Crappy horn...
 

Who else thinks the horn on Pros are too high pitched. It sounds more like a chirpy beep than a honk to me.

I remember when I got my car, and my parents heard it, they were like "What the hell is that? Is your horn going bad?" Even some of my friends have made fun of how it sounds. I want to change it.

Has anyone changed it? And if so... What did you get? How did it sound?

we have gone down this road before....and I agree with you about our wimpy horn....a good replace ment is the FIAMM twin horns....with its own little air compressor.....it WILL get someones attention.

:{D

I agree. But that is basically all Japanese horns. I changed mine and went with the Hella air horns. They work really great. It is funny when you honk at somebody and you scare the sh!t out of them because they don't excpect it from a little Japanese car.

I'm strongly thinking about replacing my horn as well. It gets ignored, which is scary. I've been looking at FIAMM's site, and the 'El Grande' series looks good (not to mention the cool name), but they don't have a sound sample. Air horns are loud, but I don't care for the way they look. I'd love to have something that just bolts in, in place of the stock horns. Anyone have any suggestions?

I never had this problem with my TransAm;)

one of the drawbacks to just replacing the horn with a better sounding one is that the Proteges only come with one horn unit. The best sounding horns (like those on the Italian sports cars) use two units, one with a low tone and one with a high.

I replaced my horn with a FIAMM set (just had to find a bolt to mount the second one to) and they sound better. But, these units are built like the originals and not like a "horn"... I would like to have with something a deeper sound... they are still to high pitched for my liking. Next time I have reason to pull the grill off I'll likely replace them.

I've got dual Hella mini-horns (not full air horns) that are not too big.
But I haven't installed them yet. I was going to put them on my SE-R but didn't end up doing it before I sold it. I think they were 28 bucks online.

I think I'll install them this weekend. Should at least sound a lot
better than stock, and a little more Zuffhausen.

I bought a low-note horn at Autozone for under $15.00 and put that in parallel to my stock horn (using same bolt). Now, when using the horns, it is loud and I get everyone's attention (low and high-stock horn) sounding. That or it is so obnocious to everyone they look. It has helped me though!

- Brian

I agree about the wussy horn...noone takes it seriously. I put Fiamms on another car years ago. Liked the sound but hated the delay while the compresser built up pressure---say half a second. That half second delay can be important! Anybody else notice this or is it just me?

So it seems it´s either Hella or FIAMM...

Anyone know what BMWs have under the hood? I have noticed that BMWs sound pretty good (At least the previous generation of the 3 series does).

I also found this site with sound samples of some horns.

The horn does sound like crap, but what everyone needs is a huge foghorn for their Protege it will get you noticed

You can take the ones off of a big rig :D . That'll get someone's attention. And yeah, all Japanese car horns sound weak.

It's not so much the sound of the horn that is the problem for me...it is the fact that I have to really 'lean into' the steering wheel to get the horn to make any sound at all! Does anyone else have problems with their steering wheel?

yes, I really do have to mash the contact points for the horn to sound... no giving a friendly "beep" at someone you know...

My father-in-law actually did that... he has a transportation business, and own several big rigs.

He took the horn off one of them, and installed it in one of his cars. It was funny as hell to get behind people and see their reaction to it. :D :D

But I saw the horn... it´s huge. He said he would let me have it if I wanted it... but it wouldn´t fit under the hood of a Pro.



I don´t have this problem. All I have to do is lightly tap on it with one finger to make it beep.

Types of horns
 

There are 3 types of horns that I know of:
1. Electric Disc type - Euro sounding "beeep" (our stock is this type). It's disc shaped.

2. Electric Horn type - American sounding "baaah" (sounds kinda like trumpet). There's usually a square bell shaped opening.

3. Air Horn - slight compressor delay (sounds like a boat, or an antique car). It goes "fwaaaaaang". These look like long bugles.

FYI: You need to break-in the horn pad on your steering wheel to soften up the spring. Don't go wake up the neighborhood. Just use it more often than you normally do.

I have the FIAMM disc type. It's difficult to stand even 3 feet in the front of my car without covering your ears because they will get hurt and will ring for a while. I got blasted by accident during the install and the ringing didn't go away for a whole day. I completely underestimated the loudness.

I do like having a hi-lo sound in parallel because it sounds more pleasant, but having one sounded loud enough and I didn't want to tax the wiring. I think these discs draw about 4 Amps. The stock wiring seems kinda weak (18 gauge I think) to sustain 2 horns going off for a long time (for emergencies) without burning up.