This may sound silly, but one of the things that disappointed me about my new MINI was the horn. Here I have the cutest car on the road - tons of personality and mind-boggling performance - and it came with a horn with absolutely no character at all. "What's that? A Buick behind me?"

I thought the car needed something like the Roadrunner cartoon character's "meep meep." So I ordered a "Beep Beep horn - item no. ZX151925P" from JC Whitney. This is supposed to be just like the old Plymouth Roadrunner horn from the late 60s/early 70s. (If you've heard that horn, you'll remember that while it doesn't really sound like the cartoon character, it doesn't sound anything like a "real" car either.)

I didn't want to give up my stock horn - I wasn't sure how loud the RR horn would be, and I wasn't even sure I would like it. So I installed it as an auxilliary horn with its own button.

The JCW horn came with a bunch of wire and a really ugly horn button that I discarded. I bought a fuse tap and a fuse and a momentary pushbutton from Radio Shack. Tillie doesn't have heated seats so I mounted the horn button in the mirror adjustment plate between the shift lever and the emergency brake. I had some difficulty getting the adjustment plate off, so I asked for some help on this board. When I explained what I was doing, a few people asked me to post sound clips when I was all done. So here they are...

These were all recorded onto a Sharp MiniDisc recorder (hey! MINI-disc - get it?) with adjustable recording levels. All the tracks were recorded in one session, with the car and recorder about 20 feet apart, and the same recording level for all takes. (Actually, I recorded one long session and then snipped the best clips out of the one long take.) Hopefully, this will give you a pretty good idea of how the two horns compare with each other.

(Note: the links below are to Quicktime movie files in my NAM gallery. If you have Quicktime installed, you should be able to hear them by just clicking on them.)

Here's a long blast from the stock horn: Stock Blast

Here's a long blast from the Roadrunner horn for comparison: Roadrunner Blast

Now, trying to get more of a "meep meep" sound, here are two honks of the stock horn: Stock - 2 Beeps

And here are two beeps from the Roadrunner horn: Roadrunner - 2 Beeps

On all the tracks above, my daughter was "playing" the horns while I watched my recorder. She couldn't quite get the "meep meep" sound that I have been able to get (I've been practicing!), so I got in the car and recorded what I call my "polite" meep-meep. You know, like you'd use to greet a neighbor or wake up the person in front of you who hasn't noticed the light has turned green.

Here's my "polite" meep-meep: Roadrunner - 2 Polite Beeps (this one is pretty quiet - but it was recorded at the same level as the others.)

So there you have it. I'm fairly pleased with the new horn. (At least it's got some character!) It was a ***** to install, though. I read somewhere that you need to keep it on its long mounting bracket to get it to sound right, and finding a place for it was pretty tough. There's very little room inside the front bumper. I had seen a thread somewhere (I think it was on NAM) where someone mounted the same horn inside the passenger side cowl vent. I was worried that this location would be too quiet, and besides, I have DSC and the OEM alarm, which pretty much fills up that area. As you may be able to tell, the RR horn is pretty loud, so the cowl vent (if I had had the room) might have been a good spot. It might even have given it more of a muffled "meep meep" sound. The place I chose turned out to be a real ***** of a location! (Sort of below the driver's side fog light.) I took pictures, but I'm not sure I want to post them. I'm hoping someone comes up with a better place than I did!

The only thing that I regret is that I was a little clumsy with my drill and knocked a chunk of plastic out of the mirror adjuster mounting plate. It's not too noticeable - no one has commented on it unless I point it out to them first - but I know it's there!

I'd be interested in hearing your comments.

 

Cool....you have a JCW horn!!!!!! I like it!!!!!

 

Gotta get some air horns and a PA

 

I actually like the Mini's "big car" horn. It's saved my *** from a few space-cases that weren't paying attention. Nice and Buick-y. But yes an airhorn would really warn off idiots. Jimbo

 

I did keep Tillie's Buick horn - used it today, in fact, in a close call in a parking lot. But I also wanted a cute horn to say "hiya!" and the RR horn fills that bill nicely.

