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Well, I finally got around to installing my air horns. I bought Hella triple air horns. I reccomend that you get them from Susquehanna MotorSports. They have the best prices on these horns. I ended up buying two kits. One triple air horn kit and one dual air horn kit. My dad ended up fronting the cash for the dual kit because he broke one of the horns in my triple kit. Lucky for me 'cause I got the horn back and I could try installing dual compressors. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]
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Materials:
Hella Triple Air Horn Kit
Hella Dual Air Horn Kit
2 L brackets (typically used for shelves)
12 Guage Wire (you can use 14 Guage, or even 16 guage)
Female Spade Connectors (to clip onto the relays)
Butt Connectors (to splice wire together)
Disconnect Terminals (for ground and power)
20 Amp In-Line Fuses (can't be too careful)
Stainless Steel Hardware (bolts, nuts, clamps)
1.25x.25 Cross Section Aluminum Bar (for brackets)
You may be thinking, "What's with the McDonald's color scheme?". I planned to buy an Optima Yellow Top and hook that wire up to it, but I ended up buying an Optima Red Top. I would prefer red wire so that I don't ruin my color scheme. Oh well, it's not really visible the way I did it anyway.
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Now, this is what the air horn assembly looks like. Three air horns. Every one a different size to emit a different frequency. Anyway, the bracket is made out of aluminum and it is bent into shape using a vise and my bare hands. The screws came with the kit, and the little L brackets I bought at a hardware store. I wanted a compact design, so this is what I came up with. The instructions included with the air horn kit state to use as short a distance as possible betwean the compressor and the horns (when it comes to the hoses). The ends of the hoses should be dipped in very hot water to soften them up and allow you to slip them on to the air horns easily.
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Now, this is the car before taking the bumper off.
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This is after you take the front bumper off. This is a shot of the passenger side headlight. You will see some threaded holes in that location. These threaded holes are what I used to secure everything to the car. I didn't want to drill any new holes. Technically I could market a plug and play air horn kit for the 7th gen civic with the knowledge I gained. Anyway, the thread size is metric and the screw size is M8 I believe. I bought stainless steel metric bolts and they fit perfectly. Stainless steel and aluminum should last a while without any corrosion. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]
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These are the dual compressors. I also made a braket for them because there really is no other way to make them fit. If you only buy one Hella kit, then you could mount the compressor in one of several locations. Notice all of the threaded holes. There are four of them.
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Here I mounted the air horn assembly and checked to see how things fit. I then had to take it off and bend the aluminum bracket outwards a little more. Notice the airbag sensor? I don't know if hitting it when the car is turned off will set of the airbags, but I didn't want to find out. I avoided touching it.
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Here is a picture of the vise I used to make the brackets. Wow, I have an invisible hand! [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/IMG]
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Now, here is a picture of the bracket I just made. It's a small little bracket for the relays. A relay is basically a switch. You hook up a circuit to it and when you complete the circuit the relays completes another circuit. It has four prongs and they have an industry standard labeling, so each relays should have the same numbers. 87 and 30 are one circuit and 86 and 85 are another.
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Here is the drivers side. Notice the stock horn. I also cut off a little clip like piece of plastic on the windshield washer fluid container. It used to hold the wire for the stock horn. I cut it off because it interfered with my Tsunami front bumper. Anyway, the plan is to not do any (further) damage to the stock components, so I will just unplug the stock horn and plug in the wire for the activation of the relay.
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What I did was route a wire through the front bumper. There are subdividers there and little holes in them, so I just routed it through the holes. Then I stripped the end of the wire that I routed, clipped off several strands of wire, and I shoved the rest into the stock connector. Then I used some masking tape around the connection and Viola!
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Now I took everything out again and I made the rest of the tubing connections. Notice the little stainless steel clamps I bought for the connections to the compressors? I figured that they'll help seal the connection a little better.
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Here you see some of the connections finished off. You see where I used the ground in the upper left hand corner. Two wires leading into one (accomplished using butt connectors). For wiring you will have to refer to the instructions that came with your kit, but I will tell you what worked for me... The compressor negative goes to ground and the positive goes to 87 on the relay. 30 on the relay goes to positive (+12V). 85 on the relay goes to ground. Finally, 86 on the relay goes to the wire we hooked up to the horn. I also used a fuse (20A) betwean the positive (+12V) and 30 on the relay. Remember that I used two relays, but you could technically get away with using one. I used two since the current flow is doubled with two compressors and because if one of the compressors ever dies the horn will still work (feabily, but it'll work).
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Here you can see where I tapped the positive (+12V). These wires go directly to the battery. The fuse box lid doesn't close properly anymore, so I think I'll redo this somehow in the future. It does close, but the two clips near the connections don't snap shut all the way. I'll either have to make two notches in the box, or I'll have to wire this up a little differently. Maybe when I install my Monster Cable battery terminals I can hook them up directly to the battery?
