PIAA horns installed

[Codrew]

I installed a set of PIAA 600Hz/500Hz on my i3.

This is a sound test of stock vs the PIAAs. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17299176/mybmwi3/test.mp4

Instructions: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17299176/mybmwi3/i3horn.docx

 

[Stevei3]

Hi,
excellent info, thanks ! I have been toying with the idea to fit the regular 3 series horns.
Regards, Steven

 

[jadnashuanh]

Often, horns are activated by a relay. Louder ones often will draw more current. Overloading the relay contacts in such a case will shorten their life considerably. You might want to check both the relay and the fuse on that circuit and compare it to what you have as problems might not show up immediately. The gauge of wire going to them may also be marginal with a bigger load as well. To keep everything as light as possible, they may not use a common part, and chose a smaller one for the smaller load to save a small amount. Every little bit adds up when you look at it overall. IOW, making changes to a highly engineered car requires a bit more investigation and understanding than on more typical vehicles.

 

[user 1096]

Often, horns are activated by a relay. Louder ones often will draw more current. Overloading the relay contacts in such a case will shorten their life considerably. You might want to check both the relay and the fuse on that circuit and compare it to what you have as problems might not show up immediately. The gauge of wire going to them may also be marginal with a bigger load as well. To keep everything as light as possible, they may not use a common part, and chose a smaller one for the smaller load to save a small amount. Every little bit adds up when you look at it overall. IOW, making changes to a highly engineered car requires a bit more investigation and understanding than on more typical vehicles.

Amen; ran into those problems on a motorcycle; thus I can see a LOT of caution needed here even though I think the car desperately needs more horn or at least second tone to qualify as a BMW.

PS: Could not get your recording to play on my Mac.

 

[ChrisC]

I installed a set of PIAA 600Hz/500Hz on my i3.

This is a sound test of stock vs the PIAAs. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17299176/mybmwi3/test.mp4

Instructions: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17299176/mybmwi3/i3horn.docx

Thank you for posting this! A fellow i3-owning friend suggested I do this, saying it was trivial. "Just remove the frunk box and the horn is right there."

Uh huh. No, it' s not that simple. As your document shows, there a coolant tank to be moved (and how to remove it is only obvious after you've already done it once), even then the horn(s) are hard to reach, and then there's the wiring. The horn kit I bought (Wolo, not PIAA) provided the wiring info. Unfortunately, the bracket hardware provided in the kit was flimsy -- it looked to me like it would shake itself loose in no time. I probably could have addressed that with another hour invested in the hardware store (including travel time).

At that point, I'd already spent an hour on a project that I thought would take 15 minutes, and I hadn't even started cutting the wires and crimping new lugs on them. Now, consider that I didn't actually think the existing horn was so bad in the first place, and I just bailed on the whole stupid project. I put it all back together.

But thank you for the document! I would not have gotten past the coolant tank if not for your instructions. I do wish the pictures were higher resolution.