So I finally got tired of the weak "weep" sound of the alarm horn on my 2012 GLS and decided to replace it. I believe that the Limited and maybe the SE use a different horn or tone so this may or may not apply to those vehicles.
To contribute a little something to the forum, I decided to chronicle the process.
I started by listening to various sound clips of horns posted on youtube and amazon. Amazon has clips of the Wolo brand horns and Hellas and the others I considered were on youtube. For me, I preferred the sound of the FIAMM horns as they had more of a big car sound...i.e. lower tone and more authoritative sound. As this is just the alarm horn, I decided to stay with a single horn so I wouldn't have to worry with wiring a relay.
Here is the horn I went with, FIAMM 72112 Freeway Blaster Horn.
[attachment=28464:IMG_3252.JPG]
So I started by getting some sound meter levels for the stock alarm horn. All measurements were with the hood shut, from about 10 feet away from the front of the car. Car was on gravel driveway:
Single beep: 68 db
Setting alarm off: 79 db
Replacement Instructions -
1) Get your necessary tools together. 2 butt/crimp wire connectors, wire cutters, wire strippers/crimpers, electrical tape, short amount of speaker wire (3-6"), 10 mm socket, ratchet, zip tie, new horn. Wire shrink wrap optional but recommended.
[attachment=28466:IMG_3265.JPG]
2) Open the hood and locate the alarm horn. It's located mounted to the passenger side strut tower near the firewall.
[attachment=28465:IMG_3248...hlighted.jpg]
3) Use your ratchet and 10mm socket to dismount the whole factory horn assembly.
[attachment=28467:IMG_3250.JPG]
4) Release wire harness from the horn by pressing the connector on the harness and carefully sliding it off. Press here to release:
[attachment=28468:IMG_3251...hlighted.jpg]
Pictures of factory horn:
[attachment=28469:IMG_3254.JPG] [attachment=28470:IMG_3255.JPG]
5) Remove factory horn from the bracket using your 10mm socket and ratchet...we will reuse the bracket for our new horn.
[attachment=28471:IMG_3255...hlighted.jpg]
6) Unpackage new horn and mount onto the bracket where old horn was. I was able to use the factory nut, otherwise use the nut provided with the new horn. I did a couple of test fits after I mounted the horn to the bracket...do NOT mount the horn yet. I left the nut just a little loose and put the bracket in place. With my horn as it is a snail type, I wanted to make sure the opening was facing downward. This does 2 things...1) keeps water from pooling in the horn and ruining it and 2) helps with sound dispersion. When the horn goes off, sound bounces in all direction when it hits the ground. Once I got the angle right I pulled the bracket back out and tightened the nut holding the horn to the bracket.
7) Use wire cutters and cut the wire harness connector off close to the connector. The wires are quite short so the closer to the connector we cut, the more wire there is to work with. Once the connector is off, use your wire strippers to strip the wire and then install your butt connectors by crimping them onto the bare wire.
[attachment=28472:IMG_3256...hlighted.jpg]
[attachment=28473:IMG_3258.JPG]
8) As I wanted a little more slack in the wire in case of future horn replacement and also because the factory wire was so short, I added another 3-4" of high quality speaker wire. I stripped these on both ends. On one end I crimped the female spade connectors as shown here as a test fit on the horn to ensure they were tight.
[attachment=28474:IMG_3257.JPG]
9) I then took these wires off of the horn and used my crimpers to crimp the stripped end of these wires into the other end of the red butt connectors that were attached to the factory wires. Please note which wire is gray (positive) and which is black (negative). Mark these if you need to, to keep it straight which is positive and negative. Test all your wire connections to make sure they are secured and that the wire doesn't pull easily out of your connectors. Then either use the heat shrink or the electrical tape to wrap your connections to make them more water resistant.
[attachment=28475:IMG_3260.JPG]
10) Refer to the horn manufacturer's instructions to find out which terminal is positive and install install the corresponding female spade connector (this was our gray wire) over the male horn connector. Do the same with the other, ensuring they both fit very snug. If they don't use pliers to smash these down a bit to ensure tight connection. Then remount bracket with the horn attached. The mount has a small piece of metal that is bent over, make sure this fits into the hole below the bracket mounting hole on the strut tower to ensure that the bracket can't twist.
[attachment=28476:IMG_3261...hlighted.jpg]
11) Double check that the horn opening is pointed down again and adjust if necessary. Secure everything back up. I also used a zip tie/tie wrap to secure the excess wire to the existing wire harness.
[attachment=28477:IMG_3262.JPG]
12) Shut the hood and test everything. Put your tools away and go grab a beer...you're done!
Final test results using a Radio Shack Sound Level meter:
Stock horn - one beep 68db, alarm going off 79db
FIAMM replacement horn - one beep 68-69db, alarm going off 90 db.
So it's about the same loudness setting the alarm which is a good thing but 11 db higher when the alarm is actually going off! Win-win. Please note that this was tested over a gravel driveway which could lower the loudness a bit...over concrete should be louder.
Here is my youtube video of the before and after. 1st part is factory horn, followed by the FIAMM. Please note that both before and after were shot from the same exact distance...off of tripod that I never moved. They look like they were shot from different distances...was just camera zoom.
Hyundai Sonata GLS - Alarm Horn - Before and After
I am very pleased and no longer have to be embarrassed when arming the alarm.
