part number 86530-20070



1992 4runner 3vze fuse panel footwell horn relay




1992 4runner 3vze fuse panel footwell horn relay




1992 4runner 3vze fuse panel footwell horn relay




1992 4runner 3vze fuse panel footwell horn relay

so, ive had a look online, but im yet to call the stealer. has anyone had any luck finding a replacement relay thats not $30-$40? ive found toyota oem, one made by airtex, and one made by beck/arnley.

would it be possible to use a generic 4pin horn relay and wire it up to the corresponding wires, leaving the 'body earth' terminal unused on the relay? or does the 4 pin relay require that earth to work regardless? not that it would be hard to get a 6" bit of wire and stick it to the body...

 

Rockauto has a BWD/NIEHOFF for $3.76.

Others for closer to $10.

Of course, I'd use my multimeter to test the old relay first; just because wiggling the relay sets off the horn, can you rule out a bad socket?

 

just an update incase someone else has a similar issue with the horn. the horn ended up having a bad relay, AND a poor connection within the steering column cover. i have an aftermarket steering wheel, which uses a boss/hub kit. the plastic insulator on the back of the metal boss had fallen away, and the copper ring had also fallen away from the plastic insulator, so when the steering wheel was turned, or the car hit lumps and bumps in the road, the copper ring would touch the steering column or boss hub, causing the horn to go off randomly.

I used araldite to glue the ring and insulator back in place on the back of the boss hub. the ring now makes good contact with the brass button, and no longer flops around, causing the horn to go off

on a side note, the new horn button i received with my bigger steering wheel, needed to be wired up a certain way. despite the 2 connections on the back of the button not having a + or - marking, it did matter how it was wired up. it turns out that the horn button itself, earths through its body. so the first time i installed the wires, and went to mount the horn body to the boss hub, the horn went off. i reversed the wires on the horn button and problem solved. (with the horn button hanging freely from the boss kit with the wires attached, it worked in both orientations)

my new speed sensor is on its way, so hopefully that does indeed fix the speedo issue.