300C MITSUBA ROYAL ALPHA (HOS-01S) horn installation instructions

[Dimon]

All right guys, finally I could show you what I have done with my car!

I always wanted a cool loud and nice sound horn because I am sure our cars with their brutal appearance deserve it. But, on the other hand I definitely didn't want it to be as loud as a train horn. :-)

So I started studying MITSUBA horns and found out few interesting models:
Two of them which are the most expansive are MITSUBA SW-52 ($350) and their newest horn MITSUBA SW-53 ($500). They are 320/390Hz and 114dB both.
And a third model is the MITSUBA ROYAL ALPHA (HOS-01S) which is just a bit higher tone but the loudest one and is 330/390Hz with 115dB!
As I understood, first two models have such high price because of their electronic module interface that processes the sound. It can also make the sound to fade slowly when you stop signaling.

Taking into account that I don't need the sound fade and other models have higher prices I have chosen the HOS-01S horn. This cost me $200 plus shipping.
So below you can see what I've got:




Beware of fakes friends! As you see there is no doubt that these are really made in Japan.

And now you can see the difference between these and the 300C's stock BOSCH 420/510Hz horns:



Then it was the time to decide how I should mount them.

First we should take off the two plastic snap-in covers on the top right behind the fascia and remove the old horns:



MITSUBA'S horns have a different construction then our stock ones and their perfect install method is when they are hanging on their own brackets (excluding any of other brackets if possible). This is because their brackets are made of the special spring steel which allows them to reach their sound be the clearest possible. Besides the instruction says you cannot turn off the center screw on these horns so there is no way placing them horizontally just like the stock ones.

But taking into account there is no place behind the grill to mount these horns in their perfect way I have decided to mount them on the stock brackets first.
So I have bought two pieces of galvanized steel then cut, bended them and drilled new holes for the bolts:



Then I put them between the horns and the stock brackets on M8 bolts.
Another thing I had to do was to make two little ground cables and connect them both from the horns to the car's body:



But I didn't like it, because of the great offset I had to make in such case (so the horns won't touch the small radiator behind the grill). Besides the stock brackets have an M6 bolts and then follows the M8 which are stronger.
Plus as a result of the offset the passenger's side horn had some little vibration when the engine was at idle speed.

There was no way, but to find another place and I saw two plastic bases which are very hard and strong:



As you see the driver's side base has already a hole that is even a bit larger then for M8 bolt. It's probably for the Adaptive Cruise Control camera which my car doesn't have.
Then I made another hole in the passenger's side base and mounted the horn on its new place to look how it will be there (AFTER):



But as you see the new place was very close to the grill, so I hade to make a new pair of brackets with as short offsets as possible. Such brackets will also ensure the hardest mount of the horns we need:




Now you see the difference between long construction with its offset and the new one which almost hasn't it and that is very strong and hard.
The ground cables stay connected to their previous places by the M6 bolts used for the stock brackets in this case. And the stock brackets are now useless:



Another thing I had to do was to make a new cable lengthener to the driver's side horn, because the stock one's length is not enough to reach the new horn's contact:



So below you can finally see what we've got when ROYAL ALPHA horns are installed:




And below is the video so you can hear the sound they produce:

MOV06694.flv video by Levitsky - Photobucket

[orandaberg]

Good write up, where do you buy these horns tried the internet and found nothing

[Dimon]

Good write up, where do you buy these horns tried the internet and found nothing

Thanks! Well I have bought them here in Ukraine. But there are tons of Mitsuba horns on the http://injapan.ru/. This is like eBay, but unfortunately, there is no English website. But you can simply make a search and speak to the seller in English.

[srt8-in-largo]

Very cool!

[Dimon]

Thanks brother!