I hope this helps at least a few of you.
To contribute a little something to the forum, I decided to chronicle the process.
I started by listening to various sound clips of horns posted on youtube and amazon. Amazon has clips of the Wolo brand horns and Hellas and the others I considered were on youtube. For me, I preferred the sound of the FIAMM horns as they had more of a big car sound...i.e. lower tone and more authoritative sound. As this is just the alarm horn, I decided to stay with a single horn so I wouldn't have to worry with wiring a relay.
Here is the horn I went with, FIAMM 72112 Freeway Blaster Horn.
[attachment=28464:IMG_3252.JPG]
So I started by getting some sound meter levels for the stock alarm horn. All measurements were with the hood shut, from about 10 feet away from the front of the car. Car was on gravel driveway:
Single beep: 68 db
Setting alarm off: 79 db
Replacement Instructions -
1) Get your necessary tools together. 2 butt/crimp wire connectors, wire cutters, wire strippers/crimpers, electrical tape, short amount of speaker wire (3-6"), 10 mm socket, ratchet, zip tie, new horn. Wire shrink wrap optional but recommended.
[attachment=28466:IMG_3265.JPG]
2) Open the hood and locate the alarm horn. It's located mounted to the passenger side strut tower near the firewall.
[attachment=28465:IMG_3248...hlighted.jpg]
3) Use your ratchet and 10mm socket to dismount the whole factory horn assembly.
[attachment=28467:IMG_3250.JPG]
4) Release wire harness from the horn by pressing the connector on the harness and carefully sliding it off. Press here to release:
[attachment=28468:IMG_3251...hlighted.jpg]
Pictures of factory horn:
[attachment=28469:IMG_3254.JPG] [attachment=28470:IMG_3255.JPG]
5) Remove factory horn from the bracket using your 10mm socket and ratchet...we will reuse the bracket for our new horn.
[attachment=28471:IMG_3255...hlighted.jpg]
6) Unpackage new horn and mount onto the bracket where old horn was. I was able to use the factory nut, otherwise use the nut provided with the new horn. I did a couple of test fits after I mounted the horn to the bracket...do NOT mount the horn yet. I left the nut just a little loose and put the bracket in place. With my horn as it is a snail type, I wanted to make sure the opening was facing downward. This does 2 things...1) keeps water from pooling in the horn and ruining it and 2) helps with sound dispersion. When the horn goes off, sound bounces in all direction when it hits the ground. Once I got the angle right I pulled the bracket back out and tightened the nut holding the horn to the bracket.
7) Use wire cutters and cut the wire harness connector off close to the connector. The wires are quite short so the closer to the connector we cut, the more wire there is to work with. Once the connector is off, use your wire strippers to strip the wire and then install your butt connectors by crimping them onto the bare wire.
[attachment=28472:IMG_3256...hlighted.jpg]
[attachment=28473:IMG_3258.JPG]
8) As I wanted a little more slack in the wire in case of future horn replacement and also because the factory wire was so short, I added another 3-4" of high quality speaker wire. I stripped these on both ends. On one end I crimped the female spade connectors as shown here as a test fit on the horn to ensure they were tight.
[attachment=28474:IMG_3257.JPG]
9) I then took these wires off of the horn and used my crimpers to crimp the stripped end of these wires into the other end of the red butt connectors that were attached to the factory wires. Please note which wire is gray (positive) and which is black (negative). Mark these if you need to, to keep it straight which is positive and negative. Test all your wire connections to make sure they are secured and that the wire doesn't pull easily out of your connectors. Then either use the heat shrink or the electrical tape to wrap your connections to make them more water resistant.
[attachment=28475:IMG_3260.JPG]
10) Refer to the horn manufacturer's instructions to find out which terminal is positive and install install the corresponding female spade connector (this was our gray wire) over the male horn connector. Do the same with the other, ensuring they both fit very snug. If they don't use pliers to smash these down a bit to ensure tight connection. Then remount bracket with the horn attached. The mount has a small piece of metal that is bent over, make sure this fits into the hole below the bracket mounting hole on the strut tower to ensure that the bracket can't twist.
[attachment=28476:IMG_3261...hlighted.jpg]
11) Double check that the horn opening is pointed down again and adjust if necessary. Secure everything back up. I also used a zip tie/tie wrap to secure the excess wire to the existing wire harness.
[attachment=28477:IMG_3262.JPG]
12) Shut the hood and test everything. Put your tools away and go grab a beer...you're done!
Final test results using a Radio Shack Sound Level meter:
Stock horn - one beep 68db, alarm going off 79db
FIAMM replacement horn - one beep 68-69db, alarm going off 90 db.
So it's about the same loudness setting the alarm which is a good thing but 11 db higher when the alarm is actually going off! Win-win. Please note that this was tested over a gravel driveway which could lower the loudness a bit...over concrete should be louder.
Here is my youtube video of the before and after. 1st part is factory horn, followed by the FIAMM. Please note that both before and after were shot from the same exact distance...off of tripod that I never moved. They look like they were shot from different distances...was just camera zoom.
Hyundai Sonata GLS - Alarm Horn - Before and After
I am very pleased and no longer have to be embarrassed when arming the alarm.
I hope this helps at least a few of you.
