A guy cut me off the other day at 70mph on the #2 freeway lane. I had to slam my brakes to avoid hitting him, and laid into the horn at the same time.

Almost make me laugh...not exactly a commanding horn we have on these.

Anyone do anything to improve the sound?

 

Truck air horn?

Cadillac four-note horn...

Hella Supertones...

Or you can swap 350z horns directly onto our cars.

Just a few options.

I'm opting for the Cadillac four-note system when I can find one.

 

I installed Hella Supertones (the german version) into my car 2 years ago... Super loud and always gets peoples attention.

 

Horn replacement is all over the Org, but nothing recent by any of the contemporary Org members, as far as I know.

Here's the Hella product line PDF.

 

How does your 350z sound different than the Maxima?

Cadillac four-note?

 

So the 350z horns are a plug and play replacement?

 

From what I read, yes. So are the 6th gen Maxima ones which are louder as well.

 

I've had Hella horns for 3 or 4 years now. A pair of Hella horns are about 112 DB, probably twice as loud as stock. I left a stock horn in the engine bay by the power steering oil resevoir as this is part of the alarm. I mounted the two Hella's behind the grille, you'll have to make a bracket for the one horn. The Hella horns are painted a bright red, so I took the red covers off and painted them flat black so you won't see them through the grill.

 

Z horn has a deep note.

It's not that high-pitched, ricey scooter sound like our Maxima has.

Some of the older-style Cadillacs had four horns:

 

I put in some cheap air horns I got from Harbor Freight. They are louder but not exactly the sound I'm looking for so I'll be changing to something else eventually.

 

According to this diagram, the Z horns use a trumpet design, as opposed to the disc horns on the Maxima. (And about $100 total for both, high and low tone horns.)

That would explain the difference in tone.

Would you mind popping the hood on your Z and confirming the design difference for us?

 

I did Hella Supertones. Snap a quick shot at work in the parking garage:

 

While I was skimming YouTube for horn sounds, I discovered these:



Which are actually pretty close to the sound I'm looking for. And they're pretty cheap to boot.

Rochester: To answer your question, the Z does use the trumpet design. I was looking at them to see how possible it would be to swap them to the Maxima a while back.

 

to bad you didn't have this when he cut you off

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PJJDAc7gzY

 

yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

 

I've wanted one of those air horns for a long time.

I don't know where I'd mount it, though. And I'm not sure if I can justify the price tag...

Also not sure how the local police department would feel if I rolled up behind someone and unleashed a ferry horn...

 

Thanks, Brett! Yes, those PIAA trumpets sound so much better than our crappy little disc horns. Nice video find.

How do they sound compared to your 350Z?

The solution to my nagging questions are starting to fall into place:

 

Those PIAA horns are actually almost exactly like the stock Z horn:



This is the video the kid posted above. He blows the stock horn right before the ferry horn, though.

 

1997MAXZ: Thanks.

You've got me wanting train horns now.

Something about the idea of a little Nissan Maxima rolling around and sounding louder than a truck is just comical to me. Same with that 350z.

 

So... PIAA Sport Horns. I wonder how you mount them? Pointing downward, or pointing to each fender?

Anyone have any thoughts to the wiring? Would I have to use a relay and wire them separate, or could I just plug-n-play?

 

They have two flavors of PIAA sport horns. 400/500Hz and 500/600Hz. I like the higher 500/600Hz

 

The maxima horns are through relays all ready, so that should not be a concern unless the PIAA horns draw a hellacious amount of current. The relay is in the box by the power steering reservoir.

Also, leave the horn in that is under the hood by the reservoir as this is part of the car's security ststem.

 

400/500Hz for me. I like the "Americanized" (I guess you can call it that since most American cars honk in that key) better than the..well I don't know what to call the other set.

We have a third horn that I'm not aware of by the power steering reservoir?

 

I would call the other set, European. I wanted the car to sound different for I am in NYC all the time and I don't want to sound like every taxi in town. It seems like everyone is immune to the normal horn sound there.

 

Rochester ... I just bought my used on ebay. About half price. I really can't justify buying them new. I think that the supertones might be a little too much.

 

Thanks, gdal. I think I'm targeting the PIAA, however.


Ditto. I'm sold on this one. Ready to order the PIAA 400/500 Kit. Somebody stop me...


Ditto. As in, WTF?

 

I'm almost ready to pull the trigger as well. Looks like Amazon has it for the cheapest.

 

No one stopped me.

So I ordered the PIAA 400/500 kit through Amazon, at $48.59 shipped.

Yea! New Horns!

Here's a reasonable question: does it matter which sequence they install left-to-right... 400/500, or 500/400?

It's a race. I am weeening!

 

Too funny.

As for placement, I think that the only placement concern would be the trumpets. I would assume that the trumpets would be towards the outside fenders of the vehicle.

I also read that some guys peel the stickers off to make them more discreet through the grills.

 

I know, i think i would get to be an annoying bastard if I had that setup

 

I will upload a video with my Supertones alittle bit later...

 

Did any of you know there's a simple way to toggle the horn on/off so it no longer beeps when locking the car? Can't remember the key fob sequence... but I did it a few months ago, and much prefer the stealth lock over the look-at-me lock.

Just saying, because it's somewhat on-topic.

 

It's supposed to beep when you lock with the key fob? Mine never did that.

I did buy it used two years ago.

EDIT - think I found it:

 

 

I just took a look inside the front grill of my 2002 and realized why the horns sound so wimpy. Jeez, they are only like 2 1/2 inches in size. I may have to go for the PIAA 500/600

 

They are quite loud.

 

just hold lock and unlock keys for 3 seconds

 

Cant wait for you to get them installed. I am seriously considering getting them in the 500/600hz flavor.

Found a better video of the sound.

 

I've been eyeing the 400/500 PIAA's for months now, ever since I got my decidedly circus sounding Harbor Freight air horns. I also prefer the lower sound of the 400/500 over the higher 500/600. It just seems to fit the Max better imo.

 

The video does NOTHING for them... They are much louder than you think...