DIY Horn Upgrade Mod - Updated Jan 12

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OrientExpress

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Messages
1,651
Location
San Jose, Ca
UPDATE JAN 12 - Revised instructions for dealing with the coolant overflow tank. Clarified horn wiring.
UPDATE - added instructions for access from under the car, and a video of before and after.

I don't know what it is with the horns on Hybrids and other Eco cars. They all seem to have horns that were designed by Droopy Dawg. For me that just does not work, I want a horn that shouts respect when I am in the Slow lane and someone tries to mix it up with me!

In the past my weapon of choice has been the 118db Hella SuperTone Twin Horn Kit. These bad boys will make a dead person jump!

But at the recommendation of several of my Leaf owner friends, I decided to try the FIAMM 74100 El Grande - Twin Horns. At $16.60, they are a real value, they sound like my old 68 Buick, blast at 110db, and have a real tone of refinement. These horns are PnP, and don't need a relay to operate.

Replacing the stock horn is relatively easy, you can do it from the top of the car or from the bottom, I chose to go in from the top which I think is easiest, and here is how I did it. If you want to install some horns too, go for it, but if you screw something up, it's on you!

First off make sure the car is off, and in a comfortable place to work.

Accessing the Horn from the top of the car
Next open the hood and remove the front bezel that covers the radiators. It is held in with way too many pop fasteners, but they are easily removable with a small screwdriver to pry them up.

leafhorn02.jpg


You are going to be working in the area in the front where the windshield washer fluid container neck and the coolant overflow tank is.

If you look down into the car where the coolant overflow tank is you can see the stock horn.

leafhorn03.jpg


To easily get at the horn, you need to get the coolant overflow tank out of the way.

leafhorn04.jpg


It is held in with 2 bolts, and has 2 small hoses at the bottom of the tank that go to the 2 coolant systems in the car. Make sure that the cap is on the tank tightly, and simply remove the two bolts and lift the tank up and rest in on the crossmember bar as shown.

leafhorn16.jpg


Now you have plenty of room to get at the old horn and to install the new ones.

leafhorn05.jpg


Accessing the horn from under the car - Thanks to Tony Williams for use of his underside photos

This requires you to crawl under the car to remove the front underbody panel. This is probably best done by driving the car up on ramps, putting the car on jack stands, or on a lift. Use extreme car when working under the car, make sure that the parking brake is set, and that your lifting method is secure. Proceed at your own risk.

leafhorn11.jpg


The underbody panel is made of some sort of soft lightweight material and is there primarily for aerodynamic reasons. It is fastened to the body with 6 10mm bolts and 6 pop fasteners. Note the 2 front outside bolts are longer than the rest and do not have philips screw heads.

leafhorn12.jpg

leafhorn13.jpg


After you get the cover removed, the horn is accessible. Note from this view you can see the bottom of the coolant overflow tank.

leafhorn14.jpg



The stock horn is held on a short bracket that is bolted to the center brace with a 12mm bolt. Take out the horn and bracket, and disconnect the power and ground leads.

The new horn assembly had to brackets to hold them apart, bolt the brackets and a ground lug to the horns securely. A good idea is to add a drop of Loctite to the horn bolts. Make sure that when you install your horns, that they are pointing DOWN, so they don't collect water.

TIP: Stick a piece of masking tape in the 12mm socket that you are using to tighten down the horn bracket bolt. This will help prevent you dropping the bolt and it getting stuck under the radiator crossmember and the belly pan. If you do drop the bolt you can use a magnetic reaching stick to fish it out, or pop a few of the belly pan fasteners along the corner of the pan and reach in and retrieve the bolt. Either way is a pain, so be careful!

IMPORTANT: Make sure you do not have the horn wiring crimped under the horn bracket before you tighten down the bracket. If you crimp the wiring you may short out the horn circuit and blow the horn fuse.

leafhorn07.jpg


To wire up the new horns to the existing wiring, I made a short pigtail for the power lead. The stock ground line goes to the ground lug that is bolted to the horn bracket.

leafhorn08.jpg


Make sure that that the single power lug (which plugs into the existing horn power connector) is a male blade.

Now you are ready to install the new horn assembly. The two horns and their brackets get bolted to the original horn bracket, and that in-turn gets bolted to the car's center brace. Connect your power and ground wires to the power pigtail and to the ground lug respectively.

IMPORTANT: The power lead (the one that you connect the pigtail to) is the SHORTER cable. The ground wire is the LONGER cable. Don't mix them up or you will blow the horn fuse!

I stuck a piece of shrink tubing over the power connector to pigtail connection, just to make sure there was no chance of shorting. I would highly recommend this.

leafhorn09.jpg


leafhorn10.jpg


Give your new horns a try, and if they work, then reinstall the coolant overflow tank, and the top cover, and you are done!

Enjoy! For me this was the best $16.50 and hour of my time that I have spent all week!

They sound great. Get a pair and see for yourself!

Here is a short video of before and after, Credit: mwalsh:

"Horns before and after"
 
Or you can just take off the bottom cover in a couple minutes and have direct access to the horns without removing the washer fluid. Took me 5 minutes.
 
EVDRIVER said:
Or you can just take off the bottom cover in a couple minutes and have direct access to the horns without removing the washer fluid. Took me 5 minutes.

Yeah that is the other way of doing it. I did't feel like being on my back to do it, but in the end either method works just fine.
 
