DIY: 09 Honda Accord's Horn Upgrade
the horn no. it's easy. just be careful with the clips.
as for the alarm horn it's much harder to get to. it's
behind the bumper on the drivers side way up there.
Member
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 837
From: Atlanta, GA
I decided to post this report here, rather than starting a new thread. Today, I finally got around to installing a compact dual air horn, a Wolo Bad Boy (which is also the same horn as the Stebel Nautilus). These are available from various sources for $35-$40.
Installing the air horn is considerably more work than installing an Accord horn, but it also makes a lot more noise; these are rated at 139 db -- you will get noticed!
Here's a comparison photo of the air horn with the stock meep meep horn.
Even though the air horn is considerably bigger, as you can see from the installation photo there is actually plenty of room between the grill and the AC condenser. This is a temporary lash-up; I intend to clean things up a little and use red wires for the positive leads for the final version. I may also experiment a little with the mounting point.
Following the instructions that came with the horn, I first tried just plugging it into the existing horn connection. About a mile from home, in the rain, I discovered that not only did the horn not work any more, but I couldn't get the transmission out of Park -- and I had left my Leatherman in the garage. Eventually I got it out of Park, drove home, and found which fuse was blown.
Gripe: On my old Subaru Forester, the fusebox was under the hood, easy to access, and had the fuse chart inside the lid. Honda has not only hidden the fuse box, but made it painfully difficult to access, and you have to use the owner's manual to figure out which fuse does what. And, Honda doesn't include any spare fuses.
Rather than substitute a 20 Amp fuse where a 10 Amp is specified, and unsure of the capacity of the factory wiring, I ran a 14 gauge wire, with a 20 amp fuse, from the positive terminal of the battery to a relay. In addition to the ground wire for the horn, the relay requires a separate ground. The biggest gotcha is probably finding a plug that fits the OEM horn socket. I gave up, and since I had no intention of doing anything with the meep meep horn, I attacked it with a cut off wheel, removing the plug from the back of the horn, then grafting a connector onto it, and covering the graft with epoxy. It ain't elegant, but it works.
Installing the air horn is considerably more work than installing an Accord horn, but it also makes a lot more noise; these are rated at 139 db -- you will get noticed!
Here's a comparison photo of the air horn with the stock meep meep horn.
Even though the air horn is considerably bigger, as you can see from the installation photo there is actually plenty of room between the grill and the AC condenser. This is a temporary lash-up; I intend to clean things up a little and use red wires for the positive leads for the final version. I may also experiment a little with the mounting point.
Following the instructions that came with the horn, I first tried just plugging it into the existing horn connection. About a mile from home, in the rain, I discovered that not only did the horn not work any more, but I couldn't get the transmission out of Park -- and I had left my Leatherman in the garage. Eventually I got it out of Park, drove home, and found which fuse was blown.
Gripe: On my old Subaru Forester, the fusebox was under the hood, easy to access, and had the fuse chart inside the lid. Honda has not only hidden the fuse box, but made it painfully difficult to access, and you have to use the owner's manual to figure out which fuse does what. And, Honda doesn't include any spare fuses.
Rather than substitute a 20 Amp fuse where a 10 Amp is specified, and unsure of the capacity of the factory wiring, I ran a 14 gauge wire, with a 20 amp fuse, from the positive terminal of the battery to a relay. In addition to the ground wire for the horn, the relay requires a separate ground. The biggest gotcha is probably finding a plug that fits the OEM horn socket. I gave up, and since I had no intention of doing anything with the meep meep horn, I attacked it with a cut off wheel, removing the plug from the back of the horn, then grafting a connector onto it, and covering the graft with epoxy. It ain't elegant, but it works.
I decided to post this report here, rather than starting a new thread. Today, I finally got around to installing a compact dual air horn, a Wolo Bad Boy (which is also the same horn as the Stebel Nautilus). These are available from various sources for $35-$40.
Installing the air horn is considerably more work than installing an Accord horn, but it also makes a lot more noise; these are rated at 139 db -- you will get noticed!
