Prius v horn (is it really that weak?)

Ok, that's good to know. Thanks.

 

No. The OEM horns were not removed and replaced so you still hear the small beep. The pair of Hella's were added on separately.

 

I removed the OEM horns and the two tones mentioned were unaffected.

How does it sound with 4 horns? Probably overkill.

 

One can never have too many horns!

The Hella Supertones draw more amps than most OEM horns - I added a set of German-made Supertones to a "Toyota" (Lexus LS) back in the early 90's before production of the Supertones was shifted to India. My Supertones mainly "squeaked" without a relay that triggered direct power from the battery. I actually thought the Supertones sounded too obnoxious to use and removed them but that was back when cell phones were rare and people weren't driving while texting and playing on the Internet.

I sure recommend always using an extra relay when adding horns to ensure maximum volume and that the horn circuit is not overloaded. Maybe it was coincidence but a steering wheel horn pad on one of our cars failed within two weeks after I thought I could get away with adding extra horns without using a relay. The best price for a new replacement horn pad / air bag assembly was over $2,000 -- I was lucky to get one for about $500 from a salvage company.

It's not on a Prius but but here is a photo showing the original Toyota horns and two extra Toyota horns I added to my daily driver using a horn relay I bought at Advance Auto and powered from a terminal on the engine compartment fusebox.

 

OP- I installed Hella Supertones. The Plug In has a super quiet city horn, and I figured I'd replace them before something like this happened. The red enclosures peeking out both of the grills looks great as well

 

And for those who prefer to hide their Supertone horns, their grills are easy to remove, paint and replace. I spray painted mine black.

 

Okay the horn update is done. High and low tone FIAMM Freeway Blasters from Amazon have been installed in my Prius v. Took about an hour, but only because I installed the right one on the left side before realizing the spades on the remaining horn were pointing the wrong way. *sigh*. But the instructions were spot on. Thanks so much for the help!