My daughters ranger collided with a deer resulting in an airbag deployment and the horn was beeping. After a few minutes the horn stopped. I bought another airbag but before I replace it I have a question. Do I need to reset something (whatever sensor that set it off) so it does not redeploy when power is returned to it AND will the horn work properly when the new airbag is installed?

Thanks for the help guys.

Merc

 

Welcome to the forum

Year of Ranger is good to post, and engine size

Battery saver relay probably shut off the horn after 15-20min, if thats what you mean by "it went off after awhile"

Battery saver relay turns of most systems in case there is a drain, keyless entry and alarms are about the only systems with power after relay opens

So as long as the horn wire in the steering wheel is no longer shorted(horn button pushed in) then it should be fine.

Before installing air bag reconnect battery and test horn and cruise on/off
Horn should work key on or off
Cruise only works with key on

Horn wire usually connects to a plate(air bag sometimes) that is isolated from the lower back of steering wheel which is grounded, when you rock the plate it touches the grounded back plate so horn activates

Unhook battery before installing air bag, for sure

Depending on the year the horn "button" usually activates the Horn Relay, so wire in steering wheel is a GROUND wire, when closed it grounds the Horn Relay which activates the Horn.
Horn relay, if you have one, would be in the engine fuse box

And depending on the year there may be bumper sensors that need to be replaced, they activate air bag if collision is detected