Horn Upgrade

wilco184

Member of the year 2015
Hello,

It's pretty obvious that the A2s horn is not its strongest point. People certainly don't seem to notice it, on the odd occasion I've had to use it. I'd been looking at the possibility of upgrading or replacing the horn such that it's a bit more 'substantial'.

After some research into this, the A2 uses a single 'high tone' horn, mounted behind the front bumper. For Audis of similar age with a dual tone horn setup, the same horn as fitted to the A2 translates as a 'low tone' horn. Complicated? I planned to fit the 'high tone' horn from a B7 A4 alongside the original, in a dual tone setup. This horn shares the same connector as the A2 and mounts the same way, so I'd be able to make the installation as OEM as possible.

For future reference:

The standard A2 horn is 8Z0 951 221 B, which has a frequency of 400 Hz.
The horn I added from the B7 A4 has a part number of 8E0 951 223 C, which has a frequency of 500 Hz.
The connector needed to add the second horn is 4D0 971 992.

I installed the horn by splicing the new connector into the existing wiring, and mounting the new horn near to the original. Thankfully, the original horn mount is made of 3 sheets of metal, so you can use one sheet for one horn and two for the other. No manufacture of a new bracket is needed. The wiring near the horn connectors was then re-wrapped in Tesa tape, as can be seen below.

I have taken some pictures as well, which may be of use to anyone planning to complete this modification.

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The new horn setup is far better, and much more noticeable. :D

Regards,

Matt.
 
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Thanks for the write up Matt.
How easy was the front bumper removal?

I expected removing the front bumper to be very hard, given how hard other plastic parts on the other A2 are to remove, the side sill trims spring to mind. Actually though, I thought they were pretty easy. There's only 4 screws on each side behind the wheel liners, two screws near the headlights, three connecting to the undertray, four plastic rivets where the bonnet meets and two little clips in the engine bay. All pretty simple. Removing the bumper is certainly do-able in a couple of hours if working carefully and methodically, and reassembly seemed to be even easier. :)

Regards,

Matt.
 
Excellent work Matt. I remember the horn being quite pathetic, and making me laugh when I did rarely use it. (I believe the same horn setup was fitted to Noddy's car) As you say, other motorists don't tend to hear it.

By contrast, the twin tone on my new Audi startled me a bit when I last used it (windows open). Hope yours sounds as 'beefy'.
 
After reading your post last week I tested the horn for the first time and it was really ridiculous. It is even worse that the horn on my Vespa.
I copied your idea and bought a par of Horns from an A8. Next step is to mount them when I have time.

A small car need a BIG HORN! :D
 
Excellent work Matt. I remember the horn being quite pathetic, and making me laugh when I did rarely use it. (I believe the same horn setup was fitted to Noddy's car) As you say, other motorists don't tend to hear it.

By contrast, the twin tone on my new Audi startled me a bit when I last used it (windows open). Hope yours sounds as 'beefy'.

Thank you, John. :) The twin horn setup on your A8 is, I believe, the same as I have fitted. I know what you mean about it sounding 'beefy', its not the volume that changes dramatically as such, more the tone is a lot more aggressive. Sometimes useful in a smaller car.
 
After reading your post last week I tested the horn for the first time and it was really ridiculous. It is even worse that the horn on my Vespa.
I copied your idea and bought a par of Horns from an A8. Next step is to mount them when I have time.

A small car need a BIG HORN! :D

That's good to hear, steaman! :)

We'd all be interested to see how your installation went, please let us know, if possible. Both the D2 and D3 A8 horns are of the same frequency as my A4/A2 horn setup as far as I know, so we should have similar results. Hope all goes well. :)

Regards,

Matt.
 
I'm doing this!
After I almost got pushed over the road by the 20 tons truck which started to pass the other truck on an uphill road, without noticing that I was already passing him first!
There was no chance he could hear my baby horn!
A pair of A6 horns are on the way and I'm not going to place them behind the engine!
 
Hello,


For future reference:

The standard A2 horn is 8Z0 951 221 B, which has a frequency of 400 MHz.
The horn I added from the B7 A4 has a part number of 8E0 951 223 C, which has a frequency of 500 MHz.
The connector needed to add the second horn is 4D0 971 992.


Regards,

Matt.

Matt

A very worthwhile upgrade but I do hope you are mistaken with the horn frequencies as even the bats may have difficulty with 400MHz !

