Fish Muffin

So I was sitting at home about to go to bed (1 am) when I hear a beeping sound. I go to investigate it only to find that my 99 Cherokee Classic's horn is blaring in the middle of the night.

I got in, turned the car on and basically just started slamming the horn, and it eventually cut off. pulled out of the driveway, the horn came back on again, and the engine died. I noticed the RPMs dip down to ~1000 or less when i let off the gas (i think, not sure), eventually it just stalled or died or whatever. Im sorry, Im not very knowledgeable with cars so Im not very sure. Im not certain, but I might have seen smoke coming out of the engine, but it could have just been exhaust from backing up, Im not sure.

anyways, I ran back in the house, grabbed some pliers, open up the relay box and just started ripping out fuses until I found the horn (its the big red one).





also the blinkers havent been working this week, but im assuming I just need a new blinker relay (if I smack the trim under the steering coulmn that covers the relay, the blinkers work a few clicks)

Im a poor college student so Im hoping this is just a short circuit or something? It was raining.

steven72192

Sounds like the crazy electrical problems I was having. I have a few questions have you taken your jeep off-roading latley? Second any start up issues? And third any other problems with lights!

Fish Muffin

I haven't done any off roading, although I did hit a pretty big puddle several days ago. No startup issues. No problems with the lights besides the blinkers.

Fish Muffin

Okay, I drove the jeep home this morning.
I put all the fuses back in and thankfully the horn was no longer going

Started the car, but it didn't want to start right away
Check engine light was on
Maybe a third of the time, if I let off the gas, the engine would cut out. RPMs would just drop and the engine would die. Thankfully I was pretty close to home, so the drive was short.
Voltage looked good according to the dash

As for the horn, my mechanic guy thinks it's probably the button with the airbag, but i'm not so sure that would cause the engine issues. I think I might just get the horn button disabled and get a button I can stick somewhere on the dash or something. Or just disable it completely and stick with hand gestures.

steven72192

My 98 was having a lot if weird electrical and drive ability issues after I went wheeling turns out it was the fuse box by the passenger kick panel check yours as for the horn it may be a relay or the fuse box as well my jeep was doing a lot of really crazy things so check the connections for corrosion and let me know what you find