Looking for tried-and-true advice on horns

ElGaspo

Member
Contributor
:
2007 Mazdaspeed3 GT
It's that time of the year to get some TLC done on my baby. I've searched and looked, but would like advice from ppl who have added or replaced the standard horn w/ an aftermarket, louder one.

There are so many choices that I thought it'd be best to ask the ppl who have actually had experience w/ this mod. If you could provide the names of the suppliers & who has the best deal, I'd be grateful. The louder the better...

Thanx in advance if you can help. (bow)
 
I just installed a Wolo (low) wired in series with the OEM horn. It sounds off rather nicely, and for a total cost of $20.00 and an hour of my time.
 
I just installed a Wolo (low) wired in series with the OEM horn. It sounds off rather nicely, and for a total cost of $20.00 and an hour of my time.
I did that, as well, but I let the original circuit drive the low side of a relay.
 
I just installed a Wolo (low) wired in series with the OEM horn. It sounds off rather nicely, and for a total cost of $20.00 and an hour of my time.

I did that, as well, but I let the original circuit drive the low side of a relay.

i think the Wolo low sounds like a good idea & i like the cost, too. but now i'm wondering what the difference is btw the 2 methods above pros & cons?:confused:
 
Employing the use of a relay is never wrong. My reasoning for not using one is that I don't think the electrical circuit of the horn will be over-taxed by my occasional short toot. If, on the other hand, I laid on the horn for 90 straight seconds at a time, I might pop the circuit breaker. My practice on driving is to pretend that I have no horn and no brakes, and I have no trouble yielding Right-of-Way. My horn is for emergency use only (Primarily).
 
I also threw a low-tone horn onto my car when I had the bumper off for something else, wired by piggybacking off the stock horn. It was incredibly easy, as the horn I used screwed right onto the car near the stock horn without any additional hardware.

Doesn't sound as cool as the Wolo Badboy Air horn I wired up on my old focus, but it's definitely better than the lone high-tone stocker...
 
The most common replacements that I've seen over several forums are:

Fiamm Freeway blasters. ~$15/horn ($30 for both high and low). You can do both, or just add the low tone to your stock horn (also made by Fiamm). I wouldn't say these are super loud, however they'll make it far more noticeable, and it will sound like it should have from the factory. You can make a Y-connector with about 8" of wire and several spade connectors and run both horns off of the stock wiring. I installed these and am perfectly happy with them.

Hella Supertones. ~$50-70. Disc-style lets you install in the grill, but will require a little more customization with installation. They are pretty loud, and sound great in person, however they do sound a little more..... electronic than other horns I've heard.

Wolo horns. ~$15-20/horn. Heard these on one horn and they sounded a lot like the Fiamm's I have. Install was similar, though the casing on the wolo's was a little more robust so it was a little tighter installing.

Stebel Nautilus compact dual tone air horn. ~$50. This is a dual tone air horn roughly the size of two cans of redbull. The overall sound isn't the deep tone you expect of air horns, but is very very loud. They're used a lot on motorcycles and I found a comment on one forum from a guy who was installing one on his bike before he rode home from work...... all his coworkers came outside to see why a train was going through the parking lot. Honestly if I were installing horns again I'd be putting one of these in. Another cool feature that some people have gotten is if installed directly to the stock wiring (vs. using the relay harness) it would go off as normal with the horn button, but when hitting lock twice for the confirmation beep the burst of power was so short that it didn't give the compressor enough time to fill and just gave a chirp instead of a full blast honk. However some people have installed it that way and still got the full blast, so it seems to be hit and miss.
 
FYI-

The Stebel Nautilus is EXACTLY like the Wolo BadBoy that you can buy at many auto parts stores. I had a BadBoy on my second Focus wired in with my stock electric horn and it sounded awesome.
 
i think the Wolo low sounds like a good idea & i like the cost, too. but now i'm wondering what the difference is btw the 2 methods above pros & cons?:confused:
Without a relay, the Wolo will blow the OEM horn fuse. It did on mine the first use. So now the original circuit drives the relay, and the relay switches a direct feed off the battery through a 25A fuse.
 
Back