Geoff
 
Matt

A very worthwhile upgrade but I do hope you are mistaken with the horn frequencies as even the bats may have difficulty with 400MHz !

Geoff

Well spotted Geoff! :p

I've edited my original post to correct it to hZ, thanks for letting me know.

Regards,

Matt.
 
I'm doing this!
After I almost got pushed over the road by the 20 tons truck which started to pass the other truck on an uphill road, without noticing that I was already passing him first!
There was no chance he could hear my baby horn!
A pair of A6 horns are on the way and I'm not going to place them behind the engine!

Excellent, Darko. I look forward to hearing of your progress. :)

If possible, it'd be great to see some pictures of your installation!

Thanks,

Matt. :p
 
I have tried to find horns localy, but no breakers have been in mood to pull only the horns out, except one, but when he emailed me a 105 Euro price for one horn, I bought a par of A6 horns with a complete harnes, used from a German breaker, for 67 Euro:

Sie haben folgende(n) Artikel gekauft:
Original Audi A6 4F Hochtöner 4F0951223 Tieftöner 4F0951221
Original Audi A6 4F Kabelbaum Leitungssatz 4F0971073

I'll be horning next week like a madman :)
 
Hello,

I installed the horn by splicing the new connector into the existing wiring, and mounting the new horn near to the original. Thankfully, the original horn mount is made of 3 sheets of metal, so you can use one sheet for one horn and two for the other. No manufacture of a new bracket is needed. The wiring near the horn connectors was then re-wrapped in Tesa tape, as can be seen below.
Matt.

Matt
Have you uprated the horn relay or are you happy that the existing one will handle double the current?

I can't imagine for the short duration of horn operation that it would be an issue but I would be interested to know the view of others.

Geoff
 
Matt
Have you uprated the horn relay or are you happy that the existing one will handle double the current?

I can't imagine for the short duration of horn operation that it would be an issue but I would be interested to know the view of others.

Geoff

Hi Geoff,

I did not change the horn relay as I am happy that the existing one will be able to handle the current.

The horns are rated at 72W each, meaning a load current of 12 Amps total. The fuse for the horn circuit is of 25A rating, and so should easily be able to handle the extra current. As the horn relay is protected by this fuse, I would expect it to be of greater capacity than the fuse; although I cannot confirm this.

As you say, I would also be interested to hear the views of others. :)

Regards,

Matt.
 
I'll try to do it like you, Matt, I guess there won't be problems with the relay.
Just picked up the package, looks good to me, some cleaning needed.
Check the mounting thing, maybe I should just screw the whole thing somewhere close to the bumper

image.jpgimage.jpg
 
They work and the sound is excellent. No relay or fuse problem.
Chopped the A6 horn mount just to get them fixed for the testing, didn't have time to make a better mount, but I think I'll have them there, behind the light

image.jpg
 
They work and the sound is excellent. No relay or fuse problem.
Chopped the A6 horn mount just to get them fixed for the testing, didn't have time to make a better mount, but I think I'll have them there, behind the light

View attachment 19360

That looks great, Darko! :)

I should clarify for anyone else considering this mod, that it is possible to splice into the horn wires from behind the headlight, should you want to locate your horns in the engine bay. The wires for the horn run and merge with the wires from the RH headlight connector. I chose to put my extra horn behind the bumper purely to keep it all looking as OEM as possible, but this is optional.

Regards,

Matt.
 
Little more fitting this morning, I guess I'm done.

image.jpg

The tunnel honk video didn't work for some reason.
Here's a better one

[video]https://youtu.be/BoDFm5zSyqU[/video]

Thanks for this idea, Matt!
 
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This thread prompted me to go ahead with this mod and it only took an hour!

The thought of having to remove the bumper to get at the existing horn was putting me off but the easy identification of the horn wiring confirmed by Matt, encouraged me to aquire a 500Hz horn (from a mk1 TT)

Simply removing the offside headlight and removing the horn fuse (No 8) I was able to splice into the existing horn wiring and mounted the new horn directly beneath the offside headlight. Not strickly oem I know (but neither is a two tone horn). It is not visible from the engine bay and it is within a foot of the original.

Thanks to all the posters who made it possible to acheive without the hastle of bumper removal.

Now I can honk my horn with pride rather than embarassment.

Geoff
 
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