Yesterday a friend and I decided the stock horn on the smart fortwo just wouldn't cut it! In a traffic situation where I would need to use the horn to alert another driver of my presence I feared the stock horn was not loud enough and could not project over general road noise and vehicle music of other drivers.
So without even tearing into the smart to find the stock horn I decided to purchase a Compact Italian air horn to replace the factory horn.
I bought this product from
Griot's Garage. The horn retails for $39.99.
From here it was time to get in the smart and locate the horn. As I assumed the horn is located under the front bonnet on the driver's side of the vehicle. It can be seen by locating the power and ground wire that connect and the small bracket that holds it on, but with out removing the body panels there is no way to clear get to it.
So we started removing the body panels. First the front bonnet, next the driver's side side-skirt, then the driver's side wheel arch, and last a few front clips. The trick we learned here is that the body is very pliable and only required loosening from the body and did not need to be entirely removed. From here we had a clean look at the factory Bosch horn.
After removing the two wires from the back of the stock horn, we next removed the bracket from the body of the vehicle. The bolt was secured but only required a basic ratchet wrench.
Once, the stock horn was off, we plugged in the new horn to test for power, and to verify the product was functional. It worked perfectly!
Next we had to see how we would mount the new horn. The important thing here is to make sure the air horn was facing in a good direction so after a few test ideas, we were able to fit it in perfectly while using the stock brackets. Not a single bit of bending or cutting required! As you will note in the next picture rather then bolting from the front side of the bracket we bolted from the backside where there was more room for the new horn.
After we plugged the new horn in and tested it once again, we began to button up the body panels. Once everything was backed together, I took the vehicle for a quick test drive down some empty roads and just gave the horn some freedom.
Results: The horn is very loud and will get the attention of everyone around you. It kinda makes you laugh when you here it but more importantly it gets the attention of the driver who's blind spot you are in and begins to switch lanes in to you! For anyone who has spent time commuting on motorcycles, you understand the safety that a horn loud enough to be heard can bring you and I feel this is a great modification for the smart fortwo.
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