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Thread: My Horn Is Terrible - Here's how I made it better.

  1. #1
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    My Horn Is Terrible - Here's how I made it better.

    We all know what our horns sound like. And it seems to me, here where I live, that it gets largely ignored.

    So I decided to fix that. And I took pictures. For this job, you will need a 10mm and a 12mm wrench.

    First, we pop the hood on our mirage. Head to the belt end of the engine.



    The horn is immediately in front of the A/C compressor, on a bracket mounted to the radiator support.



    Unplug the wire. It uses a squeeze tab. Once you unplug it, remove the 10mm nut. The threads may be a bit gunked up, and you'll not be able to unscrew the nut with your fingers once you have it loose. You'll need the wrench.

    It looks like this. Isn't it cute?



    This is what I replaced it with. $21 at autozone. This is the "low tone" horn. It's quite loud.



    You will find that the bracket on the car doesn't have a big enough hole for this horn. You can either drill it out, or use the brackets that came with the horn. To remove the bracket, you will need a 12mm wrench. The bolt is on the front of the radiator support. Be careful not to hit the A/C line with the wrench.

    Once you have your bracket drilled or replaced, it's time to put the new horn on. The factory horn grounds out through the mounting stud. This new horn has two terminals. It came with a wire that had a spade connector on one end and a ring connector on the other.



    Put the horn down in the spot the old one came from. Plug in the other wire.




    Enjoy your new, better sounding horn.



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    Nice write up. Thanks!
    Custom Mirage products: Cruise control kit, Glove box light, MAF sensor housing, Rear sway bar, Upper grill block

    Current project: DIY Nitrous oxide setup for ~$100

        __________________________________________

        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2015 Mirage DE 1.2 manual: 47.2 mpg (US) ... 20.1 km/L ... 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.7 mpg (Imp)


  4. #3
    We need a YouTube before/after.

    Just kidding - thanks for the DIY.

    Added to the Mirage modifications/customizations list!

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 63.2 mpg (US) ... 26.9 km/L ... 3.7 L/100 km ... 75.9 mpg (Imp)


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    Thanks for the tutorial. However I have a few questions.
    I followed your instructions to the letter. I even got the same new horn from auto zone. I however cannot get it to work. Did you swap out the horn control unit? Or the fuse?

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    Quote Originally Posted by kronosboy35 View Post
    Thanks for the tutorial. However I have a few questions.
    I followed your instructions to the letter. I even got the same new horn from auto zone. I however cannot get it to work. Did you swap out the horn control unit? Or the fuse?

    You may have the wires crossed, or it could be a bad horn. Remove the horn and try to get it to sound by hooking power from the battery right to the horn. If it blows and scares you, then it's good and the wires were probably backwards. If it doesn't work, take it back and get another one.

    If it still doesn't work after all of the above, post on here and I will walk you through the troubleshooting steps to find out what is going on.



    Replacing my horn is a job that I too plan to tackle pretty soon. Although, I am debating on the way the OP took, or installing an air horn like I had on my old scooter.

    http://vid8.photobucket.com/albums/a...psea2ae992.mp4
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    Name:  mkab7l.jpg
Views: 10489
Size:  89.5 KB

    I put these in every car I build as one of the first upgrades. Hella supertone grill mount horns, they have a low and high tone horn and they mount in your grill, they are 7 times louder than any factory horn so they will hear you for sure, plus they look awesome behind your grill

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    Uber Mirage alex16's Avatar
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    Those look hella loud!


    Had to do it lol.

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 44.8 mpg (US) ... 19.1 km/L ... 5.2 L/100 km ... 53.9 mpg (Imp)


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    Quote Originally Posted by Messy Mitsu View Post
    Name:  mkab7l.jpg
Views: 10489
Size:  89.5 KB

    I put these in every car I build as one of the first upgrades. Hella supertone grill mount horns, they have a low and high tone horn and they mount in your grill, they are 7 times louder than any factory horn so they will hear you for sure, plus they look awesome behind your grill

    Hey, I like those.

    I tried to mount a WOLO Bad Boy horn in the stock location, but it wouldn't *quite* fit. It would have been great, I have one on my 1400 Intruder and it gets everyone's attention.

    Kronosboy, You may check to see if you have a good horn. It shouldn't matter which directions the wires are attached - the way the horn works is by engergizing a small electromagnet, which causes a diaphragm to move, which hits a switch, which makes the diaphragm drop back, causing it to energize again... really, really fast. I may have the specifics wrong, but the way they are made mean that polarity doesn't matter.

    Did you bump the wires while you had the horn out? Check the fuse.

  11. #9
    Messy Mitsu: those look awesome. Need to hear a comparison of stock vs. aftermarket... do a YouTube vid!

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        click to view fuel log View my fuel log 2014 Mirage ES 1.2 manual: 63.2 mpg (US) ... 26.9 km/L ... 3.7 L/100 km ... 75.9 mpg (Imp)


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    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWm2PgAQE7E not my video but it shows a good vs stock comparison. they are about 100$ on ebay, sickspeed also sells the same thing but different colors but they sell the wiring kit seperately





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