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Here is the finished product. It's a lot of trial and error. Notice the new relays? I bought a new set after one of the old ones blew out. I couldn't figure out what it was for the longest time, but I finally figured it out. these relays have a higher amperage rating and they have dual output terminals, so I can technically use only one of them if I wanted to. Maybe I'll change the wiring out to red and I'll hook up only one of those terminals some day. For now I think this is a pretty good setup.
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Wondering how it sounds like? Here's a clip of the setup when one of the relays was dead: testing.avi This only shows you how they sound though. They're pretty loud though. Much louder than anything I've heard on the street. Even louder than single compressor triple air horn setups.
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good DIY, i used the hella set with 2 air horns and one compressor, i like it, its loud enough, just not deep enough. instead of hooking the + wire to the fuse box, i crimped a 10 guage spade onto it and stuck it between the nut and the bolt on the battery terminal and put an inline 10 amp fuse from radioshack. it works pretty well, i have some pictures if your interested in seeing them.
i don' know bout you, but my stock horn is high pitched and sounds wimppy. i try to refrain from using it. i use mostly my middle finger and yelling to get my point across.[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG][IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/IMG]
i have the Hella Dual air horn set up and personally i have gone through 3 compressors, they get moisture in them and lock up, there is no valve anywhere that only lets air out so water will creep up into your air lines through the horn and into your compressor. Grey I allways thought you were a pretty resourcefull guy maybe you could figure out a way to put a valve in there some where, because mark my words in a bout a month you will go to honk your horn and you can hear the compressor click but wont work, now im just gonna get the hi-pitch and lo-pitch electrical FREEWAY BLASTERS, and see if those can hold up cause im so damn peeved at the air horn thing they are just too much trouble to deal with. Sorry dont mean to flame or anything im just letting you and everyone else what happened to me before they go out and get jipped 40 bucks.
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[hr]Originally posted by: netcbc
just a question, why would you need aftermarket horns?[hr]
I'm assuming that you're trying to be k3wl since you don't have aftermarket horns. Okay, so imagine some idiot driver in a minivan stopping right smack in the middle of the freeway because he/she/it missed the exit. This happened to me and I honked my horn as long as I could. No reaction! He/She/It just kept on signaling and started backing up to get to his/her/its exit. Now if I had these horns then I think the reaction would have bean different. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]
FLY: I hope that doesn't happen. Did you have your horns pointed downwards? Did you have the compressors pointed doanwards? That's what they reccomend. I have mine pointed downwards, so I hope they don't go bonkers on me. If they do, then I'll take them apart and see what's up.
Quote
[hr]Originally posted by: netcbc
just a question, why would you need aftermarket horns?[hr]
I'm assuming that you're trying to be k3wl since you don't have aftermarket horns. Okay, so imagine some idiot driver in a minivan stopping right smack in the middle of the freeway because he/she/it missed the exit. This happened to me and I honked my horn as long as I could. No reaction! He/She/It just kept on signaling and started backing up to get to his/her/its exit. Now if I had these horns then I think the reaction would have bean different. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]
FLY: I hope that doesn't happen. Did you have your horns pointed downwards? Did you have the compressors pointed doanwards? That's what they reccomend. I have mine pointed downwards, so I hope they don't go bonkers on me. If they do, then I'll take them apart and see what's up.[hr]
my bad wasn't trying to sound cool, just wondering why would you need it?..... i see why now, people ask me the same question about me installing HID, i needed to install it because i have gone through 4 sets of PIAA and got sick of it
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[hr]Originally posted by: netcbc
just a question, why would you need aftermarket horns?[hr]
because the stock horn sound's like it came off of a circus clown car!
I installed my triple air horn/single compressor system last week. WOW, these things are LOUD! I was originally using a defective relay, so when I hooked up the relay, it was always on. I was standing right over the triple horns when the power flowed to the compressor for the first time. OW, my ears were hurtin' for like 10 minutes. [IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG]
but I digress.
I put my horns in the same place, but in a slightly different way. I had the triple horn set from FIMM or FIAA (Can't remember what exactly, I think they are Italian or something). The brackets look a little different, but the concept is the same. You need to build some kind of bracket to mount them all. My install was further complicated by the Injen RD CAI on my car, so that spot under the passenger's headlight was somewhat occupied already. I used the same strategy as Grey and used the existing threaded holes. I pretty much fashioned a bracket out of 5/8" threaded rod. All three horns mount to this threaded rod, but mine are pointed forward and tipped down about 10 degrees. My single compressor was mounted to the front of the car, just to the left (as seen from the front of the car) of the radiators.
I'll try to get some pics (except my digital camera is out of comission).
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[hr]Originally posted by: CivicMexicano
how does it sound??? with the 3 horns and 2 compresors.......[hr]
It sounds just like the regular triple air horn, but louder. Much louder and maybe a little lower in tone?
InanimateCarbonRod: Hey, that looks good! [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG] Well, I guess it's possible to have an Injen intake AND triple air horns. Good to know...
