Air horn wiring help

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Jeremy4601

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I have a smaller aftermarket air horn installed on my ‘02. I wired it to a small push button which I installed in one of the blank spots below the OnStar controls. The horn works just fine, but it’s small so by itself it doesn’t quite have the effect I was looking for. However, if I activate the air horn simultaneously with the factory horn it sounds pretty decent.
My question is this… shouldn’t I be able to locate the two wires for the factory horn and tie in the two wires running to my push button for the air horn and be able to sound both horns at the same time by pressing the factory horn / steering wheel?
 

Tonyrodz

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I have a smaller aftermarket air horn installed on my ‘02. I wired it to a small push button which I installed in one of the blank spots below the OnStar controls. The horn works just fine, but it’s small so by itself it doesn’t quite have the effect I was looking for. However, if I activate the air horn simultaneously with the factory horn it sounds pretty decent.
My question is this… shouldn’t I be able to locate the two wires for the factory horn and tie in the two wires running to my push button for the air horn and be able to sound both horns at the same time by pressing the factory horn / steering wheel?
I'm no wiring genius, but if it was mine I'd run a wire off the factory horn to the air horn, so when you hit the horn it'll activate the air horn at the same time. I'd think the stock fuse would be fine.
 
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Jeremy4601

Jeremy4601

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I’m not great with wiring either. Took several attempts to get the air horn working initially. It does have a relay wired into it to work the small air compressor or whatever it is. I’m planning on tinkering with it this weekend. Just thought I would gather whatever input I can beforehand. Thanks for the reply.
 

iamdub

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I’m not great with wiring either. Took several attempts to get the air horn working initially. It does have a relay wired into it to work the small air compressor or whatever it is. I’m planning on tinkering with it this weekend. Just thought I would gather whatever input I can beforehand. Thanks for the reply.

Have a link to this particular air horn? The short answer is that you can easily tie it into your factory horn. We just gotta know what you have so we can tell you what to connect to where. If it has a relay like what I'm thinking it does, then it'll be really easy and you won't need any additional buttons nor would you be adding any additional load to your factory horn circuit.
 

Tonyv__

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So as long as you have a relay on the air horn. You should have 1 terminal going to battery. Which carries the load of the compressor. The wire that goes to your button should just be a remote to trigger the relay. That wire carries very minimal amperage because it’s just a trigger wire. I would tap that trigger wire right into your horns and call it a day
 
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Doubeleive

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all you have to do is run the ground to the frame and the positive to the factory horn positive, super easy
the factory horn's are always grounded and only has power when the horn is pressed.
 

Tonyrodz

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all you have to do is run the ground to the frame and the positive to the factory horn positive, super easy
the factory horn's are always grounded and only has power when the horn is pressed.
This was my thought too. Wouldn't the existing ground from the air horns work for that?
 

Doubeleive

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This was my thought too. Wouldn't the existing ground from the air horns work for that?
you just ground it to the frame, the other wire goes to the positive wire on the oem horn harness, I had extra horns on mine before
 

iamdub

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It would/should be so simple. But, I wanted to make sure that his kit actually had what he was calling a "relay" before continuing.
 

rockola1971

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Relay will have 4 or more terminals. Atleast 2 for a Normally Open Contact Set. One side of those contacts goes to the air horn compressor. The other side of those contacts goes to the battery positive (with a inline fuse) or you run it to a aux fuse in the fusebox also. There also 12v+ studs in the fusebox which are typically used for electric brake controllers for towing. Then there will be a coil in the relay. This is what gets energized when the horn is pushed on your steering wheel. One side of the coil will goto ground (the frame) and the other will come off your positive wire of your factor horn.

So what happens:
You press the horn at your steering wheel which sends 12v+ down to your OEM horn (assuming you still have it hooked up) and the 12V+ goes over to your air horn relay (remember you hooked the coil of it to your postive OEM horn wire) and the coil becomes energized which creates a magnetic field inside the relay and sucks the 2 normally open contacts together and closes them. One side of those Normally Open contacts was hooked straight to 12v+ at the battery or the fusebox so 12V+ goes through the 2 normally open contacts which are now closed and goes straight to your air horn compressor and the compressor turns on and starts making air. Dont stick your ears near the air horn to find out what happens then. ;)
 

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