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Boy, do we have an embarrassing problem. My husband's 1997 Nissan pickup's horn honks every time the steering wheel is turned. There is no telling how many arguments he has started between husbands and wives in cars in front of him. The problem started with a clunking in the steering wheel and progressed to the honk, which sometimes will not quit until you bang on the steering wheel. We are at our wits' end as to what to do. -- Jackie

TOM: And in all this time that you've been ticking off your entire community, it never occurred to you to take it somewhere and have a mechanic look at it?

RAY: Well, that's what we're going to recommend now. There are three likely possibilities. One is that the horn contact -- the horn button itself -- has come loose and is floating around in your horn pad.

TOM: We don't recommend that you remove the horn pad yourself, since that also houses the air bag. And unless you want to end up with the word "NISSAN" embossed backward on your forehead, you might want to have someone else handle it.

RAY: It can be done safely if you disconnect the battery and allow the air bag to power down for a while before disturbing it. But, like I said, we don't recommend that civilians try this at home without full body armor.

TOM: If the problem is not right there under the horn pad, then someone will have to pull off the steering wheel and figure out if the problem is in the multi-function switch or the steering column wiring.

RAY: In the worst-case scenario, it could end up costing you a few hundred bucks, which isn't cheap. But think about the benefits: You'll be able to drive to church on Sundays without everybody making rude hand gestures at you.

Dear Tom and Ray:

Love the column, hate that I now have a reason to write to you myself! I have a 2001 BMW 325xi, which I have serviced regularly at a local independent BMW mechanic (and I do mean regularly -- that stupid car always has some "little" $400 thing wrong with it). The shop came highly recommended, and I've never had reason to question that. But then ... last week, the coolant light came on. I took it in to get it topped off. They told me my water pump needed to be replaced, so I did it -- $450. Two days later, while idling in a parking lot, the car went boom! The shop now tells me that the coolant expansion tank blew, and that it's not related to the work they just did. That was $600. Now I'm thinking, wait a minute: No problems with the cooling system for seven years, then two in two days? But the shop says there's no connection, that they see this fairly frequently on BMWs after they hit about five years old, that they pressure-tested the system after they finished and that there were no problems. Sounds reasonable, and they're going to cut some of the labor costs for the second repair. But I have no mechanical knowledge to know if they're legit or just blowing smoke (like my car). So, which one's the lemon -- the car, or the mechanic? (Please tell me it's the car -- that's a lot easier to replace.) -- Laura

RAY: I don't think this is necessarily a crisis of car or mechanic, Laura. The most common reason a coolant expansion bottle explodes is because the car overheats.

TOM: And it's possible that the overheating was your mechanic's fault. That may be why they're eating some of the labor cost -- guilt. Or maybe you're just cute.

RAY: If they didn't bleed the cooling system correctly after replacing the water pump, they could have left air in it. Air doesn't do nearly as good a job of cooling the engine as coolant does. That could have led the engine to overheat and blow up the expansion tank.

TOM: But that's not necessarily what happened. Your thermostat could have gotten stuck after the water pump was replaced -- just a coincidence. Or the thermostat may have been the reason the coolant light came on in the first place, and they just happened to notice that your water pump was leaking and assumed that was the issue.

RAY: The worst-case scenario is that all of this overheating is due to something like a blown head gasket. But we rarely see head gaskets fail on these cars. On the other hand, we do see a cracked cylinder head every so often. Hmm.

TOM: Here's what I'd do, Laura. Keep an eye on the temperature gauge for the next few weeks. If it's normal, I think you're all set.

RAY: But if you notice that the engine is running hotter than usual, take it back and ask your guy to investigate a little further. And if nothing else, have him throw in a new thermostat, which is cheap.

TOM: But I wouldn't give up on him or the car over this. Look at it from his perspective: You've been a very good customer for him. Why would he risk losing your business over a few hundred bucks when, during the next 10 years, you could be worth a 28-foot Sportfisher to him?

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