Go Back   986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners > Porsche Boxster & Cayman Forums > Boxster General Discussions

Post Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 11-15-2016, 07:20 PM   #1
Registered User
 
Porsche9's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 1,796
High vs low pitch horn

Anyone have experience with the difference in sound between a high and low pitch horn? Would like a plug and play option that has a deeper sound.

Suncoast Porsche Parts & Accessories Replacement Horn

__________________
03 Carrera
02 Boxster S Guards Red, black interior with matching hardtop
89 Carrera 4
89 944 S2
78 911SC
Porsche9 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-15-2016, 07:37 PM   #2
Registered User
 
BIGJake111's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Greenville, S.C.
Posts: 2,670
Garage
I think the car (and most) have both stock which is why buying both is an option. One for light press on the wheel the other for hard.
BIGJake111 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-15-2016, 08:27 PM   #3
Registered User
 
Porsche9's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 1,796
I've had the cowl off several times and only saw one horn on the drivers side off the battery. There is definitely is no difference on both my 986.1 and 996.2 between and light press and a hard press.
__________________
03 Carrera
02 Boxster S Guards Red, black interior with matching hardtop
89 Carrera 4
89 944 S2
78 911SC
Porsche9 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-15-2016, 08:58 PM   #4
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: LB, Germany
Posts: 1,456
Hello,

all Porsche stock horns are 2 sound horns. Sometimes over the years one of the 2 doesn't work anymore. You can't select between the 2 sounds with the stock circuit.

Regards, Markus
Smallblock454 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 12:40 AM   #5
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Singapore
Posts: 77
Sorry to hijack. My horn stopped working. I tried pressing hard previously and there was this soft squeak. After that no more.

What could be the reason? If I were to buy to replace, I could simply buy either high or low pitch horn?

One would do?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
perspectivism is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 05:05 AM   #6
Registered User
 
DrCactus's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Ottawa, ON
Posts: 452
Garage
I absolutely LOVE the deep trucker sound horn in my Porsche... you hit that horn and you can see the people jump right out of their skin. I wish every car has this powerful horn, sounds so good I enjoy blasting it off just for fun !! lol
__________________
DrCactus
DrCactus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 06:59 AM   #7
Registered User
 
jb92563's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Riverside, CA
Posts: 1,665
Hmmmm, I think we need the 2 horn system with one of the horns being an infrasonic so that you can make Texters and Honda racers yak on their windshields.

Could A Sonic Weapon Make Your Head Explode? | Popular Science

The beauty of the infrasonic horn is that you can't hear it. It just induces nausea.

I love technology!
Add another 1 to the cool mods list, right below the smoke cloud switch.
__________________
"It broke because it wants to be Upgraded "
2012 Porsche Performance Driving School - SanDiego region
2001 Boxster S, Top Speed muffler, (Fred's) Mini Morimotto Projectors, Tarret UDP,
Short Shifter, Touch Screen Dual Din Radio, 03 4 Bow glass Top (DD & Auto-X since May 17,2012)
jb92563 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 07:19 AM   #8
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 1,631
Quote:
Originally Posted by Porsche9 View Post
I've had the cowl off several times and only saw one horn on the drivers side off the battery. There is definitely is no difference on both my 986.1 and 996.2 between and light press and a hard press.
The horn under the cowling near the battery is only for the alarm system. The high and low note horns that both sound together when you hit the steering wheel horn button are located behind the front bumper on the passenger side.

Quote:
Originally Posted by perspectivism View Post
Sorry to hijack. My horn stopped working. I tried pressing hard previously and there was this soft squeak. After that no more.

What could be the reason? If I were to buy to replace, I could simply buy either high or low pitch horn?

One would do?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
The horns can fail because they are very low to the ground and can fill up with water. If you go through automatic car washes that have an under-chassis spray, that may send water into the horns and cause them to fail. I haven't taken my Boxster through automatic car washes that often, but in 13 years I have had the horns fail twice and now I don't ever go to automatic car washes and haven't had any horn issues even though I drive my car in plenty of rain. You can get by with just one note and one horn, or you can use two of the same note if you like, externally they are both the same mount and electrical connection.

You might be able to get to one of the two horns without removing the front bumper cover, but the only way I have been able to get to them is to remove the front bumper cover. It is a good idea to do this every year or two anyway to clean the debris from your radiators, ductwork and in between the radiators and air conditioner condensers that are sandwiched together.

The stock replacement horns are pretty cheap from places like Pelican Parts, where I've bought mine. If you decide to "upgrade" your horns, you may need to adapt brackets and electrical connections, the wiring harness has a Porsche/VW specific female plug to plug directly to the male connection on the horn.

If you're going to remove your front bumper to clean out your radiators anyway, then you can check if the horns are bad with a test light or a replacement horn. But if you don't want to pull the bumper cover to find out that it is a fuse or the horn button, then you should do some other diagnostics to figure out what's not working! Other than checking the fuse, I'm not the guy to tell you how to do that!
PaulE is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 08:52 AM   #9
Registered User
 
Porsche9's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 1,796
PaulE,

Thanks for the detailed information. That's very helpful!
__________________
03 Carrera
02 Boxster S Guards Red, black interior with matching hardtop
89 Carrera 4
89 944 S2
78 911SC
Porsche9 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 01:20 PM   #10
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: LB, Germany
Posts: 1,456
Quote:
Originally Posted by jb92563 View Post
Hmmmm, I think we need the 2 horn system with one of the horns being an infrasonic so that you can make Texters and Honda racers yak on their windshields.

Could A Sonic Weapon Make Your Head Explode? | Popular Science

The beauty of the infrasonic horn is that you can't hear it. It just induces nausea.

I love technology!
Add another 1 to the cool mods list, right below the smoke cloud switch.
I would prefer the old school ones. Just more fun.

Smallblock454 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 01:56 PM   #11
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Singapore
Posts: 77
Thanks PaulE...
But apart from stripping the front bumper and testing the horns directly... Is there any easier way to know if the issue is due to relay/fuse or faulty horns

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
perspectivism is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 05:07 PM   #12
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 1,631
Quote:
Originally Posted by perspectivism View Post
Thanks PaulE...
But apart from stripping the front bumper and testing the horns directly... Is there any easier way to know if the issue is due to relay/fuse or faulty horns

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
I bet there is, but aside from the fuse it's beyond my knowledge base. Maybe someone else can chime in about diagnosis. Perhaps there is a relay to test or can be heard to click when the key is turned on and the engine isn't running?
PaulE is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 05:08 PM   #13
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: Singapore
Posts: 77
Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulE View Post
I bet there is, but aside from the fuse it's beyond my knowledge base. Maybe someone else can chime in about diagnosis. Perhaps there is a relay to test or can be heard to click when the key is turned on and the engine isn't running?
Hi, thanks for ur helpful posts. How do we test the fuse then?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
perspectivism is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-16-2016, 05:22 PM   #14
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 1,631
Quote:
Originally Posted by perspectivism View Post
Hi, thanks for ur helpful posts. How do we test the fuse then?

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Look in the owners' manual for the fuse diagram, find the one for the horn, pull the fuse out and see if it has continuous metal inside the clear plastic or if the metal has been burned out of the middle portion due to an electric overload? Youtube has plenty of videos on testing fuses with a multimeter too.

PaulE is offline   Reply With Quote
Post Reply



Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On




All times are GMT -8. The time now is 04:48 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO 3.6.0
Copyright 2024 Pelican Parts, LLC - Posts may be archived for display on the Pelican Parts Website -    DMCA Registered Agent Contact Page