[asethi]

I had messaged Reinhard couple of months back whether he had any plans to change the horns in his Nexon, and here you go!
I now have a reference for my next upgrade to my Nexon!

[G.Harry]

Thanks for the fantastic DIY! Your attention to detail makes it a lot easier for us newbies. Please keep up the great work..
P. S. - I still haven't been able to remove the orvm covers from my car

[silverado]

Beautiful thread, such DIY's inspire many others to do it as well.
I will surely give it a try on my Baleno.

Trumpets come in various flavors , like Skoda, Polo, Creta type etc.
My favourite is Creta type horn - i am not sure which brand it is, but thats what i would like to put on my Baleno.

My Nano already has a pair of Bosch trumpets since long time.( These are Polo type ).They are loud and i have to use them judiciously.
Nano would be the last car people expect to have such a horn, but nowadays even scooters have these!

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by asethi

I had messaged Reinhard couple of months back whether he had any plans to change the horns in his Nexon, and here you go! I now have a reference for my next upgrade to my Nexon!

Thanks Ankush - also for the PM yesterday. Appreciate the response. Good luck! I hope this thread will help.

Originally Posted by G.Harry

Thanks for the fantastic DIY! Your attention to detail makes it a lot easier for us newbies. Please keep up the great work..
P. S. - I still haven't been able to remove the orvm covers from my car

Thanks Harry! Glad you liked it. I sure will try to keep it up although I'm fast running out of ideas to implement on this car now! Ironhide's autobot emblem on the boot lid is already pretty justified considering the large list of modifications/transformations I have already done on the car .

As for the ORVM cover - well not being able to undo/remove panels on one's cars just shows how much you love your car and care for it. One has to be pretty stone-hearted to pull out these plastic panels.

Originally Posted by silverado

Beautiful thread, such DIY's inspire many others to do it as well.
I will surely give it a try on my Baleno.

Thanks silverado! Glad you liked it. Good luck, you can always reach out to me for any help. I will try to!

Originally Posted by silverado

Trumpets come in various flavors , like Skoda, Polo, Creta type etc.
My favourite is Creta type horn - i am not sure which brand it is, but thats what i would like to put on my Baleno.

Absolutely. My horns come the nearest to the Creta/Seltos units in this price range. The lower pitch of these horns is down to the larger diameter and wider trumpet opening.

If you don't mind spending around 2500 bucks for the sound quality (which I think is justified if the wish is that strong) - you can directly buy the genuine Hyundai Creta/KIA Seltos horn off Boodmo and install it in the Baleno. You'll need to either cut the connector or make a matching pigtail with matching connector which won't be too tough. Here are the parts -
(P.S. - if I didn't have these 2 horns already - I'd have purchased these for the 2500 bucks. Worthy thing IMHO.)

Link - Boodmo.com Certa/Seltos Low tone trumpet
Link - Boodmo.com Creta/Seltos High tone trumpet
(As you can see - the diameter is larger than usual horns & so is the trumpet opening.)

For a Baleno, best to use a separate relay harness I suspect.

Originally Posted by silverado

My Nano already has a pair of Bosch trumpets since long time.( These are Polo type ).They are loud and i have to use them judiciously.
Nano would be the last car people expect to have such a horn, but nowadays even scooters have these!

But nano also is the one car that nobody can get angry with! Even if you noise around with the horn and irritate someone ahead of you, they'll turn around with anger, see the cute little wonder, smile and move on.

[surajram]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

I had checked it specifically before installation, the stock horn itself drew 5A each. So I was sure that the stock wiring harness is absolutely fine. Yes the new horns are also 5A each.

...

This time I checked the stock horns in a very crude manner.

Some theory, and a few thoughts as to how I would have validated the wiring capacity. Mostly based on some experience I had designing electrical systems for telecom data centres a decade ago - but DC voltage circuits remain the same.

1. Voltage drop: Any wiring has resistance which is directly proportional to the length of the wire and inversely proportional to the cross sectional area. Now when electricity flows through the conductor from one end to another there is a drop in voltage due to the resistance of the wire, this is again directly proportional to the resistance and the current load through the wire. So in essence, 12V battery / alternator in reality provides slightly less than 12V to the device on the other end of the wiring. Most devices are designed to expect a slight increase/decrease in voltages, but the range is usually not clearly mentioned in most specification sheets.

2. Joules law of heating All wires generate heat when they carry current. This is directly proportional to the square of the current carried, the resistance of the conductor and the duration of the current carried. Wiring harnesses should be designed to keep the heat generated to a minimum by reducing the resistance, this is can be done by having shorter lengths and keeping the cross section areas larger as-much allowed by design and cost limitations.

3. Voltage & Current relationship: This is probably the basic, but most important part. When voltages provided to a device are reduced, the device would have a higher current draw. When current draw exceeds the design capacity, bad things happen - typically most of the insulation used fails due to the higher heat generated leading to short circuits. Modern electronics have several fuses and low voltage protective devices to avoid this and increase the safety, but in several automotive applications having some part of the car’s electrical / electronics shutdown during operation is understandably undesirable.

Given these considerations, wiring has to be designed to keep the voltage drop to the minimum required tolerance (I’m not sure of the manufacturers specifications). My personal preference while choosing wiring for the hobbyist electronics projects is to design for a 3-5% drop at peak loads and pick at least 1-2 sizes larger sectional area as much as the design or budget would allow. Invariably I choose several sizes above based on the wiring available on hand.

