Where's the Horn?

[Synchronizor]

Bought a $500 beater FWD 1986 Tercel awhile back to use as a cheap commuter. It's a little rough, but the mechanicals are in good shape and I've grown to really love this old lunchbox, with how easy it is to work on and keep running, and how practical the body & interior are.

One thing that's never worked on this unit is the horn. For a long time I thought it was the button or wiring in the steering wheel, as it makes a kind of scraping noise whenever I turn it, and it sits crooked when the car is going straight, making me think someone might have pulled & carelessly reinstalled the wheel at some point.

But after awhile, I was digging around under the hood and figured I'd try to find the horn, so I could feed it 12V straight, see if it works, and maybe wire a separate button. But after probably an hour of digging around, I couldn't find anything that resembled a horn. Now I'm wondering if the horn came off in a fender-bender at some point. Where is the horn normally located on these rigs? I wonder if I can drop a cheap replacement in and make it work with the normal steering wheel button if the wiring is still in the right place.

[dlb]

It's behind the left (driver side) headlight. You have to remove the grill and headlight trim to access it, which sounds like a PITA but it's actually not bad. I replaced one on a rust bucket not too long ago and it didn't take long.

[Petros]

there is a slider ring under the steering wheel that can get oxidized and can get polished off. In addition to checking the operation of the horn, you can also pull the steering wheel and clean the slider ring, and contacts under the horn button. I apply contact cleaner to them like LPS-1, either these contacts or the horn might be the cause on a car this old. rarely do I ever have a horn in a Tercel that works (I have owned and worked on perhaps 12 or more of them...I lost track).

[Synchronizor]

Thanks folks. Now that I knew where to look, I pulled off the headlight trim and got into the space below with a flashlight, and finally found the little bugger. They really bury it in there, don't they? You'd think with all the space under the hood Toyota could have mounted it somewhere more accessible and protected.

My Tercel took a hit to the front driver-side corner at some point in a previous life. It's a little crumpled in around there, and the blinker & marker light were busted when I bought it. I replaced the blinker with the cheapest amber trailer marker light the auto parts store had, which gives me the classic hyper-blink when turning left, but it works. Looks like the horn is squashed between a couple pieces of the unibody, so it may have gotten busted in that fender-bender. Now that I know where it and its wiring is though, I'll be able to proceed with diagnosing the issue when I next have time to spend on car stuff. The main goal tonight was re-attaching the driver-side rearview mirror, which had backed-off all three of its mounting nuts and was dangling by its adjustment knob.

Hopefully the button & wiring are good and I can just splice them into a new horn. If I do need to replace the horn, I kinda want to embrace the ridiculousness and get some massive truck horn. Would be hilarious hearing that come out of this little '80s Japanese box. But as most of my need is for getting people to look up from their phones at green lights, it's probably not worth the money & effort.

I'll check back in if I run into any other questions.