Thank you very much!

 

4XMotion, I got your PM. Thanks for getting back to me. And thanks so much for posting this with photos. I still haven't replaced mine because I didn't know how to do it still. But now I do.

Thanks

 

BTW the grill removal is different on the T2s...

siberian

 

My low pitch horn needs to be replaced according to the Dealer. Are the low and high pitch horns located in the same place? I have a 2007 V6. Thanks.

 

Nevermind. High pitch horn is on left. Low pitch horn is on right.

 

Nevermind. High pitch horn is on left. Low pitch horn is on right.

is that drivers right and left?

 

This gives me something to do this weekend. I have a dual-tone airhorn just sitting in my garage..

 

Easier Way to Access Horn

Hi -- on my 04 v8, there was no reason to remove the fog light bezel or metal grille under the headlight to replace the horn. My horn is EASILY accessed once the center/upper grille is removed. Not sure if other years models are significantly different, but worth checking out the below before you proceed beyond removing the center/upper grille.

I found this on another post and, having replaced my horn in under 15 minutes, thought I'd post

Once you remove the center/upper grille (google "remove touareg grille" for comprehensive instructions), you'll see that there's a vertical plastic shield/piece extending from the top to bottom of the driver's side of the area behind the grille between the radiator and the headlight assembly(the horn's right behind it) that is held on by 4 t-30 screws (you'll need a stubby screwdriver or torx socket to reach as there wasn't enough room for my 8" torx screwdriver on the bottom screws), remove the screws, remove the plastic piece, and the low tone horn's right on the other side, easy to reach, etc. -- 10 mm nut holds on the horn.

Same procedure (I presume) to replace the passenger side horn, as the passenger side plastic panel looks identical (my high tone horn was fine).

I bought my low tone horn at my neighborhood porsche dealer for $50, my vw dealer wanted close to $100 -- after replacing, I saw that partsgeek is at $35. My vw dealer quoted me $400 (??) to replace -- this was easier and quicker to do than an air filter change on my 04 v8

 

Confirmed...

Hi -- on my 04 v8, there was no reason to remove the fog light bezel or metal grille under the headlight to replace the horn. My horn is EASILY accessed once the center/upper grille is removed. Not sure if other years models are significantly different, but worth checking out the below before you proceed beyond removing the center/upper grille.

I found this on another post and, having replaced my horn in under 15 minutes, thought I'd post

Once you remove the center/upper grille (google "remove touareg grille" for comprehensive instructions), you'll see that there's a vertical plastic shield/piece extending from the top to bottom of the driver's side of the area behind the grille between the radiator and the headlight assembly(the horn's right behind it) that is held on by 4 t-30 screws (you'll need a stubby screwdriver or torx socket to reach as there wasn't enough room for my 8" torx screwdriver on the bottom screws), remove the screws, remove the plastic piece, and the low tone horn's right on the other side, easy to reach, etc. -- 10 mm nut holds on the horn.

Same procedure (I presume) to replace the passenger side horn, as the passenger side plastic panel looks identical (my high tone horn was fine).

I bought my low tone horn at my neighborhood porsche dealer for $50, my vw dealer wanted close to $100 -- after replacing, I saw that partsgeek is at $35. My vw dealer quoted me $400 (??) to replace -- this was easier and quicker to do than an air filter change on my 04 v8

I just replaced both horns yesterday using this technique. Drivers side first and given that I had never taken the grill off (or done any other work on my Touareg other than replacing headlights) it took me a bit of time to get used to how things were attached... but all in I replaced the horn with after-market horns (just a bit of splicing which is easy) in about 30-40 minutes.

The second horn (passenger side) was slightly harder simply because the plastic shield on the passenger side is wedged between the frame and a pipe connected to the radiator... a bit of wrangling with it and I was able to slide the plastic cover down far enough to slide out from under the pipe. Even with the trouble the second horn replacement was ~20 minutes.

So it took me about an hour the first time around and cost me ~$40. I think if I had to do it again it would probably take me about 30 minutes total; removing the factory horns and prepping to splice things together will be substantially easier the next time around.

Ah, yes before I forget... this is a T1 (2004 v8) so based on everything I'm reading a T2 or possibly later model T1 might be different.

Good luck all.

