Today my Y-reg Ford Ka needed a new horn after its had its annual service, it sounds quite flat & the techinician at the Ford franchise reccommended a replacement.
How long do horns really last? Does it depend on how often you use it?
Any comment will be welcome :-)
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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I think it does depend on how often you use it because ive herd someone wear onw out.
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You used to be able to twiddle a screw in the back of the horn to tune them. Not sure if same applies these days or not though.
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Varies.
I've had ones fail after two years, and no amount of adjustment would fix. Welded or one piece body so could not take it apart.
The actual principle is very simple, and old ones are often quite easy to mend. I fixed one of about 1930 manufacture two years ago, and once painted and I?d made a new gasket it looked as though I'd get a few more years yet out of it.
Haynes book sometimes has the adjustment wrong I've found. But if it does not work you have nothing to loose, so try screwing the screw out as well as in. Horns do consume a lot of current and the contacts can effectively "grow" under some circumstances.
If it has a screw, twiddle - use a lead to dab on the power - you'll see if it is sucking amps or not. Most multimeters do not handle anything like the current a horn needs and often cars that have ammeters - do not include the horn in that circuit.
Modicum of care needed, big currents (say 30 ampere at 12 volt), fat sparks, avoid explosive mixtures, not for small children or the nervous etc.
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Horns are generally an item which i would have thought last quite a while. Can't say I?ve ever heard of anyone having to replace a one before. Having said that, mine never used to like the damp. Quite infuriating when you want to give someone a damn good blast....but can't because the thing won?t work
However, it was easily fixed, just unscrewed it from the car and slammed it off the ground, like Neanderthal man cracking a nut, until all the crud dropped out the inside. Work nicely ever since!
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Just use your middle finger... ;-)
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If it's the horn itself rather than the connections, a breaker's yard is probably the cheapest option.
In one of my few successful forays into DIY, in my youth I replaced a defective horn on my mum's Morris 1100 with one off a deceased Ford van. It went PEEP, as old Ford vans did, in a rather more plebeian way than Morris intended, but it was highly effective.
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I remember when my old Yahama 'fizzy' failed it's MOT because the horn was too quiet. The solution - the guy that did the MOT also ran a bicycle shop and fitted a bulb horn to the handlebars of said motorbike, resulting in a pass.
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You can buy a new horn from Halfords in either single or dual tone. Our Micra came fitted with such a feeble horn that we actually upgraded it with a dual tone for about 15 quid. My dad doesn't use it very often, but on the occasions when he needs it I think it was well worth it. It's about as loud as the one fitted to my BMW, I don't think people expect a Micra to make so much noise! :-)
Blue
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This has just reminded me that I have had my car 7 months and have yet to try out the horn! I'll try to remember to do it today.
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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There is a rather good selection of horns here
tinyurl.com/arrqq
including (but not limited to) the godfather, the dukes of hazard, cavalry charge and the cucuracha. Pure class. Also an old "klaxon" type. The site plays samples of each horn. I've thought about a 24v truck horn but may have power supply issues in a Punto. Also I'm not sure about the legality of airhorns and tunes.
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How long they last does depend on how much they are used. Many years ago when China used to import either complete lorries or selected components, they found horns failed at about 3 months due to the excessive use they received. Eventually they manufactured the horns locally and they never went wrong due to over engineering - plus they cost less than imported models.
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I guess I am just unlucky.
I bought a new Punto in Jan 2002, the horn packed up in Feb 2003 & I replaced it with a genuine Fiat spare from the Fiat dealer, that one has now packed up.
So I have experience of Fiat horns lasting 13 months and 2 years 4 months.
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>>I guess I am just unlucky.
I bought a new Punto in Jan 2002, the horn packed up in Feb 2003 & I replaced it with a genuine Fiat spare from the Fiat dealer, that one has now packed up.
So I have experience of Fiat horns lasting 13 months and 2 years 4 months.
I thought i was unlucky considering i live in High Wycombe!!
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Its not what you drive, its how you drive it! :-)
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