A. If possible, check the current load expected on the new horn at a 5-10% reduced voltage (10.8 to 11.4V for cars). A spec sheet might have it, but it is not a bad idea to just test it on a workbench like how Reinhard rested his old horns.

B. Measure the distance of the length of wire from the Battery/fuse box to the horn to the grounding point on the chassis. Precision is not necessary, and it’s okay to have error and estimate it on the longer end.

B. Use a DC wiring size calculator/chart (Several available online, one search away) To identify the right cross sectional area for the current load and wire length. Pick a larger size than necessary to be safe.

While all this rational approach might still say that the stock wiring is sufficient for the horn, I would still pick a slightly higher grade/size of wiring irrationally because it’s one of the cheapest electrical safety upgrades, and does give personal peace of mind and satisfaction of having over engineered. It’s no secret that even the best manufacturers design components to meet a target cost, and squeeze design tolerances wherever possible.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by surajram

While all this rational approach might still say that the stock wiring is sufficient for the horn, I would still pick a slightly higher grade/size of wiring irrationally because it’s one of the cheapest electrical safety upgrades, and does give personal peace of mind and satisfaction of having over engineered. It’s no secret that even the best manufacturers design components to meet a target cost, and squeeze design tolerances wherever possible.

Thanks surajram for the theory and detailed analysis. Useful indeed. I didn't see the point of over-engineering on a product that was already properly engineered by the manufacturer. The stock wiring is good. It supported the rating of the horn that came with the car. I'm replacing those with the same rated horns. Adding a relay harness would surely be over-engineering.

Your theory is true & I fully agree with it. Like I said elsewhere in the thread, I'll indeed be adding a separate relay harness with 1sqmm Polycab wires straight from the battery in the Alto K10. A car where I have seen the wires are made to cost & will not support the powerful horns that I intend to install in it. Cheers!

[SnakemanJohny]

OOH, I just love 'trumpet horns', or windtones, and hate the beep-beep types most cars come with. But generally I do not remove those TEE-TEE horns -- simply send them to a secondary circuit, preferably with a "melody maker", which makes them musical horns.

My Gypsy has a pair of Roots 'windtone] as the primary set (connected to the steering button). The Hella horns supplied by Maruti have gone to the standby circuit, and a third, single DOG HORN is the "emergency reserve" - for removing dogs and cows where nothing else works. There is a lot of space inside the engine compartment of a Gypsy, and all could be fitted in easily.

[knaveen]

Finally did a horn upgrade on my Nexon. Installed Hella red grills. Post installation notoced there is a piece of foam just above the radiator. Is this supposed to be here or got displaced during install? Not moving and appears to be held in place.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by knaveen

Finally did a horn upgrade on my Nexon. Installed Hella red grills. Post installation notoced there is a piece of foam just above the radiator. Is this supposed to be here or got displaced during install? Not moving and appears to be held in place.

Hey knaveen, apologies for the late response. So - what you see is what is expected. Those rather rudimentary pieces of foam are present in all Nexons. Here are pictures of my own car for reference. (Please excuse the horrible state of the car. Daily rains are causing a mud-bath.)







What you should check and be careful about - is a similar piece of foam, under the car. Its inside the black flat part of the bumper that runs under the radiators towards the engine drive shafts (but doesn't cover or protect them). It tends to protrude out when the bumper is getting fixed back into position after horn installation. If you see it peeping out, just push it back in using simple trim kit or even just hands!

[knaveen]

Originally Posted by Reinhard

What you should check and be careful about - is a similar piece of foam, under the car. Its inside the black flat part of the bumper that runs under the radiators towards the engine drive shafts (but doesn't cover or protect them). It tends to protrude out when the bumper is getting fixed back into position after horn installation. If you see it peeping out, just push it back in using simple trim kit or even just hands!

Got it. Will check it out. Thanks for info.

[sramdev9]

Amazing attention-to-detail and neatness of the work!! Good choice of horns they do sound loude and premium.

I too am a lover of trumpet horns and was the first thing i got installed in my car (even before the number plate &#128540. I’ve used Roots and Minda earlier.

I got the twins installed on my thunderbird as well, but one of them got spoiled due to water, so had to take them off. Will get them installed again sometime soon!

[Rshreyansh]

Beautiful DIY Reinhard sir.

I am a fan of windtone type of horns myself.
I got a pair of Hella Pearl Trumpets installed on my i20, those are any day better than the stock meek sounding single horn the car came with but not as loud as the myTVS horns you've installed on the Nexon.

After going through your DIY, I ordered the same pair of horn for my Safari. The car comes stock with dual horns but they're not loud enough and sound a little meek. I am hesitating to go with a relay as it will involve cutting of wires and will eventually void the warranty. So I wanted to ask you, Can I replace the horns with the trumpets on stock wiring without adding a relay ?

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by Rshreyansh

Beautiful DIY Reinhard

Thanks Shreyansh! Glad you liked it. Omit that "Sir" like I did .

Originally Posted by Rshreyansh

I am a fan of windtone type of horns myself.

Its just so obvious isn't it? These are so good! It is frustrating to see car makers skimping on this tiny item.

Originally Posted by Rshreyansh

I am hesitating to go with a relay as it will involve cutting of wires and will eventually void the warranty. So I wanted to ask you, Can I replace the horns with the trumpets on stock wiring without adding a relay ?

Absolutely. No relay needed. You can very safely install the said trumpets without a relay in the Safari. Since you are against wire-cuts - ensure you get the correct connector after checking the stock one in the car (in case your new horns have a different connector). Good luck!