I had one complaint about our 2006 Honda Civic—an excellent car that has served us well since we bought it a year ago January. It came with a terrible horn. I mean, it was bad. I described it recently as sounding like a ‘rabbit being stepped on’, which is a slight exaggeration but gets the point across. Given that I live in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area and have to grapple with the gauntlet of this area’s rush hours, I wanted my car to have a horn that sounds at least slightly imposing. So I fixed it!
As part of my newfound interest in maintaining and repairing my vehicles myself, I figured that replacing the Civic’s horn would be a good weekend project. So I made another run to the auto parts store, picked up some ramps and chocks, bought a $20 low-tone horn (the ‘Freeway Blaster’ ;-)) and got to work. Mind you, this is not as easy a job as it sounds—on 8th generation Civics, replacing the horn requires the removal of the front bumper panel and grille assembly.
Photos (taken by Melissa):
A little bit of prep-work.
All ramped up.
Disconnecting the bumper panel.
(It was held on by two Phillips screws and eight plastic clip things).
Removing the grille cover.
(It was held on by four plastic clip things).
Disconnecting the grille.
(It was held on by two hex screws and permanently attached to the bumper panel)
The exposed front-end.
(The horn is to the right, below the bumper)
The bumper panel & grille assembly on the grass.
Removing the terrible original horn.
More removing the terrible original horn.
The low-tone ‘Freeway Blaster’ replacement horn, installed!
Bumper panel and grille assembly re-installed.
All done and off the ramps.
Mission accomplished!
Before and After Audio: