Steering wheel horn contact noise

[icb]

Does anyone have any good tips to stop the brass horn contacts from squealing when the steering wheel is turned left? It only happens when going left, and usually happens only in colder weather. I had thought that a very light coat of dielectric grease on the brass track would do the trick, but sadly that isn't at all effective. This is on an air bag wheel...

[Tom]

That drove me nuts for a while. If memory serves I had to take the steering wheel off, then work to straighten the copper tang that makes contact with the copper ring. Both were scratched up from years of turning (probably debris got trapped in there too), so I cleaned off all the grease, sanded the ring and contacts with fine emery paper so there was nothing to catch and scratch, then re-greased with dielectric grease before putting the steering wheel back on.

[icb]

Thanks Tom. I'm going to give this a try, I hadn't considered sanding/re-surfacing the brass. But it makes a lot of sense. The pin is behaving like a violin string and the brass track the bow. Giving the surface a slightly rougher finish like a 600 or 800 should break up the vibration mode.

[nurtekin429]

Maybe use conductive grease like for battery terminals?

[icb]

Already tried that, no go. Thanks!