Here's a comparison photo of the air horn with the stock meep meep horn.
Even though the air horn is considerably bigger, as you can see from the installation photo there is actually plenty of room between the grill and the AC condenser. This is a temporary lash-up; I intend to clean things up a little and use red wires for the positive leads for the final version. I may also experiment a little with the mounting point.
Following the instructions that came with the horn, I first tried just plugging it into the existing horn connection. About a mile from home, in the rain, I discovered that not only did the horn not work any more, but I couldn't get the transmission out of Park -- and I had left my Leatherman in the garage. Eventually I got it out of Park, drove home, and found which fuse was blown.
Gripe: On my old Subaru Forester, the fusebox was under the hood, easy to access, and had the fuse chart inside the lid. Honda has not only hidden the fuse box, but made it painfully difficult to access, and you have to use the owner's manual to figure out which fuse does what. And, Honda doesn't include any spare fuses.
Rather than substitute a 20 Amp fuse where a 10 Amp is specified, and unsure of the capacity of the factory wiring, I ran a 14 gauge wire, with a 20 amp fuse, from the positive terminal of the battery to a relay. In addition to the ground wire for the horn, the relay requires a separate ground. The biggest gotcha is probably finding a plug that fits the OEM horn socket. I gave up, and since I had no intention of doing anything with the meep meep horn, I attacked it with a cut off wheel, removing the plug from the back of the horn, then grafting a connector onto it, and covering the graft with epoxy. It ain't elegant, but it works.
Installing the air horn is considerably more work than installing an Accord horn, but it also makes a lot more noise; these are rated at 139 db -- you will get noticed!
Here's a comparison photo of the air horn with the stock meep meep horn.
Even though the air horn is considerably bigger, as you can see from the installation photo there is actually plenty of room between the grill and the AC condenser. This is a temporary lash-up; I intend to clean things up a little and use red wires for the positive leads for the final version. I may also experiment a little with the mounting point.
Following the instructions that came with the horn, I first tried just plugging it into the existing horn connection. About a mile from home, in the rain, I discovered that not only did the horn not work any more, but I couldn't get the transmission out of Park -- and I had left my Leatherman in the garage. Eventually I got it out of Park, drove home, and found which fuse was blown.
Gripe: On my old Subaru Forester, the fusebox was under the hood, easy to access, and had the fuse chart inside the lid. Honda has not only hidden the fuse box, but made it painfully difficult to access, and you have to use the owner's manual to figure out which fuse does what. And, Honda doesn't include any spare fuses.
Rather than substitute a 20 Amp fuse where a 10 Amp is specified, and unsure of the capacity of the factory wiring, I ran a 14 gauge wire, with a 20 amp fuse, from the positive terminal of the battery to a relay. In addition to the ground wire for the horn, the relay requires a separate ground. The biggest gotcha is probably finding a plug that fits the OEM horn socket. I gave up, and since I had no intention of doing anything with the meep meep horn, I attacked it with a cut off wheel, removing the plug from the back of the horn, then grafting a connector onto it, and covering the graft with epoxy. It ain't elegant, but it works.
Member
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 86
From: Rochester, NY
FYI: Part #38100-STK-A02 does not include the clips. I think you need to order a different part #...
*edit: College Hills Honda shipped me the clips after I wrote to them, despite the fact that I ordered the wrong part. Great service! The new part# is # 38100FIT.
*edit2: Thanks for the instructions! Simple upgrade
*edit: College Hills Honda shipped me the clips after I wrote to them, despite the fact that I ordered the wrong part. Great service! The new part# is # 38100FIT.
*edit2: Thanks for the instructions! Simple upgrade
Last edited by Bowkr; Dec 27, 2009 at 10:55 AM.
I'm glad I found this thread, I've been interested in doing this for a while as I've had too many drivers shrug off the stock horn. I'm going with the Accord horn for simplicity's sake, but I decided to order from my local dealer. The part (38100-STK-A02) was only $15 from them, compared with College Hill's $15 + $11 shipping. My only concern is that the dealer-sourced horn isn't going to come with replacement clips for the hood latch cover, and if they break, I'll end up spending as much in the end to replace them.