-Pete

 

Has anyone removed the grill on a T2? I'm curious about how to remove the VW logo since it's not the same as on the T1s.

siberian

 

This forum thingy is good !! About one month ago, one of my horns stopped,.......I had a look but couldn't even find the wretched things. Last week the second one died !! After looking at this thread I am much wiser about how to tackle it. I'm hoping that connectors fell off,...I don't fancy buying replacements.

 

This forum thingy is good !! About one month ago, one of my horns stopped,.......I had a look but couldn't even find the wretched things. Last week the second one died !! After looking at this thread I am much wiser about how to tackle it. I'm hoping that connectors fell off,...I don't fancy buying replacements.

Dizzy more than likely they are dead, for some unknown reason horns on touaregs have short lives, those connectors don't just off, so if you are going in there you might as well have new horns to go with.

If you are in the US those horns list for over $65 USD each but there are online parts dealer that can get them for you for about half the price.

 

Don't buy VW - get one of these instead [it's not just for bikes either!]

Chrome Dual-Tone Motorcycle Air Horn

 

Adapters?



OK, so being new to this... is there an adapter of some sort that I need to install a non-factory/OEM horn? Or do I just need to do a bit of splicing? I'm comfortable with splicing but would prefer to not have to just because of the location of the horns and wanting to keep it as clean/water-tight as possible.

Thanks

 

Treg horns

Sure enough,...I have a T2 and its necessary to take the whole front off the car to get at them. I was daunted by this and took the car back to the seller garage to have it done there. They took the lower plate off from under the car and were able to deliver a few smacks to the horns. This had the effect of reviviving them from their coma and lo and behold they work again. The garge guy said that lack of use often causes this so now when I remember, I blare the horns when driving along a deserted road !

 

Sure enough,...I have a T2 and its necessary to take the whole front off the car to get at them. I was daunted by this and took the car back to the seller garage to have it done there. They took the lower plate off from under the car and were able to deliver a few smacks to the horns. This had the effect of reviviving them from their coma and lo and behold they work again. The garge guy said that lack of use often causes this so now when I remember, I blare the horns when driving along a deserted road !

Wow.. I'll have to give that a shot. I wonder if all this "dead horn" epidemic could just have been cured with a few swift blows to the horns themselves. When I get time to take apart the grill this weekend I'll give it a shot and let everyone know.

Thanks again.

 

Squirt some WD into the horns first and leave for 24 hours.

Then go somewhere where you won't disturb anyone and put your hand on the horn without releasing it for a long time. You might eventually get a "Parp" or even two!

 

I have replaced my horn twice in 3 years (nyc lots of salt in winter i guess) i repkaced wit an oem the first time and an aftermarket the 2 still runing a bit over a year on that one. U do jot need to takr the front off, access the hirn through the wheel well and work a bit on the tight space that is left?, it is posible to do. For the ftermarket hin i left the oem one on place(not working) just took the wiring and plyed it and connected the aftermarket one somewhere more accessible.

 

Out of curiosity, do you use it much or very rarely?

Can't be any more salt there than here, so I doubt it's that. I'm still on the original horn btw.

 

I don't think i use it to often, for NYC standards, but i bet it is above average use since we are so cramped here. But yes i have gone trough 2 of them in 3 years, first replaced at the steales (my god they take an arm an a leg) the one that im runing on is a unknown brand that i purchaced at a dubious auto equipment store for realy cheap, didn't even bother with the brand name jsut considered that the price was so cheap that even if i installed this and then buy the OEM part would still be cheaper than replacing at the dealer. The horn has a year now, and it is still good, and honestly even though they told me at teh store that it was a week horn, it sounds better and louder than the OEM (by the way the OEM sounds like the Jetta's). So far the unknown brand horn has worked no fading on the sound so o'm pleased, and if it last another year, i will consider it a very sound investment since it will last the same as the previous one for a fraction of the cost.

 

Heres is the removal and install guide from the manual, i am down to one horn and did not know it had duel till this thread, so i'll go investigating:

 

I bought a used 05 V8 Touareg that didn't have the horn working. After looking at the fuses I saw that the 5 amp horn fuse was blown and replaced it. The horn came back to life but sounds fairly weak as if only one of the horns is working. On reading the forums, I took hold of a suggested method of sitting long on the horn in hopes of bringing it back to life again. After a continuous toot of around 5 seconds it stopped working again and produced another blown fuse. Replacing the fuse and repeating this procedure only brings the same out come of a blown fuse. Has anyone had this happen to them? Any suggestions on where or what to look for that may be causing the fuse to blow?

