V70 Body/Trim: Horn upgrade.

[ShadeTek]

I knew for a few years that one of my horns was not working and recently I took the grill of to see if I could fix it. I found the connector on one of the horns was disconnected. I re-connected and it was a bit intermittent but I re-tuned the horn using the screw on the rear and it worked, shall we say, less intermittently. I still think that the dual horns are a bit lame so I am thinking that some air-horns are needed. Does anyone know if the horn relay is heavy enough to take the current of an air-horn compressor?

[sparkeysteve]

i wouldn't use the vehicles own wiring for air horns,
best to use a relay with battery positive fused feed then use vehicle horn wiring to activate the relay, this way there will be no issues

[Simon Jones]

I fitted a steibel nautilus air horn to an XC70 and it certainly let's anyone in your way know you're coming . Easy to wire in a seperate relay from the existing feed to ensure you don't overload anything.

[Bill_56]

The only purpose of the horn is to alert other vehicles of your presence. Unless you are driving an ocean liner in dense fog, why would you need anything more than standard equipment?

And what about when a legitimate need for a polite beep of the horn arises. Such as approaching a blind bend on a rural single track road and you think there is nothing coming the other way, but want to beep in case you are wrong, would you not feel embarassed about annoying half a county?

Or worse, to avoid annoying people nearby, would you maybe be hesitant to use the horn when you should, thereby potentially contributing to an accident?

[Simon Jones]

A number of road users seem blind to the presence of 2 tonnes of Volvo with dipped beam on approaching them so perhaps the additional audible stimulation might encourage them to stop texting and look where they're going.

[PE11AND]

Originally Posted by Simon Jones

I fitted a steibel nautilus air horn to an XC70 and it certainly let's anyone in your way know you're coming . Easy to wire in a seperate relay from the existing feed to ensure you don't overload anything.

I fitted one of these to my mgzs 180 when the standard equipment packed in. It was great for a while but they get temperamental if they are not sheltered from the elements. I refitted it in to myr jeep mounted high up on the bulkhead and no problems so far. Loud in a brash Italian sports car sort of way☺

I have found that the dual hi/lo horn set up from an 09 vintage Astra gave me an equally loud blast and stood up to the elements a bit better than the steibel .... can be fitted in place of the stock horns with no rewiring and are a bit cheaper as well😊

[owyn]

These are about as loud as standard horns get.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hella-3AG-0.../dp/B000CRZXPI

If you fancy a project then this is the only way.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Whelen-Engi.../dp/B009UWMCKU

I had one when I used to enjoy taking my car to bits of a weekend for fun.

It may be totally childish but I always smiled when I gave it a toot.

[ShadeTek]

Originally Posted by Bill_56

The only purpose of the horn is to alert other vehicles of your presence. Unless you are driving an ocean liner in dense fog, why would you need anything more than standard equipment?

And what about when a legitimate need for a polite beep of the horn arises. Such as approaching a blind bend on a rural single track road and you think there is nothing coming the other way, but want to beep in case you are wrong, would you not feel embarassed about annoying half a county?

Or worse, to avoid annoying people nearby, would you maybe be hesitant to use the horn when you should, thereby potentially contributing to an accident?

I think a short sound of any horn is more of a polite "I'm here", but a long blast of a horn is an angry "you idiot, wtf are you doing?".

[Georgeandkira]

Got a harmonized pair of deck horns off an old Cris Craft lake boat and put 'em in my friend's 400+ hp 1989 Chevy truck. OE horns were designed to be low impact. They sounded like a short-of-breath squeaking cat.

At least look at the boats: http://mbbw.com/brokerage/Brokerage%...s/brokerag.htm

The sound says, "Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn are here! Please have their drinks ready."
We blow the horn and watch people look about inquisitively.

[wise old monkey]

i have a police siren switched to fog horn, 200watts of that gets people out of your way