Lack of horn without ignition??

[Ryan_R]

Received this today re. audio controls:

As for the steering wheel controls they are only able to work with the engine running due to the fact that electrical consumers need to be limited to preserve the battery life.

[AdamD]

Received this today re. audio controls:

That's hilarious. So the car can draw a ton of current for the radio (+ Dynaudio for me, draws quite a bit), and yet they've decided to deactivate the steering wheel controls when the coil's not on to presever battery life!

[Ryan_R]

That was exactly my mental response as well.

[logger]

hm, I can have a look around VCDS settings to see if anything in there that could be programmable to allow horn to work at all times....

While you at it, see if you can work out why sounding the horn on a VW kills the VCDS connection. Wierd. Ross Tech could not give me a reason when I asked them a while back.

[Ryan_R]

How about when you're picking someone up, say from school, a train station, a shopping center/mall, etc.

You don't have to yell at us just because it makes no sense to you. A horn is supposed to be a safety device, so you'd think it would always work - of course we all hope we don't need it.

[rs73]

No need to despair guys...
For $75 your problems can be sorted... just need to find +12V and ground, and you can horn whoever the idiots backing up to your car while sitting and parked waiting...

Wolo Wobbler Turkey Horn - WOL410

[simonm]

It's not like the horn is draining power when it's not in use - it's an open switch until pressed, and the ignition is acting as a second open switch. You don't need two open switches in a circuit for it to be off, it is kind of redundant.

[Frankenstrat]

Try this then: Ignition off, insert a CD into the slot. It starts to play. Press the RADIO button, the radio plays instead of the CD. How's that for saving the battery?

[Ryan_R]

???



msg too short

[Idle]

This is probably quite OT, but I never forgot.

Many years ago, that "feature" saved my bacon. Was pulled over by police, who ordered me to turn off the engine and then proceeded to do a rudimentary safety check, which included "press your brake pedal" and "blow the horn".

Was finally dismissed with "we shall report these matters" and eventually got a "bluey" for no stop lights and no "adequate warning device" (among other things.)

Eventually came up in court (this was nearly 50 years ago, no "on the spot" fines or unroadworthy stickers then.)

The cop gave his evidence and I asked him "did you order me to stop the engine?" — answer "yes, of course."

Did you require the engine re-started before checking the brake lights and horn? — answer "No, that's not what we do."

Question "Are you aware that Rover brake lights and horn don't operate when the ignition is off?" — answer "No, I'm not."

Final upshot was that all charges were dismissed — including the rather stupid one I had no legal defence to: "failing to give way to a police vehicle at an intersection" (he saw me coming from about a block away and waited (no emergency lights, siren etc., just sat there facing the tramline even after I slowed and gave him the office to go) until I passed, then chased and pulled me over — I heard later it was a trick he specialised in...)

So, sometimes the horn not working when the ignition's off can be useful — and it's by no means a new feature, or confined to VAG products.

Incidentally, the brake light switches on "Auntie" Rovers (circa 1950 — the one with a Cyclops eye in the centre of the grille) were iffy at best, and I was well aware my car's ageing one didn't work and couldn't be reliably made to — used to give hand signals, which were still legal then and (I think, memory is failing a bit these days) required in Victoria when driving a car with English semaphore turn indicators (for all I know, they may be still...)

[dave_r]

Question "Are you aware that Rover brake lights and horn don't operate when the ignition is off?" — answer "No, I'm not."

ROFL, gotta love those moments!

I just assumed the horn worked on all cars, all the time. The earlier comment about using VCDS to maybe override would be interesting. Though I've already harassed Dana enough with the Polo

[Guest]

Knowing the system

Look obviously you dont know the whole CAN-BUS system works for the horn to work all the time with ign off the convenience CAN must always be awake thus draining power off the battery "horn pad press then goes through the clock-spring then to Steering control module then sent via CAN to Onboard power supply CM then a relay is closed on Onboard power supply CM the power sent to the horn" If you had that ready amd available the CAN-BUS would never sleep and your battery would drain overnight or even before that

[Guest]

Try this then: Ignition off, insert a CD into the slot. It starts to play. Press the RADIO button, the radio plays instead of the CD. How's that for saving the battery?

Yes it is meant to work that way but will turn off in 1 Hour with ign off or if voltage supply gets to low will also turn off

[Ryan_R]

Thanks for the explanation there - although I reckon one hour of 'horn availability' would be enough for 99.9% of situations where it is required. (Who waits in the car for over an hour in a public parking area?)

[Frankenstrat]

Well I think I'd rather have horn availability (oo er, missus) than have a CD playing for an hour with the ignition turned off.