 

Can't help there - the horn is on the shelf waiting to be fitted!

But I'd recommend a relay.

I was going to take the feed to the existing horns to power the relay and find a live, fused source to drive the horn in case I wanted to lean on it long and hard!

 

Replace it with an airhorn the OEM horn in my opinion is weak. If mine fails again that is what i will put on hehehe. I dont care about it sounding oem just about being noticed enough when using it

 

Just got a quote from a local dealership that cost would be $500 to replace my horn, so I was very happy to find this thread.

 

My low tone horn died and it took 45 mins to replace. the front bumper with radar and headlight washers come off easy. The job is soo easy you wouldn't believe. Just make sure you have a full size spare wheel or something of equivalent size to rest the right hand side of the bumper on--then you dont have to disconnect anything. While your in there pop the intercooler covers off and clean the bottom of the intercoolers of rotten leaves and dead insects--keep corrosion at bay. They just slide out of slots with a bit of persuasion.

 

I was wondering if there were videos on how to change the horn...

The dealers should be shot on site for the thought of over charging!

 

Shoot the dealers for overcharging ?

There wouldn't be many (if any) left

 

07 V6 during 60,000 mile service realized Low range horn is kaput. Larry Miller VW in Denver said 200 bucks to fix. Haven't tried Elk MTN in Glenwood springs,,,,

 

$200 sounds well below market. Did my 60K service yesterday, new plugs, etc.

Dealer remarked after the service that only one horn tone worked. I said, how much?

$400 + or -

OMG! I have an extended warranty, with a $100 deductible. Go ahead!

The mechanic finished in less than an hour. The bill: $380, 2 hours @ $125 plus $110 for the horn and $20 because I'm ugly (and stupid).

The explanation was the mechanic had "done it before," so was very fast at it.

My extended warranty runs out to 100,000 miles, but only for three more years. I should really plan a few road trips to get my money's worth out of it.

 

WOLO Horn

After reading this post, I decided to try and do my own horn replacement at lunch. I stopped at a Pep Boys and got a WOLO "Bad Boy" horn for $45. It's a dual tone air horn. I don't know how it compares to the original because mine hasn't honked since I got it a few months ago. look it up on the WOLO website and there's a sample audio file.

This site has all their air horns and sample mp3 files:
http://www.wolo-mfg.com/air.htm


I followed the instructions to remove the front grille, except that mine was attached with an 11 mm bolt instead of a Torx screw. That seems scary to remove, but it's really a piece of cake. Take your time and look at the pictures.

Once the grille was off, I could see the passenger side horn (2004 V10 - yours may differ). The driver's side horn was behind a plastic panel as decribed above. I disconnected the wiring plug; it runs right across the front of the radiator. I wasn't really interested in trying to bolt the new horn back in the exact same place - so I found a place on the front vertical support member. It's low - down below the grille - and bolts into the metal support but still where it faces the plastic mesh covers. The supplied bolt didn't go through the hole in the support member, so I had to use an 11 mm bolt that I had in my toolbox with a nut and lock washer. I cut the factory plug off the wires and crimped on my own connections (part of a big box of assorted electrical connectors I got at Harbor Freight). Tightened the bolt, put the brown wire on the negative pole and the purple wire on the positive pole (driver's side positive wire may be a different color, but in VW's brown is always the ground). Viola! Works like a champ - LOUD TOO!!

The two factory horns are still in place, but they didn't work so I don't think that'll interfere with anything.

I was careful putting the grille back on and even clipped it on better than it was. Plus that bolt will keep it on there!

The horn had instructions on how to wire in the supplied relay, but that's typically if you have a horn that draws a lot of power, or if the cabin electricals aren't 12 volt. In the old Beetles, you sometimes use the relay because the cabin electrical current is 6 volt - or because the wiring through the horn is pretty wimpy. With the relay, you wire the horn directly to the battery with heavy gauge wire. Then the wire from the steering wheel is basically telling the relay to close the circuit and honk the horn without throwing a ton of electricity back up the wire.

So there you have it ... a simple, inexpensive horn replacement in about 20 minutes!

 

You know, there's a LOT of room in front of the radiator. I'll bet I could put in a cross member and attach a bunch of horns and get the Dukes of Hazard "Dixie" horn. Is that too *******?

I wonder what other songs can you get? Better go check JC Whitney!