Horn Upgrade --- DIY

Hi Guys,

I just installed the horns today on my Prius. It was not difficult but I have a bad back so bending over the engine compartment was not fun:

I had no idea the OEM horns were so small! Anyhow, on with the pictures. Because I am a worry-wort when it comes to the car, I questioned weather or not the new install would stand up to the elements. The install was not straight-forward because on the new horn, the connection clips did not face downwards. I had to remove a wire securing clip which attaches the wire to the bumper so that I would get more length to connect power to the horn.








So as you can see, I had to break off the tab holding the wire in place so that more length could be used to connect to the horn's terminal. I also filled one of the connectors with silicone since it was facing upward and could collect water.



Actually reading over some of the posts here, it looks like some have run into reliability issues with the connections. I will have to take off the emblem again in the future and start coating everything in silicone...lol.

 

^^ Couldn't you have just rotated the FIAMM horn so that the terminals would be reachable? Or move the ground wire to the terminal that's furthest from the car's harness?

 

I could rotate the horn but then it would face upwards and possibly collect water. Tried moving the ground wire around too. It would just be simpler if they made it so that the terminals on all these horns faced downwards!

 

Gotcha. I just thought I'd ask because for me, the horn faces down and the harnesses still has a little bit of extra slack.

 

How did all of you manage to remove the front emblem so easily? Two screws my behind! That thing wouldn't budge. Are there some additional clips holding it in place?

 

Do you have the collision avoidance?

 

Nope. I do not.

 

then there's just two clips left & right.

 

Give it a nice lil nudge from inside.

VS980 4G ?

 

I started to remove the screws, then I figured it's not necessary.

 

Yeah I see exactly the screws you're referring to. I took them both out. It still felt like it was held in by something else. I gave up. I didn't want to break some delicate plastic part by pushing too hard. I've done that enough times already...

 

Just did this Mod.

Used a pair of snips to cut loose the retaining clip under the horn on driver side to provide some slack in wiring harness.
Also on the right side of the hood latch is a bracket that is attached to the core support by two 10MM bolts. If you remove that it provides more room for the arm and also allows the use of a regular screwdriver in case you dont have a stubby or in my case could not find the stubby screwdriver

 

The OEM connector fit right over the terminal on mine, the second terminal or ground I just jumped back to the mounting bolt before I installed them.
with that jumper installed all I did was take the bolt out of the old one, put it in the new one and plug them back in.... done.

 

I'm in a 2014 Gen III (no V or C) with the DRCC. I had similar concerns but found the radar emitter is a separate box mounted behind the emblem. I was able to pull the emblem to do this without a problem.

 

Excellent instructions, though I deviated a bit.

1. I used the El Grande horn set instead of the two separate ones.
2. I found it easier to remove the entire mount and use the mounting brackets that came with the replacement horns (had more trouble trying to get the stock horn off of the bracket than removing the entire assembly from the mount). The screw into the horn just wouldn't budge.

Once I got them out, my first thought was "man these stock things are dinky!"

Thanks!

 

Sorry for noob question.

I would appreciate on some basic clarification. I seePIAA 85122 are rated 115db @ 500hz and 600hz, I saw Napa BK 7301056 and BK 7301057 horns rated at 130 db 420 and 500HZ,, which will sound more louder if lower db and higher hz or higher db and lower hz will sound louder?
thanks again.

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx?R=BK_7301056_0351810309

http://www.napaonline.com/Catalog/CatalogItemDetail.aspx/Horn/_/R-BK_7301057_0351816889

 

napa is exaggerating/
this kind of horn doesn't get so loud/

edit: I see that the measure at a distance of 4 inches..... just stupid/

 

I have the FIAMM horns from NAPA, because at the time, Amazon had one of the horns marked as not being able to ship to Hawaii.

They work well, and are pretty loud. They are going to be muted a little because they are mounted with the horn openings pointed downward, and the grills, etc will block some sound.

I wouldn't put much stock into the difference in rated sound pressure levels claimed.

 

Thanks for reply back, are these any better than the stock ones, any significant difference over the stock ones.

With stock ones, nobody seems to taking me seriously though .
I am going to have some one install them for me, guessing when I get work done my front bumper, they might be able to swap these out