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                                                               Horn Relocation                                                06/10/2008

 Following a few wading sessions in the Disco, I once pressed the horn and to my surprise It sounded like a toy "noddy" car "beep beep". It was a pathetic sound, much to the amusement of the guys offroad with me at that time. I replaced BOTH horns with new items after the long wading sessions at the Billing Land Rover show, this had finished them both off.

It actually happened again  !! in North Wales after a swim through the Corwen Carwash (see videos page), this again provided some amusement to the guys with me camping during that weekend.

There could really be only one reason, and that is they were full of water. After stripping down the front end of the car to get to them, it was confirmed that yes they were FULL of water. They were taken out, shook about, had a hairdryer on them to help dry them out, once all the water had been removed, they were plugged back in and tested. They worked fine and I was happy especially as they were fitted brand new a few weeks before................Until............

Yesterday, another swim session at a local ford had again filled them up with water !!!. This issue had to be sorted once and for all, so after again stripping the front end out and removing the horns, emptying the water and drying them out, it was time to find a new home for them.

The horns are in a stupid place to be truthful, they are behind the grille, one each side and they are perfectly positioned for the sound to get out, but also to scoop up water and fill themselves up during wading. They are circled below.

Below is a closer picture of the right hand side just behind my winch remote bracket. You can see the way the "horn" will just scoop up any water when wading !! and they do !!!. The plastic deflector panels either side of the headlights actually assist in sending water into the horns as well. The horns are simply mounted by 1 stud and a 13mm nut.

So, I looked for another place to mount them, you could obviously move them right up into the engine bay, this would def keep the water out, however it would probably "mask" the sound to much for normal use. So after fiddling here and there I decide to mount them behind each headlight.

On the Airbox side, I removed the air cleaner assembly, this is easy to do, just unclip the cover as if your changing the air filter, remove that completely, including from where it clips to the airflow meter. Unplug the air temp sensor and pull off the vacuum hose as well. The "box" itself is just a push fit into 3 rubber mounts down into the inner wing, it just needs a firm tug at the same time as disconnecting it from the intake horn on the inner wing.

I then simply positioned the horn with the scoop facing down behind the headlight so it was not touching the wires, headlight or bulkhead, and drilled a hole from the airbox side. Added 2 penny washers and a nut, plugged the horn in and job done. The horn power wires actually come from behind the headlights on both sides, so its just a case of feeding them back through the holes.

On the battery side there is already a hole in a perfect place to mount the horn. Its a bit of a fiddly squeeze to get it behind the headlight on this side as the slam panel has a different / smaller shape hole than the airbox side. Once it was in the hole, I simply removed the battery and then bolted the horn into place with the Scoop facing downwards, this still allows the sound to "escape" and the horns can still be heard easily, but with the horn scoop facing down, they are unlikely to fill up with any more water.

So overall they can still be easily heard at the front of the car, but are "protected" buy the structure each side of each headlight, and the headlight itself they also have the top covers where the headlights are and the plastic diverter trim behind the grill "should" send water away. It's obviously not 100% water proof area, but it is highly unlikely the the "noddy" sound will return again. We shall see !! ;o)