[bigmellon]

The stock horn is horrible... Thanks for the link on how to remove the front bumper. I can't really see where the horn itself is located though... When i look at mine, there is a small pocket on the passenger side and something that could be a horn up in there... Can anyone confirm this? Anyone have an exploded view detailing where I can find this beehatch?? There are too many panels to pull apart. I don't want to dismantle the whole front end.

Oh, and I tried the screaming out the window method. They consider that "aggressive" where I live... Doh.

I spoke with a body guy today who claims there may be a screw to adjust the loudness of the stock horn. Can anyone confirm this??

If not, I have already picked up a set of chrome dual trumpet air horns (118 dBA) http://www.wolo-mfg.com/air.htm I got the model 403. You can actually listen to them online!

Thanks!

 

[bigmellon]

Let's try that link again...

AIR HORNS

 

[Santa Fe]

Hmmm, my horn seems plenty loud, in fact it got through to a lady with a cell phone glued to one ear, veering into my lane in a Volvo SUV Saturday her with windows up and doing over 75. My windows were down and it sounded fairly loud to me. I wonder if there is some adjustment or you need to listen to it with the windows down? I did press the horn control all the way down - not just a friendly beep but a hey you or about to crash into me long sound.

 

[Croc-ket Man]

It's not just Caymans...I just had the horn replaced on the CS and was told that it is a common point of failure. When I tested 2CayGirl's Cayenne, same problem - one of the two tones was gone. Porsche may want to change suppliers.

 

[RichP]

I had this issue in my beater subaru from years ago; it had the dumbest little horn I ever heard. I had a friend gutting an m3 though, so a quick swap to some BMW horns, and the problem was gone!

 

[bigmellon]

I have officially rectified the situation...

It was 7 hours of two handy guys tearing into this thing! Had to pull the full fascia off of the car... Yes, there are two factory horns. Kinda whimpy IMO. Especially since a guy just tagged my car this past weekend because he "didn't hear the horn"!!! But, that is another story...

I took pics. Too late to post tonight. Lots of room up front. Actually more impressed with the car when seeing the underlying parts. Quite impressive. Love how the headlights "pop" out!! Cool. Made custom billet aluminum brackets to mount the horns. 118 dBA should get more attention! Could easily go back to factory horns, and even though about a selector switch... But alas... I like loud.

Another interesting note is that the alarm is a different horn! When you lock the doors and loeave a latch open... That is a seperate horn located near the battery. Maybe they did this for theft reasons. So you can't cut one wire and disable the alarm system... Either way - only waythe horn emits is when you lay on the steering wheel. Otherwise she chips like normal!

Have a great night! Will try to post some pics in the next few days.

 

[j_copeland]

are there two steering wheel activated horns, plus another for the alarm, for a total of three??

 

[bigmellon]

Yes. It is actually a total of three horns. One is right next to the battery, under the hood. Center of the car... hard for thieves to get at. This is what chirps when you lock the doors and left the glove box open... Small beep.

The steering wheel actuated horns are on the passenger side just undernath and center of the air inlet. Peek your head under there. You will see a small cut out (maybe 3 inches wide). Right straight up from that are the factor horns. There are two. Each have their own connector.

My assumption is that a thief could reach up and unplug the real horns... leaving the babies defensless!! LOL.

Been a long day... but now I get to upload some pics! Give me a few moments...

 

[bigmellon]

Here are some pics; http://www.planet-9.com/./downloads.php?do=file&id=123

I hope I placed them in the right area on the forum... Kind of to show where all the stuff is up front!!

(Hope the link works too!)

 

[bigmellon]

By the way... I tested them driving to work today! 90MPH, stereo up... and yup. I could still hear the horn! Woo Hoo! Not too obnoxiously loud though... but plenty loud enough to get your attention. 118 dBA. Seems pretty fitting for the car too. Not too high pitched, and not so deep you think a Mac truck is on your a$$.

 

[davidfromdallas]

My horns (plural) were fine until about a week ago when it became horn (singular). One of the two horns up front died and now it sounds like a 1970 Honda Civic.

I'll take it back to dealer to get it fixed...

 

[j_copeland]

thanks for your article and photos! I'm already planing to remove front bumper to install grill mesh-- for my Cayman and two others--would like to install air horns at the same time. Please describe how you wired-up the compressor. Do you get immediate response from the horns? --sometimes there can be a lag-time with airhorns, and an electrical relay can help.

 

[bigmellon]

Pretty simple to wire up...

There are two plugs going to the factory horns. The brown wires are chassis ground. The other two (black w white stripe & wblack w yellow stripe) are inpedendant power wires for the two horns. Must be different relays. I couldn't find a wiring diagram, so I just did some testing... Long story short - Tie both blacks together and both browns together. There is plenty of juice to power the small compressor directly.

The horns are as imediate as the factory horns. Only louder.

I would imagine that a mesh grill would get a few more dBA into the world... My horns are venting into the enclosed cavity of the front of the Porsche. Not a whole lot of openings to get the sound out...

 

[j_copeland]

I replaced my horns with two made by Hella. Fit right in--just need to supply one bolt/washers/lock nut for mounting to the stock bracket, and change the electrcal connectors. I found that one of my two stock horns was not working--that's why it sounded so lame. Problem was with a horn, not the wiring. The bad news--you need to remove the front bumper facia to get at the horns. At the same time, I cut and installed grill mesh for the left and right radiators. This is an all day project unless you've done it before, but now I have templates for the grill mesh, and experience removing the front bumper. Instructions for removing the front bumper were found on this webb site, and are almost perfect. I've added a few comments to that thread. I plan to install front grill mesh on two more Caymans that live in the area, and expect to install them in about 2 1/2 hours per car.

 

[bdklein]

We all know the real reason Porsche invested so much in VW. It was to get their hands on the VW horn. That's what the Cayman horn sounds like to me.

 

[tme110]

you know, I've never even heard my CS horn...