New horns

[exavid]

I finally broke down and got a pair of Hella horns to replace that 'meep-meep' horn on my GT. It was a bit tight getting two horns mounted under the left side cover but with a bit of trying different angles they both finally were bolted in. I bought a pair of Hellas and an included horn relay for around $35 and mounted them pretty much like the Web Bike World write up in the link below. It took about an hour and a half but most of that time was fitting the two horns into the available space. I used the original horn wires to operate the relay coil and fed 12V directly from the battery through an inline fuse holder to the NO contacts on the relay. Both horns were wired in parallel through the relay contacts to the battery with the ground side wired directly from the horns to the negative side of the battery. I prefer the better ground by wiring the negative side back to the battery because it's going to be a lower resistance path than using the bike's frame ground.
The new horns are a great improvement, MUCH louder with better sound quality. People are going to know I'm there if I need to honk at them now.


webBikeWorld link: BMW Scooter Horns - webBikeWorld

Horns on Amazon: Amazon.com: HELLA 007424804 Trumpet 12V High/Low Tone Horn Kit with Bracket: Automotive

 

[exavid]

I recently bought a code reader that I can use to see what BMW dealers see when they scan a bike. This unit shows a surprisingly large number of engine and equipment parameters. Unfortunately I discovered that when I use the new horns I installed the scan shows a short in the battery. I'm not too sure why the ECU throws that fault on horn operation, they work right and operate through a relay so the computer shouldn't see any difference in the load on the battery. Anyhow the easiest cure was to replace the original horn and get by with it until the warranty runs out and then put the new horns back in the bike. Since I still have the new horn wiring harness and connectors it won't take more than a few minutes to put them back in. I don't mind that fault showing but the dealer might have a problem so I'll have to wait. Too bad they really sounded good.

 

[TN_Sooner]

I worked on my BMW horn yesterday too - installed a Stebel. I left original horn intact, ran a direct power from the battery (switched off the original horn) to the Stebel. Had to separate the Stebel compressor from the hot and ran a piece of tubing between the two. The compressor sits on the right side, just below the battery and the horn sits on the left side, just above the original horn.

I had previously installed a pair of PIAA horns, but kept blowing them out when I used them. Didn't have this problem on PIAA horn installs on my other bikes, so don't know what to make of it.

That said - love the Stebel. I like to help educate folks that don't see me!

 

[exavid]

If possible see if you can get your dealer to see if the horn is causing a battery fault code when they check the bike. Mine definitely sees the increased current from the battery and causes the computer to throw a 'battery short' fault. It doesn't hurt anything just an unexpected battery current that the computer sees. My only concern was what the dealer would make of it when they do the next scheduled maintenance since they would have seen it. I don't want to have a warranty problem in the last few months of its term so as I said I pulled the new horns out until the warranty expires.

 

[dukdukman]

I am aware that this is an old thread, but I like to come back to the horn matter ...
I like to improve the decibels of the stock horn (2017 650 Sport) but prefer not to muck around with extra wiring, rather use the CAN Bus existing connections.
Is anybody aware that a non BMW OEM horn like that exists?
Alternatively, should I consider a BMW car horn, which has the right connector? If so, low or highsound version as I fear I wont have the space to mount bot?
Anybody dabbled with this ??