|
VW Horns |
Let's face it, the bug's not a new car any more. The horn was sounding pretty anemic, so I just figured I'd go to Pep Boys and buy a new one, preferably one that sounded like a big diesel truck! They had horns that they advertised as such, so I picked one up.
The VW horn is connected
to +12V and grounded through the horn button. The horn button itself
is grounded through brushes in the steering column. Nothing new there,
but when I connected the new horn in place of the existing stock horn, it
wouldn't make a peep. I tested the stock horn with a 12V power supply
I have, and it made lots of noise, but not noticeably louder than the stock
horn.
Well, I needed to have a horn in the
car, so I rigged up the new horn to a button on the dash board temporarily.
I mounted it fairly symmetrically with the stock horn, providing a
close frame ground and switching the +12V with the new button. It worked,
but it was a little awkward. It's a little hard to see in this picture,
but there is a button in the black insert just to the left of the rear window
defroster switch. The black insert to the left of that is still blank,
and the shift pattern is to the left of that.
I didn't really want to replace the brushes in the
steering column, since I knew they were of limited life, so I decided to
get a relay to drive the existing VW horn. I found one at Pep Boys,
but I really didn't have a good place to mount it. I ended up tucking it
behind the headlight harness that goes through the trunk. I ran the
wire from the relay to the horn through the headlight harness grommet, so
I'm not worried about chafing the insulation. I just wired the relay
in place of the horn, with the 12V driving the relay and the horn button
grounding the opposite side of the coil. I connected the 12V to a normally
open lead and ran the common, which was now a switched 12V, to the horn,
which I grounded to the chassis. Lotsa noise there!
With the new horn being operated by a button on the dash, I knew
it would be hard to use. Even though the stock horn is louder than
the new one, I figured I'd get more attention if I ran both horns in parallel.
Since the new horn was already half wired correctly, I just disconnected
the + lead from the switch in the dashboard and ran it to the other horn.
This really presents a distinctive note, but it might be too distinctive. People don't believe the sound is coming from a VW horn, so they just keep looking around!
Maybe I'd try a little harder to replace the brushes in the steering column. I can't believe that's hard to do, but I didn't even bother, for the reason stated above. I know I wouldn't think about putting a horn button on the dash board, that's a pain to install and awkward to use, especially if you are trying to warn somebody and not just wake them up when the light turns green.
The relay mount has me a little concerned. I should probably put the relay behind the shield that separates the dashboard area from the trunk.
I'm pretty pleased with this project, though. I doubt if I'd end up with anything much different than what I've ended up with.
to Barfle's Home Page