Maxfli

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the info on turning off the honk confirmation when locking with the remote...I have only had the car for about two months and am constantly learning new stuff about it. I've gone through the manual once but must have missed that info. I've mostly been playing with the nav system, trying to figure out all the things it can do. When I bought the car, the previous owner didn't even know/tell me it had HLSD and I couldn't tell if the metal pedals were original or AE pedals...it was a nice surprise to confirm it did have HLSD!!!

BTW Mints33, I looked on the back of my remote and I didn't see instructions on how to toggle the horn confirmation...could we have different remotes? Does yours have instructions? Mine has lock/unlock/trunk/(red) alarm buttons...

Mints33

iTrader: (5)

The 03 and 00 remotes may be slightly different. Yes, mine has the same buttons, 2 grey for lock/unlock, black for trunk, and red for alarm. On the back of the remote it's got very vague instructions:

"PRESS BOTH
lock & unlock 2 sec
BEEP <--> QUIET"

I think it's more like 3 or more secs, but hey who's counting?

Hey, sweet car, congrats on the purchase!! I wish mine had HIDs, and navi is cool too!

Maxfli

iTrader: (2)

Yep, the '00 & '03 remotes have different color buttons...I have 3 black buttons and a red for the alarm with no instructions on the back.

I went downstairs last night and flipped it to "light confirm" only after reading your (and lowincash's) post. Thanks guys. I also have an Odyssey van like Succinct and like the "single push-lights, double push-horn" locking confirm option on the Honda. Grass is always greener...

I checked out a *ton* of cars before tripping over this one...quick stop "for over an hour" (my wife has reminded me a few times) on the way to our summer vacation destination (with 3 girls in the back of the van) to check this car out. Inspected it, drove it and negotiated a deal right there in the driveway cause the car was immaculate (prev owner was a mechanic at a Nissan dealer). The start of one of the best vacations of my life.

I might add that my wife is elated that "the search is finally over..."!!!!

Mints33

iTrader: (5)

Dude you are one lucky fella, again, that's great to hear & congrats! I hope she'll bring you years of excitement. I still love driving mine, and I've had her for 6 years. She still gives me a grin, every time I get behind the wheel. My wife always gives me a hard time saying the Max is my first wife.

My wife has an Odyssey too. What were you driving before you found your max?

snipes

I went to the local "you wrench it" and bought a set of
mid-80's Chevrolet Impala horns for my wifes Mazda 626.
Junk yards are full of these horns.
Five bucks for the pair and they are loud and manly.

Succinct

Nice tip on the Impala horns. "Manly" beats the "Road Runner" any day.

Today I received and tonight I installed the 2006 Honda Odyssey horns. As expectede they were much like the Fiamms, except a little smaller and seemingly nicer quality. Each was stamped with "108 dB", so they prob aren't quite as strong as the "Freeway Blasters".

Since my mother-in-law is visiting, and our house isn't too big, I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to really wail on these. A quick 'blip" indicates they'll be very similar to the Fiamms, and certainly manly enough. A good deal for $28 shipped, I think.

Installation took all of 10 minutes. Same exact mounting scheme as the originals. The only problem was that the Honda horns have a hard-plastic-shrouded but small (1/8" wide) male spade plug. The Maxima's stock connectors wouldn't "quite" fit in there, so I sanded the sides of them until they 'just' slipped into the Honda connectors. Once in there, the spades lined up perfectly, and the mismatch in spade size was offset by the snug fit of the electrical connectors.

Maxfli

iTrader: (2)

I have been driving Accords for the last 14 years...latest was an '03. Great cars but not big on the fun factor. I need a sedan with a manual tranny (can't stand driving an auto) so that really limited my car choices. Love the way the 3 series Bimmers drive but can't deal with how small they are on the inside and all the idiosyncracies/issues with a 5+ year old BMW.

I was looking at 4th/5th gens for a while but never found one that I loved. Decided to limit my search to an '02/'03 6spd a little over 2 years ago cause I liked the looks/power/options/dependability of the 5.5 gen Max. Persistency paid off in my search...I had been searching the Autotrader in Raleigh, Charlotte, Richmond, DC and Atlanta Autotrader weekly and knew I'd be passing Richmond and DC on the way to the beach so I did a search the night before we were leaving and this one popped up.

I look forward to driving it every day...need to keep it toned down to keep the driving record clean though! It is so easy to go fast in these cars. I plan to drive a long time (2 of my old Accords were sold w/200k+ on the odometer) and I plan to keep this one a long time.

Drive safe!

orangejuicejay

Yes i did know you can turn off the audible beep when you lock the doors. But what fun is that? It comes in handy when i need to find my car in a giant parking lot or just scare some friends sitting in front of my car

MaxKlinger

Your best bet is to go to a junkyard and pull a horn out of a full-size Lincoln, Caddy, Buick, or Merc. They always have the sweetest sounding horns.

