Radio sound stops when honking the horn

HelloHonda

I discovered last weekend that when I honk the horn, my radio stops. It doesn't turn off, just the sound stops. It's not a big deal and I don't really care about fixing but I wondered if this how the wagons were wired. My CRX didn't do this haha

piercesean

the factory radio or aftermarket?

Haydz

And have you installed and aftermarket radio or steering wheel recently?

HelloHonda

aftermarket radio. and no i didn't install it. it's got the stock steering wheel.

suspendedHatch

It's wired badly. Either one of your power wires is connected to the horn circuit, or you have a bad ground.

disfilam04

bad ground?

suspendedHatch

The ground in the radio harness goes to a little bolt in the dash. It's barely sufficient when brand new. Sometimes it gets cut or disconnected. It's better just to run your own ground straight to the chassis (some metal bracket in the dash).

If the radio can't find ground it will back feed through whatever circuit it can find. It may find it's way down a circuit related to the horn. When you honk your horn, the horn is using that ground and cutting your radio off. Unlikely, but possible. I've seen weirder stuff than that.

Are you asking me what ground is? Ground is the negative return path back to the battery. All the metal in your car is a ground.

Haydz

Back to your battery or from your battery? lol sorry..

suspendedHatch

Haydz wrote:

Back to your battery or from your battery? lol sorry..

Depends on which theory you subscribe to.