My 01 cls has provided me with a pretty pleasurable owner experience for most of the 8 years I have owned her. Then today happened. The morning commute started out just like any other until three things happened all within a 1/2 hour of each other.

1) the horn stopped working? ( read the manual, didn't see anything for a fuse for the horn?)

2) about 20 minutes after the horn stopped working I restarted the car and now my gear shifter wont move from the parking gear. ( read the manual, found the over ride slot next to the gear shifter and got her into gear ). But I have to do this now every time I put her in park.

3) and last( hopefully) the cruise control wont work. I press the cruise control button to left of the steering wheel. The button lights up but the cruise control indicator on my dash does not light up and the cruise control will not work/set?

Any help with these problems would be greatly appreciated. It's been a tough day with all this stuff. I'm just hoping it's not as big of a problem as I think it could be. I got a 150k on her and I want to reach 200/250K but can't break the bank fixing her. Thanks for the help!!

 

there is a sensor which is attached to the breaks, when u press it, it disengages the safety (stops you from going into gear while you are supposed to be parked, supposing you were to accidentally hit it)

sounds definately like an electrical problem. 2 of them are in the steering wheel wires. If you take the steering wheel off you "may" visually see a frayed wire or two. Cause everything runs through one coil of wires which go around the steering wheel hub. I find it very odd how you lose the horn and the cruise control.

Also the wiring for the switch which goes is also up under the dash..

Sounds like the problems could potentially be coming from the same vicinity.

If it's not in the wiring though it's in the components IE u need a new airbag (which comes with the horn), and then u need the cruise control buttons.

but the brake switch thingy... shouldn't fail imho.

 

When my gear selector locked up it was because I had a short in my break light. that could be somehow in the same group of harness to cause the horn to not work as well. Just an idea I could be wrong.

 

me too, i could be wrong. I'm no mechanic, it's merely my hypothesis

 

In addition to the above you may have a burned out brake light bulb. That's what used to cause the shift lock to lock up on my old Lincoln.

 

^ would they really make the CL like that tho?

thats wack

 

I love my six speed

 

1 & 2 are easy fixes.. Its the fuse, I can't specifically remember which one it is, but I think its a 10 or 15 amp fuse that is causing all of this.

I had a short in my 3rd brakelight. The rear window brake light was spliced into so power could be run to the spoiler. As I was tossing in my golf clubs one day, I accidentally pulled this splice apart and caused a short which led to the EXACT same issues you're having with 1 & 2. Did you do anything that you can think of that might have caused a short??

As for the cruise control, I'm not sure if that might also be from the same problem because I didn't use my cruise in the time between when I tossed my golf clubs in.

It may be as simple as a disconnected cable from the cruise control module under the hood.


This is all not an expensive fix, it will be as cheap as a couple of fuses from the auto parts store.

Good luck

 

Thanks everyone for there insight, much appreciated. I hoping it's some fuses. The only problem I cant find the horn listed in the glossary and don't have a clue which fuse it is? Any of you guys Know which bundle and number the fuse is that represents the horn?

 

There isn't a specific horn fuse and it is not the fuses under the hood. I think its one of the passenger side 10 amp fuses.. Just go out to the car and start pulling the 10 amp fuses and see if any of the fuses are busted. Shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes to find it.

 

doesn't sound like anything major and at least it's not your tranny. good luck

 

the fuse block covers have the function of the fuse on the back side of them. you can look on it and most likely figure it out pretty easily.

 

They are but he's right, there is nothing on the fuse cover that states horn fuse.

It's an obscure fuse that you wouldn't expect to be associated with the horn.

 

i pretty much had the same problems with my 01 CLS. The brake lights went out and i couldnt shift into any gear. That was solved with a new brake pressure switch thats located behind the brake pedal. $50 part from acura/honda. The horn and cruise control problem i had when i bought the car. I physically pulled and checked every fuse and relay and they were all good. Took it to the dealership because i didnt want to mess with the steering column or the air bag and the dealership told me i needed a new "cable reel". Cost me nearly $600 parts and labor, but i also needed my drivers side window motor replaced, so if you were to need the same things done as i did it would be less. Hope that helps.

Rocco

 

Thanks everyone for the help. I pulled all the fuses and did not find one blown. The rear high mount break light definitely had a blown bulb which i replaced but it did nothing as far as releasing the gear shifter. So it looks like like I'm off to bigger and more expensive fixes or fuck it no horn, cruise control and use a screw driver to get it into gear!

 

Wow that baffles me. So none of the fuses on the drivers or passenger side were blown. Also, you probably don't have any brake lights. So yes you can get it into gear, you'll have no horn or cruise control, but you'll also have no brake lights. That can't be a good thing.

 

I never even thought about the brake lights not working....That for sure is not a good thing. I'll check them when my wife gets home and let you know.

 

I have an '01 CL-S with same brake lock problem. Also at around 150K miles and I too want to drive her into the ground. A couple of months ago I kept seeing the brake warning light stay on after I disengaged the emergency brake. It was cold so I figured it might be getting frozen but I asked the dealer to check it out and they told me all my brake lights were out (I hadn't noticed); they were replaced and things were cool for a couple of months. Then about a week ago, could not get her in gear and had no brake lights. I checked all the fuses, found a blown 40AMP in the underhood box. I swapped that with another 40AMP non-essential (seat memory, etc.) fuse just to see if that would fix the brake lock problem. It did for 20 seconds until the brake light went out and the fuse blew again and the brake lock issue appeared again. Also immediately after that, the radio asked for the anti-theft code even though I never touched the battery or anything other than the fuse box! WTF?!! I took it to the dealer. They changed the fuses and found a bad bulb. They claim that is the problem. I am going to pick up the car later today but I highly doubt that's the issue.

Sounds like a short to me or blown switch somewhere in the brake circuit. They claim they checked for shorts/switches and found nothing/no codes. What do you guys think?

 

Thanks for all that useful info. I guess my biggest question is how much money have you spent trying to fix the problem? I'm just afraid to dump a ton of money into a car that has over 150k miles. Please keep us posted thanks.

 

^well so far I have spent zero with them on this problem. They generally don't charge me for stuff like bulbs and fuses.

 

btw, didn't mean to hijack your thread; I'll re-post separately. Just thought posters on this thread might have a better idea what was going on...

 

Can't much better then zero. I hope it's a easy fix. I have no interest in getting involved with any electrical problems because I can't imagine it being cheap.