DIY - Hella Supertone horns installation on FR-S
 

The Hella Supertone horns are rated at 6 Amps. The system as seen by the fuses, can handle up to 7.5Amps.
Also as you can see from the wiring diagram, the system already incorporates the use of a relay. This is the reason why I decided not to use the relay that might or might not come with some of the Hella supertone kits.

This guide is to assist on the installation of the Hella supertone horns on the FR-S.
The Hella supertone horns consist of two disc horns. One high pitch and one low pitch. A relay might be included in your kit, however it will not be required for this guide.
For the purpose of this guide, RIGHT means right side of the vehicle AKA passenger side. LEFT side means left side of the vehicle or driver's side.
Please be aware this is a guide only. I have tried to do it as accurate as possible. I will not be held responsible for any damage or issues that arise due to following this guide.
Horns cost me 80 dollars here in Toronto, Canada

Tools required:
- 16 gauge wire
- Flat screwdriver
- 10mm socket
- 12mm socket
- Ratchet or driver for socket.
- Wire cutter
- Wire stripper
- Crimp pliers
- One 10mm bolt and nut
- Soldering iron (optional)
- Plastic ties
- Assorted crimp terminals


----------------------------------------------------------
Important!
-- Disconnect the negative battery terminal --

Getting parts ready

Ground wires for high pitch and low pitch horns
- Cut two pieces of wire about 20cm long.
- Strip about 0.5cm of insulation
- Twist the exposed copper wires, at this point you have two options.
*A. Crimp the connectors directly to the exposd wires or
*B. Tin the end of the exposed wires before crimping the connectors on it.
- Install one female crimp terminal on one side and one round terminal on the other. repeat for the second wire.


- These wires will be used to ground the horns against the re-bar.


Wire to supply power to the high pitch horn
- Cut one piece of wire about 25cm long.
- Crimp one Female crimp terminal to one end and strip about 1cm of insulation of the other end. The end with no connector will be soldered to the vehicle's wire. This will be used to supply power to the high pitch horn.

Wire to supply power to the low pitch horn
- Cut one piece of wire about 150cm long. I made this wire extra long to be able to route and conceal it. you might get away with a shorter wire.
- Crimp on male crimp terminal on one end and a female crimp terminal on the other. This will be used to power the low pitch horn.

Remove side marker lights
- Removed the clips holding the front wheel fender liners.

- Using a small flat screwdriver, insert and gently pry the retainer for the marker light.


Remove all clips and bolts holding front bumper
- Remove two clips and five 10mm bolts holding the top portion of
- Remove two clips (one on each side) right above where the side marker light would sit on
- Remove clips holding the lower portion of the bumper.

- Find a friend to help you with the final removal of the bumper. Gently pull the bumper away from the vehicle starting on either left and right side edges. As you remove the bumper unplug the connectors for the parking/turn signal lights (and fog lights if applicable). Place the bumper on a safe place.
- You will find a large piece of stirofoam sitting on the front re-bar, you can remove it as it just sitting there. REMENBER TO REINSTALL STYROFOAM ON THE RE-BAR BEFORE INSTALLING THE BUMPER.

Removing OEM horns
High pitch horn
- The high pitch horn is mounted on the underside of the reinforcement bar in front of the condenser, see picture.
- Unplug the connector for the high pitch horn.
- Remove the 12mm bolt holding the horn
- Remove the 10mm bolt holding the bracket against the re-bar. remove the bracket. This 10mm bolt will be reused to install the ground wire.
Low pitch horn
- The low pitch horn is further to the side (further to the right side of
- Unplug the connector
- Remove the 12mm bolt holding the low pitch horn.

Installation of ground wires
- Using the 10mm bolt front the bracket for the high pitch horn, install one of the ground wires previously made on the same location.

- You will need an extra 10mm bolt and nut for this step.
- Find the hole as seen in picture and using the bolt and nut connect the second ground wire for the

Power wires for horns
- The OEM high pitch horn connectors has two wires. one is solid black (ground) the other is black with a green line (power). We need to cut the terminal off and you have one of two options:
*A. Solder the newly created high pitch wire to the black wire with a green line or
*B. Use a crimp connector to attach the previously made wire to the black with a green line wire.
- Connect wire previously made for the low pitch horn. The blade terminal should slide onto the OEM horn connector (the OEM low pitch horn plug only has one wire).

Hella horn mounting
I wanted the horns to be on display and be symetric left to right.
- Remove the 10mm bolts were the Hella horns will be installed (see picture)
- Connect one ground terminal to each of the Hella horns (horns have no polarity so pick either terminal). Just make sure one ground per horn.

As you can see in the pictures, remove the 10mm bolt and install the high pitch hella horn (marked 500Hz) on the right side (right side of the car) and the low pitch Hella horn (marked 300Hz) on the left side of the car.
- Secure all the wires using
- If you removed the styrofoam on top of the re-bar now is the time to place it back.
- Re-installed th
Connect the negative terminal.
Set your clock to the current time.

This is exactly what my car needs, thank you for the DIY.
Mind me asking the cost of the Horns? I have seen different prices onlie

Awesome write up! Thanks much for the effort.

I've been waiting for someone to blaze this trail... the stock horn us uber-pathetic!

Added to the DIY Directory:
http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7365

Would it be the same installation on a BRZ?