As for trucks, I'm doing that now, actually. I'm sad to report that Pig Iron, my work-horse 1983 Ford F150, passed away a few weeks ago. Among the parts I stripped from it before being towed away for scrap, I grabbed the horn. It's a single honker that says "LO" which is apparently the lowest note in the two- and three-note Ford-Lincoln-Mercury horns of the era. It's new home is going to be in my dad's '02 Maxima SE, replacing the POS from Nissan. Can't wait to hear it again!

00MaxSE

iTrader: (25)

R.I.P. Pig Iron

Succinct

So my last report on my Honda horns (see P/Ns in my earlier post above) is that they are very similar to the Fiamm Freeway Blasters. Altho stamped with "108 dB" on each horn (compared to a claimed 133dB for the Fiamms) I think it'd be hard to tell tham apart by ear, and these are frickin' loud enough!

I'm happy I went with them considering they were a little cheaper than the Fiamms, and I've always liked Honda (hold those boos!).

I've noticed that on the alarm-set blip, only the upper horn makes much noise, but when manually hitting the horn both sound OK. Maybe I'll go back and check that low tone horn to make ensure it's making a good connection (see my earlier treatise on the connector issue).

Mints33

iTrader: (5)

NO boos here, I've always liked Honda too. I've got a lot of Hondas in my family, inlaws, parents, sibblings, cousins, etc ... Before I got the Maxima, it was between the Max and a Accord, only if the Accord had a little more room and power, it would've gotten my $$.

Mints33

iTrader: (5)

Seriously, and once you've gotten used to the beep, the silent mode just won't cut it!

jo8243

just go to a junkyard and get one off of a chevy. they have loud horns.

naxray

Here's another option - the Wolo Maxi Sound. Specs are 114 Decibels- 400/480Hz. Just picked up a set at Pep Boys for $24.99 and installed 'em...sound pretty good, not hella loud, but a nice "big car " tone...deeper than the Fiamms.

Info, including a sound clip is at the link below, about 2/3's down the page:

http://www.wolo-mfg.com/elec.htm

00MaxSE

iTrader: (25)

Hmm, interesting site.

Mints33

iTrader: (5)

Thanks for the site, very interesting, unfortunately Pepboys does not exist here. I'll have to give my locals another visit and see what they have available. The bright crome ones look sexy, and sound pretty good too.

Maxim(a)SerjVQ

just get the airhorns out of a semi/tractor-trailor. if that doesnt float your boat, you could always do what i had thought about. get the Hella horn, and try mouting it onto an Image Dynamics HLCD Horn. they are tuned for the same frequency range as the Hella horn, and during a brief experiment i saw one of these horns turn a speaker from a 9v portable radio into a reasonably loud speaker. scale it to this degree and you should be at around 140dB

Mints33

iTrader: (5)

I just looked up some Chevy Silverado 1500 series horns, and they're over 40 bucks a piece, YIKES. I checked w/ some junkyard, and they wanted 30 bucks plus shipping, seems high for some used horns. What ya think?

Succinct

I think I'm happy as hell with my $10.31 ($20.62 for the pair) brand new Honda horns, but i'm interested in hearing about anyone else's Frankenstein horns from another car!

CVicVogel

Succient:

Just put the Fiamm "Freeway Blasters" on today. My buddy did it in 20 minutes without taking the front grill off on a 2K3. This horns are loud and sound like a large Chevy Impala or Buick. You would think at 132db, it would be too loud....but if sounds decent without being obnoxious.

WHAT A GREAT TRANSFORMATION!!!

I bought them from Amazon for $15.88 per horn and free shipping!!!!

They are pitched at F-low tone and E-high tone. Buy them as a matched set.

NO MORE LAME SOUND WHEN FIGHTING THROUGH HEAVY TRAFFIC AT OLGA'S DINER IN SOUTH JERSEY.

You all have a nice day.

Thanks

Vic

Succinct

Vic -
I am glad you experienced Freeway Blaster success! Congrats! I don't think you can beat the overall cost/ease of install/results combo of those things!

Back to my connector issue - I ended up going to radio shack to get a tiny female spade connector for my Honda horn (very sim to the F.Blaster horn), and then used a 3" length of wire and a large male spade connector. This made an "adapter" cable from the Maxima's large female spade connector to the Honda horn. NOW that it's making good contact, it sounds even BETTER!!

Maxima570

iTrader: (1)

[QUOTE=Succinct]My friggin inconsiderate high-school-girl next door neighbors (or some friends of theirs) just got a new-gen Mustang. My wife and I had just tucked the kids in bed tonight when the neighbors pulled in their driveway and hit their horn tonight (to say hi to their high school friends a few houses over) like they were the only inhabitants of this neighborhood.
QUOTE]

I dated a highschool cheerleader for 3 years, they're the worst, I was in HS for 2 of them and i still knew... Is there a write up to get the old horn out?

