FIT Horn DYI

I just purchased a new 2009 Honda Fit and was very excited about picking it up. Upon bringing it home, I pulled the car up to the house and let my family know I was hope by honking the horn. To my suprise, this is the sound that came out.

So I knew I had my first project...to replace this whimpy moped "meep" sounding horn with a real one!

After reading the fitfreak forum, a member posted that the Honda Civic horn was a direct plug and play replacement. The Civic actually has two horns, a lower frequency 400Hz horn and a higher 600Hz. The forum concluded that the 400Hz horn sounded the best and was an easy exchange. The Honda PN for the 400Hz horn is 38100-STK-A02. I oredered it from Hondapartsnow for about $15 including shipping.

Once it arrived, I got to work and started the replacement by taking out the old horn. Its a very simple process. First, open the hood and find the 8 black buttons on the plastic protector right in front behind the grill. The buttons are removeable by lifting up the middle circle with a small screwdriver. Then once its up a bit, pull it up as far as it goes with your fingers. Then pull on the outer circle with a screwdriver and pry each one out very carefully by had.

Next remove the plastic piece from the car to expose the area between the grill and radiator. You can see the horn to the right on the picture below. Next remove the plastic shield around the hood latch. This can be done by gently prying the two black buttons (right and left) on the shield.

Once that is off, you can see the bolt on the right side that connects the horn assembly. The bolt is a 12mm bolt that will come off with a standard wrench. Remove the bolt. The horn will still be held by the wire. To remove the connector, push down on the bottom of the wire assembly near the wire and pull the connector out of the horn assembly.

Its easy to see just by comparing the two horns that the new Civic horn (right) is a more robust horn that will sound like a real car horn!

The remaining steps are to fasten the new horn with the 12mm bolt and attach the black cover back around the hood latch assembly. The new horn fits closer to the black cover, but this does not affect its operation.

Now attach the cover with the 8 button type fasteners. Make sure to first insert the fasteners flush by the outer edge before pushing down the center button.