Yes, this instructions should also work on the BRZ. Just keep in mind that there might be two connectors needed to disconnect when removing the front bumper. One connector for DRL and the second one for the foglights

Ordered mine off ebay for like $60 give or take a few bucks

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

Just curious, why did it not need the relay? I bought some Supertones for my MR2 but i wasn't sure if I'd need the relay for my application.

I would probably use the relay if you plan on hooking up the Supertones and keeping the stock horns.

As you can see on the wiring schematic the FR-S has a horn relay.
Thus an extra relay is not required since the system can take the new horns. Notice that both horns are protected by separate fuses rated at 7.5 Amps. The Hella supertones are rated at 6.5 Amps each.

I paid 80 canadian dollars here in Toronto

Where did you get it ? I'm looking online but hard struggle to find one

Got the link to the seller ?

Just posted the link and tried it myself, bid ended sorry!

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I'll just buy it now , couldn't care less about bidding

I did "buy it now" too so they are all.probably sold

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if someone could post a before and after video of the sound that would be awesome!

I wanted to go out after work and pick up a set of these horns but my only worry is....how well does the bumper cover go back on?

Obviously it should go back on perfectly but I guess my question is really how precise and anal do you need to be to get it perfect? I looked at a fellow members BRZ that had its front bumper cover replaced and although it was 95% perfect, it wasn't factory perfect. This of course MAY be the result of the small critter his car came in contact with that could have potentially damaged/misaligned other flexible parts that the bumper cover mounts to.

looks cool through the grill. did you happen to do a stock vs hella sound vid? that would be sweet

I like how it looks like a pair of eyes behind the grille. I wonder if you can disassemble the red protective grille and spray paint it a reflective/glow in the dark red paint. :eyebulge:

Sound Clip?

+1

Would these be worth the money or even work?

http://www.subimods.com/electronics-...-kit-2041.html

Thanks

Worth it? Took all of 5-10 minutes to make a few short wires, and fish one one long one inside the bumper beam to keep it hidden. $35 is not worth it to me.

Even work? Driver01's instructions and diagram explains well how you don't need any additional fuses or relays. The BRZ was a very different setup in the stock wiring than my RS. If this was built for RSs to STis, then I don't think it will help.

sorry complete eletric noob couldnt read the diagram at all

Thanks for the write-up. It helped me get my Hellas installed!

So wait, do I need to buy two fuses? Or does this car have them stock.

Here it is:

Beep Beep!


:lol:

It is a nice Italian sounding 2 tone like you'd expect on an Alfa or a Fiat.

Can I get a reply? Do I need to buy two fuses to wire in between the Horn and the Relay or no? Thanks!

Approximately how long did it take you?

I think somebody posted on the first page that all the fuses and wiring are included along with a relay that won't be needed in this vehicle.

These cars are so low, SUV drivers have a hard time picking them up in their blindspots. Almost had an SUV run me off the road this morning. The wimpy stock horn is awful. Going to see about getting one of these installed.

@driver01: +1

Took me about 2 hours but I took my time and planned all the wire runs. Didn't want a half-ass install and I certainly didn't want to have to fix a shoddy install in a couple years. :)

Any reason not to keep the stock horns?

Just put mine in, had em left over from my WRX so I figured what the hell. I used a relay. I read the thread but for some reason I have this apprehension about cutting oem wiring. If I dont have to, I dont.. so.. I didn't. Used the factory low tone feed to fire the relay and other than grounding the relay itself and running power from battery to relay the install was very similar to the one above. pics shortly.. right now its 2 am and I'm shot. ;)

Any chance the hella's would fit where the stock horns were?

Here's how I did mine. Yes, the horns paired up will fit in the factory grill location or you can split them up. Since they're designed to work together though and a little higher pitched than factory I wouldn't recommend hiding the low tone behind the bumper like done from the factory. Might give a undesired muffling effect.

Relays are pretty easy to wire up and only require 4 connections. One for trigger (factory horn wire) one to ground the relay itself, one is power from the battery and the other is the lead that will power the horns. Deeper descriptions of relaying wiring can be found on www.the12volt.com .

Granted, it wasn't NEEDED for the FRS but since I already had it ready to go and it allowed me to not cut any wiring (leaving ability to go back to factory later if need be) I chose to go this route. I also used a relay socket from parts express ( www.partsexpress.com ) that makes it easier to wire and if the relay needs replacement later its as simple as removing the old and plugging in a new.

Time wise, took me about a hour n half of actual work taking my sweet old time. Most of that was removing the bumper, the rest was making sure everything was neat and bundled correctly (loose wires make fires). Mounting was pretty simple.. I used the factory high tone horn bracket and grounded to the horns to their mounting point similar to the install detailed above. Here are some pics.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...k/SAM_0499.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...k/SAM_0498.jpg

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...k/SAM_0504.jpg

No wires showing, I made sure to run the power wire in tight with the factory harness and keep it under the factory terminal cover.
http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h1...k/SAM_0497.jpg

Really considering these horns but can somebody post a sound clip of them?

I'll see what I can do.. need to put my bumper back on first :p lol Then find a place where I'm not going to piss anyone off running the horn over and over. These are LOUD. Though, they're higher pitched than the factory horns they are quite a bit louder.

Here's a youtube clip

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XLULsqTIpA"]Stock RS horn vs. Hella Supertones - YouTube[/ame]