[T3] Horn Issue

[Jim Adney]

On 30 Jan 2026 at 18:42, Jesse Hernandez wrote:

> I had a similar horn issue with my ~67 fastback draining the battery. 
> The mechanic rewired the horn to the ignition switch so I can only honk
> when the ignition is on.  That was in lieu of disassembling the steering
> column.  No battery drain, but in hindsight perhaps not the best idea. 

I agree that bypassing the problem was a poor solution, but your message 
highlighted the elephant in the room that none of us had noticed.

The horn should NOT be powered when the key is OFF.

I have to admit that  I'm not really famailiar with our wiring before 1968, but 
I'm pretty sure that VW never would have left power to the horn with the key 
OFF. There aren't many things that might need power with the key OFF: 
parking lights (maybe), side marker lights (maybe), radio (maybe). The only 
one that I can think of that really needs full time power is the clock. The horn 
would be a definite NO in my mind.

So your mechanic did at least half of the job correctly, by moving the horn to 
a switched fuse.

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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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