Succinct

Exactly. Regarding the write-up - I don't see a need for one because, at least in my case for a 5.5-gen, it is very straightforward. THe horns can be accessed from above with the hood open, and there's no need to remove the grill or anything, unless you have Mark McGwire arms.

There's one 13mm bolt holding on each horn and a single wire and spade connector attached to each (you simply pull off the wire). The new horns (at least if they're designed like the Freeway Blaster or the Honda horns I bought) mount in exactly the same place using the same hardware.

Mints33

iTrader: (5)

In my case, I had to squeeze before pulling it off the connector. And the two nuts holding the 2 horns were different sizes.


The Fiamms are so far so good, there's no need to go louder yet .. .. then again, ever since replacing the horns, there's no need to use them as much. I guess they know.

Maxima570

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the info, I need to buy two horns right, if it were off a chevy or something, because there is high and low correct

CVicVogel

Maxima 570

Always get a matched pair from the same vehicle. You don't want dissonance but rather a chord that sounds more commanding.

Trains, Boats, Trucks blow a chord of 2 or more notes in a harmonic progression from the root of the chord. A progression could be root, fifth, 7th and then upper octave.

thanks

Maxima570

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the info, I think I know what to look for now.

And when u silence the horn beep, the lights dont flash anymore when you hit unlock, and thats really annoying

Memphis2k1

My buddy had a '03 Altima and when he locks/unlocks his car it sounds 10x better than mine '01 Max. everythingnissan.com has a Alti horn for $8!! Good deal anyone? I ordered from them before, shipping wasn't to bad but I did order a lot. Advice anyone....yay or naaa?

Succinct

When I arrived in the parking lot at work, I was getting out of my car when another guy parked next to me and got out. I blipped my now-masculine Horn as I set my alarm and a few seconds later he did the same with his car, with the same road-runner, spring-sounding crap horn I USED to have in my Max. Wow, it was great! It was Brian Urlacher immediately followed by Richard Simmons...

Oh and on the tone thing. My wife & I met at Wendy's for dinner tonight, and we both blipped our alarms with may Maxima parked nest to her Odyssey. The Odyssey's horns had a slightly different tone than my car, even though I have the exact some part numbered horns in my car. Hmmm... So I'm thinking maybe there are other factors to how they sound - like relay, wiring used, manufacturing variation, etc.

zgrm100

so any1 have any info on installing some nice truck airhorns or something. i remember there was a thread tha pointed to them a while back but I cant find it now. I think they were around $100 or so which is what im willing to spend. I want a LOUD DEEP horn on my car. Any suggestions?

CVicVogel

ZGRM100

If you want something bigger that will still fit in a limited space, FIAMM just introduced a 1-piece, integrated air horn and compressor. Comes in black in looks like a rectangle.

Although I initially considered them, I went with the easy-to-install Fiamm Freeway blasters since the job only took a few minutes to install (without removing the grill).

You may have to do a little research to find these...but it should give you the sound you want, at the price you want, with the space you have available.

Thanks

Vic

bigEL

Found this clip of a pair of Hella Supertones vs. stock Mazda3 horns. I didn't particularly care for the stockers, but I thought they were at least better than the Hellas. In my opinion, Hellas, Fiamm, Wolo and their ilk all sound like loud moped horns, not like a proper American car horn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLc5_3K9TDI

Here's another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7VH-6158RI

00MaxSE

iTrader: (25)

^^ I wonder what the neighbors were thinking when he took that video.

maximamass

I have the fiamm horns mounted on my Motorcycle and its funny as **** when I scare the **** out of people!

Succinct

Well guys, in case you didn't see my other thread in the Washington DC area forum ("Absolutely LOVING My Max's Replacement"), I sold my Max last week and replaced it with....a 2006 Accord EX V6, which already comes equipped with the horns I'd installed on my Maxima. And yes, they are quite manly sounding. I am also quite enjoying the "option" Honda gives me regarding the horn 'blip' when setting the alarm: one touch of the fob's "lock" button flashes the turn signals and sets the alarm, whereas a second touch within 5 seconds sounds the horn "blip". Ooooooh yeah!

PS - I sure-as-heck hope my Maxima's buyer appreciates the nice frappin' horns he has on his car!! (I gave him the old horns as extra parts with the car, along with some new Nissan belts I hadn't yet installed, so I'm guessing he will figure it out).

bigEL

Nice find. I like how they list the frequencies so you can compare. Of course, I just realized last night that I can listen to all the clips in the world and still end up with something I don't like because the quality of the recording and playback is so variable.

Nevertheless, I like the tone of the ones second from the top -- the chrome set 225-2T. I wonder if they're plug and play.