Why was the 944 designed this way? (horn related)
 

The horn only works when the car is running. Not to be confused with "in accessory position" but only when the engine is on and running. Now, it turns out that circuit for the horn is grounding through the steering shaft down to the crossmember. That's all fine and dandy too. To each his own when designing a car. but why would they only grant this circuit permission to ground when the car is running? We can't figure it out.

Thoughts?

i think mine honks as long as the key is in the 'on' position... car running or not...

i was thinking the same thing.......

Ditto, if the key is in the "run" position, the horn works.

Makes sense to me though. Why would you ever need the horn when the engine's off? Same with the lights. The 944 series (and my 914) both turn the headlights off when you remove the key, leaving only the parking lights on. Makes perfect sense to me.

I actually wish even the parking lights wouldn't stay on when you shut the car off, like my Subaru. That's a handy feature to prevent you from accidentally leaving your lights on.

It's really easy to leave your parking lights on in the 944, because the dash lights are relatively dim.

I gotta attack my horn in my car. It's kinda making a waving noise. Are there two horns that make two frequencies in the 944?

Interesting...

My VW turns the headlights off (and leaves the parking lights on) when the engine is off and the key's in the accessory position but the horn still works.

In the casee of my 944, the horn only works when the car is running. Are you suggesting this is not the way it should be?? I wanna know so I can fix it if indeed my car is backwards.

Also, in case of a stall, the horn should work just fine when the car is off. That is why I'm confused about the whole thing.

The horn should work when the key is in the "run" position. Note that "Run" is NOT the same as "Accessory".

The key has three stops and four positions in the following order:

1 - Off
2 - Accessory
3 - Run
4 - Start (key will not stay here, but will bounce back to "Run" when released)

The horn will not work with the key in the "Accessory" position, only with the key in the "Run" position. It should have nothing at all to do with whether the engine is running, only the position of the key. Turn the key to the "Run" position without starting the engine. The horn will work then.

Ooooh. Interesting. I shall try this.

or, on early cars, the 'accessory' position is accomplished simply by inserting the key.
one click forward is run
and one more click forward is 'start'

His car is an '86. The key will work as I described.

i realize that, i was stating the early information just for information, if someone searches.

My fault, sorry. SmileWavy

i wasn't clear.. no worries

My horn works everytime a boom box Escalade drives buy - I hate that.

Yeah, mine too. I hate that crap almost as much as I hate the riced out Hondas with boom box stereos.

Good thing the 944 will have one of its own soon. ; )

Hah my headlights stay on if I had my radio on, in which case neither turn off with the key removed.

Something's wrong then. Because the radio should not work with the key out of the ignition. Sounds like somone did a hack-job on the stereo install.

having the horn only work with the key on is actually a pretty stupid design feature.

my winter car (a 1992 eagle talon) has this "feature".

I was over at my friends house one night. he has a buick rendezvous SUV, I was parked right behind him in my talon, he needed to leave so I went to move my car, I got in my car, he got in his SUV, he put it in reverse and smacked my car. I saw it coming, I tried to honk the horn but the key was still off so it didn't work, and the car got hit.

i dont think it's a stupid design feature, i think the stupidity in that situation falls directly on the shoulders of the person driving the rendezvous =P

Well I did my digging, and it turns out that, yes, the key needs to be in RUN position for it to honk. And it does. :)