Some days I hate working on my car and the headaches of trying to get a 20 year old plastic clip to fit right make me question my sanity.
Other days a job goes so smoothly I feel inclined to make a post about it on Planet-9 so other people know how easy this job is. Today is one of those days.
For background, like many others my stock low tone horn stopped working leaving my car sounding like a wimpy child's toy when I try to honk at the myriad of pickups and semis trying to drive over my tiny German car.
I decided that I would use the horns that I have installed on several Mazda 3s instead of trying to source a stock
Cayman
low tone horn.
I purchased "HELLA 003399801 Supertone 12V High Tone/Low Tone Twin Horn Kit with Red Protective Grill" on
Amazon
for only $30. The only issue being that these horns have a different profile than the stock horns AND the wiring will have to be converted to blade type connectors. As someone who does not want to cut into my stock wiring harness more than I have to I started searching for some sort of wiring harness converter to blade type horns.
I was able to find "
Porsche
Horn converters" that convert the horn
plug
to blade style plugs but this was for newer style horns that
Porsche
use on their modern horns and NOT for the older style horns that
Porsche
used in 2006. I discovered that on my 2006
Cayman
(and probably all
987.1
Caymans
)
Porsche
used a horn that was shared with
BMW
manufactured by a company called "Clarton Horn". This helped me find the following wiring harness that converts "
BMW
" horns to a blade style connection for only $10.
"
Horn Connector Adapter Wiring Harness, Compatible with BMW, 2+2 Pack Pigtail Converter for Universal to OEM Horn Replacement (BMW)
"
LINK TO HORN HARNESS
With my parts in hand I attempted (and failed) to remove the bumper without removing the front wheels. I'd recommend just lifting the car off the ground and removing the front wheels to access the front bumper.
Watch this video on Youtube if you need help removing your bumper. Very easy to remove compared to some other cars that only use plastic trim clips to hold on the bumper
After the bumper is off and I removed the radiator ducting (3 small torx screws on each radiator duct) I was able to clean my radiators off and I had clear access to the stock horns that were failing me.
(Note: the horn wiring harness has some sort of temperature sensor connector that plugs into the radiator duct that must be removed for the duct to be removed.)
The next step is to remove the stock horn bracket. Once the horn bracket is removed you can easily unplug and remove the bolt from each stock horn. The bolt for the hella supertones fits perfectly through the stock horn mount. With one horn mounted downwards and the other horn mounted upwards using the extension bracket provided by hella I was able to easily fit the horns on the bracket, attach the blade style harness and then bolted everything back together.
I have attached some photos for reference but hopefully this post gives someone confidence in doing what ended up being a very easy and cheap job ($40) to complete.
NOTE:
This cross-posted on ******** as well just figured I'd post here as well in case it can help someone out. Figured it'd be helpful to know you can buy a cheap harness instead of cutting into the stock horn harness.
This is my first post on here so just let me know if I need to take it down or if it needs moved elsewhere for any reason!
Just fantastic and great post. I'll be doing my
981
horn this year and great to know about the converters. I'd really like to drop in a '60s Ferarri horn (Fiamm), but doubt there's space in there.
Great write-up and perfect timing as I currently have my bumper removed to chase an A/C leak. Adding these to the cart, will report if the harness is the same for .2 cars.
Confirmed that the horn harness works on .2 cars as well. Just completed the install on mine — thanks again
@joeltrg
! Ended up replacing just one of the stock horns as just Hella + stock combo was plenty loud enough .
If anyone is local to San Jose got a few extra harnesses.
