hmmm...looks like electrical grimlins :(
 

well...yesterday after the club i hear my horn going off...i get out and find that it is going off very softly ( meaning it was happening for a while and that it pretty much ran my battery dead :( ) what could cause this? think water got into the ECU? or my little "alarm box" that i have laying on the ground? it rained really hard and a little bit of water got inside my car..i already cleaned it and dryed it off ( thank goodness i still had the vac i rented lol ) . Any ideas? at the moment i went to the autoshop and had them charge/test my battery...i will know the results if it is bad or good in about 10 mins.

well, it would take one ass load of water to bridge the switch in the steering wheel that operates the horn.

Is there any type of aftermarket alarm system installed in the car?

The switch on the steering wheel doesn't operate the horn... it controls the Horn relay (found in the CPU in the drivers kick panel).

Probably have a leaking door harness on the drivers door or leaking windsheild.

this box is the one that i picked up and water came out of it...

now when i connect the battery, the horn goes off.....and nothing else happens? isn't this the " factory alarm box" ..and if it is would it be connected directly to the horn? inwhich case wouldn't this be the culprit for my car not starting? ...

to clarify..when i say starting..i mean it does abolutely nothing...just the horn goes continously on....when i insert the key into the ignition nothing happens...nothing turns on at all...lights wont work, idiot cluster doesn't turn on...

That appears to be a 86-88 factory alarm.

and you probably have a dead battery as the factory alarm does not prevent the lights, or ignition from working. It only disables the starter and flashes the horn and lights.

But it won't prevent you from turning on the lights or the ignition.

dead battery will though

it's full...i got it charged and checked earlier today. and the horn doesn't flash sounds...instead it's just one continuous sound...it will keep making it till the battery dies too. could this box be messed up? i mean it did have water in it..i took it apart and noticed some white dusty looking marks where the solder points are...nothing wrong with the other side though. I dipped it in some alcohol over night ( long story about this ) hopefully it will work tomorrow.

Sure you put the battery back in correctly??? Neg terminal near the headlight, positive terminal near the shock tower.

and unplug the box. With it unplugged the factory alarm is bypassed

For a temporary fix I would say take out the room fuse, this will kill the alarm along with your interior lights.

hmm...the box can't be unplugged...atleast i can't see the plug...if you click on the pic you can see how the wires come out of the box and are connected going all the way into the dash. here is a closer pic.

numbers say FB67 67 790
maybe these can help someone identify this little box. just want to make sure that it is the " factory alarm box".

btw, car is a 10th aniv.

yes, it is the factory alarm box.

and you can unplug it by removing the glove box or the passengers side under panel, and reaching in and unplugging it.

but regardless... it is not your problem. Your battery or battery connections are as it does not have anything to do with things like your headlights not working. The only way it might even be the slightest bit related is that it appears that you have extra wires going in and out of it, which suggests that your wiring may have issues or there is other aftermarket equipment hacked in.

and your bump has been deleted. Bumps are forbidden in the 2nd gen tech section, and are considered rude anywhere when bumping in less than 24 hours.

update: got the car to finally start. i guess soaking the factory alarm box in alcohol over night worked. But it does seem like a have a short somewhere cause now my blinkers go berserk...they turn on and off by themselfs real quick. My "brake" light stays on even when my e brake is not engaged. Everything else works though..headlights, horn, windshield wipers.
the blinkers were not doing this before. If a fuse was out it wouldn't work at all correct? i think i'll have to take the switch out and check it.

The blinkers are controlled in the same box as the horn (the CPU), so you should still also check the CPU (in the drivers kick panel).

and check your brake fluid... it is probably low... low fluid will turn the "BRAKE" light on.

I once had a 1983 GTI... great on gas and kinda fun. However water leaked in after every rain, like a bucket load, and i never found were the problem was... Horn would go off when making a left turn (only on a left..?) fuses were always blown, wipers never worked, just wierd stuff.. at one point my car fired up by itself one night... :icon_tup: . It was pretty much the u-boat off of 'down parascope'. Haha, well good luck with your electrical gremlins.