 

Now all I need is a carbon fiber horn button!

(I was hoping someone would pick up on the JCW - JCW thing!)

 

perfect match for the car

 

Is that your "flirting" horn, Lombie? Very cute!!! I feel safe having the OEM horn, too...it sure wakes those that fall asleep and miss the green lights!


Clover

 

sounds pretty nice. you're right about it not sounding too much like the RR, but it's still pretty cool.

I don't know why you would want to be polite with it though, i imagined using it for passing people up who are going to slow or something of the like.

With all that said, I still can't find myself putting the money and time into a horn unless it sounded pretty much exactly like the RR or some air horns to get the stupid people to pay some attention to others.

I'm glad you enjoy your horns though, very unique, that's for sure

 

Hiya! (meep meep!)

 

Very nice personal touch. Great write up with clips.

 

You're right, Lombard Street, the MINI needs a "meep meep" horn to match it's style. I thought the exact thing myself when we got Union Jack.

 

That's exactly what I've been thinking for awhile as well. Never like the horn. So I asked for an airhorn kit and got Moss MINIs dual horn kit. Pretty cool. Anyone know how to be able to use both the stockers and the airhorns at the same time without blowing fuses and burning up wires, and without using two buttons?
Cheers,

 

Lombard Street,

I looked at getting a roadrunner horn for our MINI too. I didn't have the confidence to try the install myself so I decided to wait. I'll have to check out your setup at one of the GoldCountryMini events.

Do you know if it would be possoble to convert one of the horn buttons on the steering wheel to the fun horn and leave the other on the regular horn? That would be the ideal set-up in my opinion.

I look forward to hearing the happy meep-meep soon.:smile:

Cheers,

 

Great work wih the writeup and horn! I'm looking for a horn setup that will sound like an early 80s ferrari or lambo... like in "Cannonball run"... A bit more "euro-sportscar" sounding, right?

 

I was wondering the same thing...might be a bit harder if those buttons are anything like the toggles. If they are just normal buttons, it would be rather easy. Wonder how you get to them without rupturing the airbag

 

Hey, Pete-

You're going to be a the GGC BMW Car Control Clinic in a couple of weeks, aren't you? You'll get to hear it then!

Don't know about the horn buttons. Tillie has the new MFSW where you just push on the center of the wheel to honk. I would assume the older style ones are wired together, but I don't know. Knowing MINIs, the whole damn thing is probably controlled by a computer somewhere!

 

Cool. I will be at the Candlestick Park Car Control Clinic and check out your car there. Hopefully, we'll do better at Candlestick than the niners did this year. Cheers,

 

i did the same thing almost.
replaced the oem with 2 road-runners in the stock
location. lots of comments.

 

Where are you guys getting the power from? Ddi you end up running it straight to the battery? Did you hook it somewhere else? My horn is sitting here waiting to be installed. I'm gonna try to install it in the cowl, cross your fingers, it looks like a VERY tight squeeze

 

What kind do you have? I have the dual air horns from Moss, and they were connected with the hardware and such provided that hooks up to the stock wiring and disconnects the stocker horns. But I'd like it where I could use both the air and the stock horns at the same time, but apparently as I hear, the wiring and fuses won't take that much of a power surge needed to run both.
Cheers,

 

Well, i just finished installing the roadrunner horn...thanks to the inspiration from lombard . I installed mine in the passenger cowl. I will take pics so people can see how it mounts up. It sounds fantastic!

Thanks for finally pointing me to the right horn

 

I found this old thread that looks interesting.

Has anyone out there found a horn that sounds more like the roadrunner's Meep-Meep?

 

Good resurrection, but no one came forth with wiring instructions

 

I was just hoping to find something to replace the Buick horn; not necessarily do any wiring.