Has anyone successfully reused these clips? Any particular way of removing them (besides carefully) to try to preserve them?
Also, has anyone successfully swapped out the alarm horn yet? It's nearly pointless, but I'd like to replace that meep as well, but I haven't read about anyone else actually attempting it, just noting its location.
Has anyone successfully reused these clips? Any particular way of removing them (besides carefully) to try to preserve them?
Also, has anyone successfully swapped out the alarm horn yet? It's nearly pointless, but I'd like to replace that meep as well, but I haven't read about anyone else actually attempting it, just noting its location.
Looks like the tool on the left.
If you don't have access to this tool use a very small flathead screw driver slide it in the side of the clip and twist it. The center of the clip should pop up, then you should be able to pull it up and you have 2 options, either pull the center of the clip out, followed by the base, or pull the whole clip out. Installation is the reverse.
Honestly I don't understand why people have such a difficult time keeping these from breaking.
Member
Joined: Sep 2009
Posts: 283
From: fort worth,tx
I'm glad I found this thread, I've been interested in doing this for a while as I've had too many drivers shrug off the stock horn. I'm going with the Accord horn for simplicity's sake, but I decided to order from my local dealer. The part (38100-STK-A02) was only $15 from them, compared with College Hill's $15 + $11 shipping. My only concern is that the dealer-sourced horn isn't going to come with replacement clips for the hood latch cover, and if they break, I'll end up spending as much in the end to replace them.
Has anyone successfully reused these clips? Any particular way of removing them (besides carefully) to try to preserve them?
Also, has anyone successfully swapped out the alarm horn yet? It's nearly pointless, but I'd like to replace that meep as well, but I haven't read about anyone else actually attempting it, just noting its location.
Has anyone successfully reused these clips? Any particular way of removing them (besides carefully) to try to preserve them?
Also, has anyone successfully swapped out the alarm horn yet? It's nearly pointless, but I'd like to replace that meep as well, but I haven't read about anyone else actually attempting it, just noting its location.
Yes, I have a body clip tool, been a while since I picked it up, but I believe it was a Matco.
Looks like the tool on the left.
If you don't have access to this tool use a very small flathead screw driver slide it in the side of the clip and twist it. The center of the clip should pop up, then you should be able to pull it up and you have 2 options, either pull the center of the clip out, followed by the base, or pull the whole clip out. Installation is the reverse.
Honestly I don't understand why people have such a difficult time keeping these from breaking.
Looks like the tool on the left.
If you don't have access to this tool use a very small flathead screw driver slide it in the side of the clip and twist it. The center of the clip should pop up, then you should be able to pull it up and you have 2 options, either pull the center of the clip out, followed by the base, or pull the whole clip out. Installation is the reverse.
Honestly I don't understand why people have such a difficult time keeping these from breaking.
Sounds like we might be talking about different things. I think you're talking about the 6 or 8 clips that hold the bulkhead cover on, and I'm talking about the two smaller clips for the hood latch cover. Those two seem to be less complex and more fragile than the larger clips, based on the DIYs and comments on the thread. I should probably follow your advice regardless and look into some clip pliers.
I was talking about the other clips, but this tool should work for those too. Since it gets under the edge it should pop these out evenly to prevent damage to the clips.
Member
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 176
From: Richmond, VA
Just upgraded my horn yesterday. I used an 07 Honda Ridgeline OEM horn that I picked up for $12 shipped on ebay.
It looks almost the same as the Accord horn (108dB, 4A) so i'm not sure if there is a difference. Certainly sounds great compared to the stock horn though!
BTW, removing those clips without breaking them is very easy as long as you take your time. I used a small flathead screwdriver to depress the clips before pulling them out.
It looks almost the same as the Accord horn (108dB, 4A) so i'm not sure if there is a difference. Certainly sounds great compared to the stock horn though!
BTW, removing those clips without breaking them is very easy as long as you take your time. I used a small flathead screwdriver to depress the clips before pulling them out.
