Re: Horn goes off when starting car on occasion

["Mark L. Chang" <mchang@ece.nwu.edu>]

On Mon, 1 Jun 1998, Dave Fain wrote:

> Here's a possibility.  We had the same problem on my '84
> VW Vanagon.  When starting, the horn would honk and the starter
> would sometimes stay engaged after the engine started and the key
> was released.  We ruined two starters in quick succession.  Funny
> thing was, it only happened when my wife started the van, never
> to me.  She began to suspect that it was possessed and didn't
> like her.  Then we noticed that her key ring had more keys on
> it than mine, sometimes causing a key to slip into the opening
> between the steering wheel and the plastic housing around the
> ignition switch, shorting some contacts and causing weird
> electrical things to happen.  The fact that it is happening
> to you with two different Audis makes me suspect something like
> this.  The next time it happens, see if a key is ending up
> somewhere it shouldn't be.  Just a suggestion.
> Dave

Strangely enough, this exact thing happened to me in my 1980 4000.  One of
my house keys, because of the way it was arranged on the ring,
occasionally snuck in the slot that Dave mentioned when I inserted the
ignition key.  Mine never honked on startup -- just while I was driving,
sporadically!

Imagine -- a 16-year-old driving around in his new (to him) Audi, his horn
honking wildly for no apparent reason.  Blush factor HIGH.

It's funny, since I was *just* about to post this story and thought it was
entirely unique... Qlist proves once again that what happens between you
and your Audi always garners a BTDT from *someone* :)...

ahhhh... hopefully, this may help the original poster.

mark
87 4kcsq

                    [PGP] finger mchang@ece.nwu.edu