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Different Ways to fit an Accessory Horn to your Mini
People often ask me how to fit a horn to their Mini. There are a huge number of accessory horns on the market of varying types and quality. We sell a large range of different types of horns. Mainly we supply the Stebel make which are well known and of high quality.
When fitting a horn there are basically two ways of doing it. You can either substitute the existing standard horn for a different one or you can fit an accessory horn as well as keeping the standard horn.
When substituting the existing horn it is normally pretty simple because all the wiring and horn push is already in place and it is a relatively simple task of taking out the existing horn and replacing it with the new horn and connecting it up to the existing wiring. When doing this it is always a good idea to check the power requirement of the new horn before connecting it. If the power requirement is much greater than the standard horn it may be required to fit a relay otherwise you run the risk of burning out the wiring or switch or blowing the fuse. Many of the early minis had very basic wiring systems and only had two fuses to cover all the electrics and then they became extremely adventurous upgrading the system to four fuses! Eventually most electrical components were individually fused. Some horns we sell come with a relay included and others advise the use of a relay in the wiring instructions. If in doubt always fit a relay and you know you will be OK. Relays are cheap enough so expense is not an issue. It will involve a bit more wiring but nothing drastic.
If you would like to fit a different horn and also keep the existing horn it is a little bit more involved and there are in fact basically two ways of doing this. In each case you will need two separate electrical circuits, one for each horn.
The first way is to have the two horns wired up allowing you to use the existing horn push or switch for both horns. They can operate separately giving you the choice of which horn you would like to use at the time. This is done simply by the use of a changeover switch. The changeover switch has 3 positions. One is off and the other two will feed the current through to two different horn circuits independently depending on which position you set it in. Hence you can feed the current to each of the two horns as you choose just by flicking the switch over to the other and using the existing horn push to operate both horns in turn.
The other way is to wire the accessory horn on a completely separate circuit to your existing horn. If you do this you will need a separate horn button, separate wiring and a fuse holder and probably a relay. This is a bit more involved but not too much.
Although these jobs can be simply carried out by anyone who is practically minded and used to working on Minis it is always advisable to seek the advice of an electrician.
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