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A couple months ago I fixed the same problem with the horn in my 95, below is a rewrite of a note I posted on the repair.
Fixing 850 horn contacts behind air bag
Symptoms:
1) The horn does not work, or works when pushing on one side but not
another. This can go from works fine, to works on 3 corners, then 2 corners,
etc. as more of the contacts break (see below). Or the horn might work
intermittently, or just a tiny beep.
2) The horn will not turn off (you can't miss this one!)
There are 4 horn contacts inside the steering wheel. They go thru a metal
frame and are held in place and insulated by red plastic around each
contact. The contacts normally sit just below a piece of metal on the back
side of the airbag, so when you push on the horn it touches at least one of
those contacts and blasts the horn. This makes sense when you see it.
In my car the plastic that holds one of the contacts in place cracked and
allowed the metal contact to move just enough to touch the metal frame,
making a permanent circuit. Thus the horn was always on. Most reports I've
seen say the horn doesn't work right, I guess in that case the contacts
completely fall out or otherwise are not where they need to be to complete
the circuit.
Details for the fix (from memory)
- make sure you have your radio code
- disconnect the battery
- turn the wheel 90 degrees one side. There is a hole on the back of the
wheel, inside the hole is a t-30 torx screw. Remove it.
- turn wheel 90 degrees to the other side. Remove torx screw.
- airbag is now loose. Unhook electrical connector and put airbag in a safe
place.
NOTE: Do not turn on the key with the airbag removed. It will set an SRS
fault
code, you'll need a dealer to clear the code.
- Poke around for a while with an ohmmeter to figure out how the whole thing
works. Maybe it'll be obvious to you.
- look for broken red plastic parts. They are on the back side of the frame,
kind of hard to see, you can see the contacts sticking through toward you.
If they all look good try jiggling them to find a loose one.
I used epoxy to glue the broken part in place. It still had plastic around
the edge of the contact so I didn't need to insulate it from the frame. If
the insulating plastic around the edge is gone you would need to put
something around it for insulation. I didn't need to do this but imagine
shrink wrap or lots of other things would work.
I would test the connections with an ohmmeter before the epoxy dries,
especially making sure the contact is isolated from the frame you glued it
to. Otherwise the horn will be on all the time.
If you can't glue/fix the broken part and your problem is the horn honks all
the time I've heard you can remove that contact or I supposed tape it up and
stick it out of the way. Then your horn will work on the remaining corners.
Standard disclaimer about airbags and such - you have to remove the airbag
to do this job, it's up to you to decide whether you want to mess with that.
I am not an expert at this stuff. The Haynes manual shows how to remove the
airbag in the section on removing the steering wheel. Knowledgable people
say you shouldn't put an ohmmeter across the airbag contacts. And finally my
own tidbit - don't let your torx bit roll down the top of the steering
column, you'll never find it.
I would also educate all drivers of the car on what to do if the horn gets
stuck on. My wife was very unhappy when this happened to her, in the middle
of holiday mall traffic. If it is not raining the easiest thing to do is
remove the fuse (shares fuse with windshield wipers). Also familiarize
yourself with how to disconnect the horns. It's simple to do but easier to
figure out in a warm lighted garage than on the side of a dark road in the
rain.
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