Air horns - where to put on 940?

[rogerthechorister]

I had a set of air horns on one of my Sports. Worked fine. Then somebody on the M25 decided to push me out of the way to stop me getting into a gap - and mostly ripped my front bumper off. Well I got a spare one of the bumper supports and my bodyshop mounted it and all was well. Until another person did almost exactly the same on the A23. Much smaller impact but really cream crackered my bumper. I scored a complete spare front bumper with beam and the two shock mountings. Bodyshop fitted it but made a right pigs ear of it. While the car was bumperless they had made a really neat mount roughly under the airbox - compressor in there, 3 air horns pointing (I imagine was the plan) into the void below the the bumper beam. Well at different times before the bumper went back on I had the air horns working well on the horn button (via a switch on the dash and a relay, and if I put the switch the other way, just the standard horns. This involved running a pair of wires from one standard horn up to the relay by the battery and back down again.

There are some wiring conundrums but I am sure I will solve them - it's only 12V DC. But then they tried to force the bumper on, broke the plastic horns on the airhorns and pulled the wire to the compressor off. And left the bumper an inch too far forward so that the wheelarch does not line up properly with the bumper. Again I reckon I can fix that - just take it off and put it back in correctly - but where to put the air horns?

I've seen a Youtube with the airhorns above the battery but that is stupid because you cannot access or change the battery. Is the easiest way to accommodate the horns to make a bracket of angle iron (or aluminium) and put it behind the egg-crate grill in front of the radiator - with the horns pointing down to the airvent in the middle of the under bumper? Has anyone got an exact picture of how best to do that?

[Forrest]

Sorry, I cannot answer the specific question. I hardly ever use the horn and have never felt the need to upgrade them. Surely it’s reasonable to expect people just to get out of your way when you’re driving the Volvo? That the OP has experienced a couple of recent unfortunate incidents where hoi polloi failed to do so is a sign of how uncouth the Southeast is become.

If you need air horns to reinforce your Volvo’s natural superiority on the road please don’t settle for half measures.

+ YouTube Video

On a serious note, I think 850s and V70s had the original horns behind the front grill and a popular mod is to relocate them somewhere similar to on the 940 to improve airflow.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Forrest

Sorry, I cannot answer the specific question. I hardly ever use the horn and have never felt the need to upgrade them. Surely it’s reasonable to expect people just to get out of your way when you’re driving the Volvo? That the OP has experienced a couple of recent unfortunate incidents where hoi polloi failed to do so is a sign of how uncouth the Southeast is become.

... I know this was tongue-in-cheek, but I could not help but find it amusing that the OP thought it unreasonable for other drivers not to get out of his way whilst he drove into them - twice .

[rogerthechorister]

You have, Othen, misread the events of both incidents. The first was arguable, in that I was accelerating into a gap but the lady driver moved partly across to block me. The second was not arguable. The other driver left a gap specifically for me and then accelerated and hit the side of my Volvo with the front of his modern thing. I have photo of damage on the front of the bumper of his modern thing.

[RollingThunder]

I'm also pondering this Roger - I have a pair of stainless steel marine horns that I want to fit. The horns are 18in long IIRC, and are a simple 12v relayed connection.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by rogerthechorister

You have, Othen, misread the events of both incidents. The first was arguable, in that I was accelerating into a gap but the lady driver moved partly across to block me. The second was not arguable. The other driver left a gap specifically for me and then accelerated and hit the side of my Volvo with the front of his modern thing. I have photo of damage on the front of the bumper of his modern thing.

[rogerthechorister]

Well, ignoring the smart horse, here is what my installation looks like.

[RollingThunder]

Thats a great idea - never thought of mounting them that way. The horns will drain any moisture too, excellent! Thanks for sharing that Roger.

[Chris1Roll]

To be fair, that does look neatly installed.

I honestly can't remember the last time I used the horn though. Several years ago I would have thought, I've chilled out so much behind the wheel in the past 10 years.
Still open the taps when safe though, the XC has 200 horses to exercise occasionally.