2002 VLX Horn and Nav Lights inop at same time

[bwesty]

The Horn and both navigation lights died the other day at the same time. After checking the connections which involved also wiggling the wires under the dash, the horn and Navigation lights started working again. Fast forward to the next day and they do not work again. Hmmmm?? The horn is on the 20 amp ignition circuit breaker. Any idea? Thanks 

[justgary]

Ummm, you have a bad connection under the dash.

Your boat is old enough that things have vibrated loose and gotten cruddy.  Flop under the dash and clean every connection and then make sure they are all tight.  This should include both the positive and ground connections.  Yes, you might have a lot of them to do, but it is the single best thing you can do to get everything running correctly again, and it's free!

[bwesty]

Justgary-Thanks for the reply. All 3 rocker/toggle switches (horn, nav, nav) died at the same time, then worked momentarily, then died again. If it was any 1 of them, I would say clean the connections. I was trying to find out if all 3 rocker switches were powered by the same relay or connection hidden up in the wire bundle. Would all 3 die at the same time if it were a lose connection on just 1 rocker? Thanks 

[justgary]

I hate to say it this way, and I'm not being overly sarcastic, but if you actually lay on the floor of the boat and stick your head under the dash, you may find the answer to your question. 

I think you will find that the power is daisy-chained along the entire row of switches.  The grounds for sure are daisy-chained.  Any time you have a situation where wiggling wires under the dash changes anything, it's time to clean and tighten the connections. 

Besides, did I mention that doing it is free, and just might solve the problem?  It sure beats throwing a bunch of parts at it, only to discover a loose wire as you change things out. 

[formulaben]

On 8/21/2019 at 5:11 PM, justgary said:

I think you will find that the power is daisy-chained along the entire row of switches.  The grounds for sure are daisy-chained.

@justgary is correct, clean and tighten the connections.  Follow the numerous black wires to the grounding block.  Get a long Phillips screwdriver and see if any of the grounds are loose by re-tightening them.  I'll bet you may be surprised at how loose some those are.