Thanks for the great DIY thread plus pics. It's easy to say "do it this way", but to take the time to post step-by-step pics is fantastic! :mrgreen:
 
Nice thread! I am losing track of all the different horns/LEDs people are using. We need a Mods category for all this stuff so we can keep it straight.
 
Good job, great pics, good directions!

The removal of the coolant hoses gives me pause, though. I'd be concerned about introducing air bubbles into the coolant lines. How do you avoid the air gap between the clamp on the hose and hose's end when pushing the hose back onto the fitting?
 
aqn said:
Good job, great pics, good directions!

The removal of the coolant hoses gives me pause, though. I'd be concerned about introducing air bubbles into the coolant lines. How do you avoid the air gap between the clamp on the hose and hose's end when pushing the hose back onto the fitting?

Air is not an issue, because the overflow tank is on the unpressurized side of the coolant system(s).
 
If you do not have two clamps, two plugs might be suitable. The clamp-end of a drill bit might work.

If you open the Filler Reservoir lids, the fluid in the "overflow" lines should run down, almost completely, into the Expansion Tank, right?

The "bubble" will either be pushed into the Expansion Tank, or will be "sucked" back into the fluid Reservoir. In either case, it should not cause a problem.

I assume that without raising the car's front end (jacks or ramps), that working under the front end requires somebody MUCH thinner than I am. :D
 
TonyWilliams said:
My Stebel Nautilus air horn just arrived at my front door from Twisted Throttle.

Looking forward to putting that on the car in the morning.


I assume you bought the louder and better auto model not the compact moto version which is not the same output and tone? This horn will require the addition of a relay and power feed so you can't just use the factory wires.
 
I still like the horn pair I used when I did my upgrade. Doesn't need an extra relay, is easy to install, and has a great, commanding sound. Some have used the 400/500 Hz. version instead, liking the deeper sound...

http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=3218&hilit=horny
 
Maybe we can get a volunteer to have their car converted from below when the SF BayLEAFs meet at Luscious Garage on June 4th? I'm game if I can figure out a charging strategy for getting home (53 miles one way).
 
I did this today. I bought these for $20 from Checkers:
http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/WLO0/3202T.oap?keyword=horn&pt=N0206&ppt=C0107

My horns each had their own power and ground male faston connections. It also came with short jumpers that you could ground one terminal to the mounting screw. I used those but I also wanted to connect the OEM ground... so I remove the Faston tab from the OEM horn's ground and put it on the bracket of one of the horns which allowed me to connect the OEM ground to the horn's bracket. I had to drill out the hole in the tab slightly.

I did go in from the top ( I was lazy and didn't want to go under the car), but I didn't remove the reservoir. I unbolted it and flipped it to on top of the radiator support. No need to remove the hoses.

I bolted the two horn brackets directly to the main bolt, not to the OEM horn bracket. i.e. I removed the OEM horn and bracket. I felt the bracket(s) would be flapping in the wind too much. Though I'll say the brackets in the OP's pictures look much better than the ones that came with my kit. That still doesn't change the fact that the OEM horn bracket is pretty flimsy.

The most interesting thing to me was that the horn is NOT used for the noise that gets made when you press the keyfob lock button. I was expecting the noise to change but apparently there's yet another horn somewhere that makes the muted sneeze sound.
 
The most interesting thing to me was that the horn is NOT used for the noise that gets made when you press the keyfob lock button. I was expecting the noise to change but apparently there's yet another horn somewhere that makes the muted sneeze sound.

Yeah, the alarm has its own horn which is up in one of the fender wells. The logic is that its placement is to thwart someone from disabling the alarm.

It is interesting that the Fiamm and the Wolo horns look almost identical.
 
EVDRIVER said:
TonyWilliams said:
My Stebel Nautilus air horn just arrived at my front door from Twisted Throttle.

Looking forward to putting that on the car in the morning.


I assume you bought the louder and better auto model not the compact moto version which is not the same output and tone? This horn will require the addition of a relay and power feed so you can't just use the factory wires.
Interestingly, the Nautilus Compact is listed as having a lower "absorbed current", whatever that means, of 9A at 24V versus the Nautilus' 18A at 24V, yet puts out 139 dB versus the Nautilus' 115 dB.

(The stock horn is on a 10A fuse.)
 
EVDRIVER said:
I assume you bought the louder and better auto model not the compact moto version which is not the same output and tone? This horn will require the addition of a relay and power feed so you can't just use the factory wires.


I got the motorcycle version, because I may use it on my motorcycle.

Of course, I do use the factory wires. They turn the (supplied) relay on and off. Easy. I'll do a video on the install.

Tony
 
OrientExpress said:
EVDRIVER said:
Or you can just take off the bottom cover in a couple minutes and have direct access to the horns without removing the washer fluid. Took me 5 minutes.

Yeah that is the other way of doing it. I did't feel like being on my back to do it, but in the end either method works just fine.
-----------------------
"OrientExpress"-

Thanks for the nice install thread. I haven't had a chance to install mine yet :cry:
Excellent job :mrgreen:
 
I suggest using recycled parts. Horns can be found in salvage yards for a few dollars and some effort. Find the model you like and unbolt them. Most salvage yards also sell batteries, use them to test the horns before you buy. Mercedes Benz have nice ones and they have the frequency stamped on them.
 
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