Greeting Hunter and all. I think this will be a simple question for someone to answer: On a 1999 Montero, is there just one Relay that controls both the Starter and the Horn? My 1994 shop manual shows the starter relay being located I believe to the left hand side of the radio (I think you have to remove the radio to replace the relay).

This 99 Montero was having intermittent starting problems....sometimes just a "click" noise, and no cranking, other times it would start fine. The horns were working, but sounded pretty weak. Now the horns have stopped making noise. Is it possible that the only problem is that Relay that controls Starter and Horn?

Thanks for any input.

 

Well, we discovered that there is a Relay for the Horn, and another one for the Starter. Horn relay was up beside the battery, while starter relay is tucked behind the radio. Horns work now.

 

Hey StudebakerHawk, I was going to say that it is not likely that starter and horn would be on the same relay - they are just way too different systems. Glad you got it figured out. So, did it turn out that both of the relays were going bad? I wonder if the horn issue might be related to the horn button contacts inside the steering wheel. I've seen posts here about that issue before.

 

Hunter........Yep, you were thinking correctly......would not make good sense to combine Horn and Starter into one relay. Turned out that there are 2 horns (I think one is a high pitch, the other a bit lower), and one was unplugged. The other had some corrosion on the plug terminals and both worked fine after cleaning and plugging back in. Was alot easier removing the grill before tweeking on them.

A new starter/solenoid was installed and so far it is working fine.
By the way, on the 99 Montero, one must remove the exhaust system from the exhaust manifold in order to make room to access the top starter bolt. Not a good design. However, on my 1994 Monties, the cat/exhaust is not in the way.

 

I just want to clarify something in this post, which I just found out while working on another 94 Montero. The "Starter Relay" IS ONLY used on Montero's with a Manual Tranny. If you have an Auto Tranny, then there WILL NOT be a Starter Relay tucked away behind the radio as the shop manual shows.