DIY: Harbor Freight air horn install

[Blue-Civic-Hybrid]

Well I finally got around to installing my $12.95 Harbor Freight air horn set in the front bumper of the Insight. Here are some pics and hopefully you get the gist of what you have to do.

[IMG][/IMG]

Here she is with the front bumper taken off, it wasn't bad at all except for the 2 screws in each fenders which were deep in the forward section.

Here is the final location that I decided to mount the horns and the compressor.
[IMG][/IMG]

I took off the airbox resonator and the extra hose. I'm gonna save this but I doubt I will put it back on.
[IMG][/IMG]

Here is the top hose that goes into the aribox. A little 200 MPH tape and I fixed the extra hole that popped up.
[IMG][/IMG]

[Blue-Civic-Hybrid]

After that was all done, magically the air compressor had a place to be securely mounted!

[IMG][/IMG]

And lucky for me I had a spare piece of metal laying around and they made for the perfect mount for the air horns themselves.

[IMG][/IMG]

Here it is with some wire loom that I had laying around. You can see where I mounted the relay on the top rail.
[IMG][/IMG]

Here is a top view of the wiring, the yellow wire is a 30 amp fused power wire that goes to the horn. The other wiring is where i mounted my Hi/Lo HID kit, 6000k!!
[IMG][/IMG]

[gilbertguy]

Loved the pictures with the bumper off, did you disconnect the original horn? I tried haveing all the horns sound at first but did not like the mix of sounds so pulled the plug off the factory horn.

can you see the air horns through the front of the bumper?

[Blue-Civic-Hybrid]

Originally Posted by gilbertguy

Loved the pictures with the bumper off, did you disconnect the original horn? I tried haveing all the horns sound at first but did not like the mix of sounds so pulled the plug off the factory horn.

can you see the air horns through the front of the bumper?

I took off the OEM horn completely and used that wire and routed it to the relay. As for the horns, I had to trim the inside of the bumper to get the bumper to sit flush. As for seeing the red air horns, you have to really look hard to see one of the horns but just barely.

I already want to upgrade to a louder horn!

[Eli]

Hmm.. so you deleted the resonator box?

Has anyone definitively determined what exactly it does? Seems rather unlikely that it does nothing? lol

[Blue-Civic-Hybrid]

Originally Posted by Eli

Hmm.. so you deleted the resonator box?

Has anyone definitively determined what exactly it does? Seems rather unlikely that it does nothing? lol

Eli, as far I know every resonator box does same thing, it resonates the sound of the air being ingested into the intake. I've already logged 700+ miles without the resonator box and I have noted no ill side effects or loss of mileage whatsoever. Even the sound of the air intake didnt seem to get louder.

[Southern Dad]

I've often wanted to install one of those locomotive horns in my Insight. A vehicle that small with a shout that grand?

How's yours sound now?

[Blue-Civic-Hybrid]

Southern Dad, it sounds great for such a cheap horn and plus it's much louder than the OEM one.

I already have my eyes set on an even louder version!! I want people to poop themselves when I hit my horn, especially the giant SUV driving soccer Moms who have Iphones glued to their heads who deem to almost crush my car daily!!

[Eli]

I've also thought it would be epically hilarious to have a train horn on an Insight.

Too bad they're like $500 minimum.

[timny1984]

I have the same horn in my car. use it with the OEM horn. My install is alittle crude right now. 200mph tape holds everything in there. one of these days i'll get around to a nice install like this. great work!

I tend to just test out my horn every once and a while just to make sure it's still working. One time coming home from work, around 2am, i tried the horn when no one was around... well the horn decided to stick, so i drove for about 1/4-1/5 mile with it blaring. It finally shut off and never stuck again. i'm guessing it was just a relay hiccup.


I too dream of a nice loud truck/train horn. $500 can sure buy a ton of gas even at $4 a gallon.