HOW TO: CONNECT TO YOUR FACTORY HORN BUTTON

Using the Steering Wheel to Honk our Horns

Overview

At a glance, this sounds like a very difficult task to complete. Digging into the steering wheel/column is not easy. Thankfully, we don't have to in order to use the horns.

In this guide, we will go over a tried and true method of connecting our horns to the steering wheel. This guide applies to almost every vehicle, but not all, unfortunately.

Getting Started

So you finished mounting the components from your kit onto the vehicle. This is where it gets a bit tricky. Start by locating the solenoid valve on your kit. Depending on which kit you have, it will look like one of the valves below.

Each valve will wire up the same way, they just look slightly different from each other.

The valve has two wires on it. One of these wires will run-up to the front, to the toggle switch. The opposite wire will connect over to the frame of the vehicle as a ground. It won't matter which wire you use for each connection on the valve, as the two are reversible. Now focus on the power wire that you will run to the front of the vehicle.

Main Power / Valve Activation

The main power wire that runs from the valve towards the front of the vehicle will connect to the toggle switch. The toggle switch can be mounted on or near the dashboard, for easy access. You may use either of the two wires from this toggle switch to complete the connection.

Wiring Into the Stock Horn

This is where the install gets tricky. For this step, you need to locate the OEM horn on the vehicle. On most modern vehicles, the horn is located behind the front grille area, directly ahead or to the side of the radiator. Check out the image below.

You don't have to remove the bumper in most cases to access the OEM horns, but it does make your life easier.

Once you have located your stock horn, take a look around for a small connector going into the horn itself. These connectors almost always have two wires coming out of them. The image below gives you an idea as to what to look for.

On most vehicles, the two wires will be different colors. One will generally be a brighter color (white, yellow, orange, green, etc.) whereas the opposite wire would be darker in color (Brown, black, grey, etc.). You need to locate the positive or hot wire. This is usually the brighter colored wire but it can be located by testing both with a voltage meter.

Once the positive wire has been located, you can go ahead and splice a new wire off of it for our toggle switch. To do this, start by locating the scotchlok connector that came in your wiring kit.

If you're not familiar with these connectors, they are fairly simple to use and install. Start by opening up the connector to expose the two channels.

Open up the connector by pulling on the two plastic tabs at the end of opening (next to the arrow in the image above). Slide the OEM horn wire into the first channel of the connector (outer most portion, where the orange line is below). Using either the grey or blue wire, position the end of the wire so that it sits halfway across the connector, like the yellow line in the image below.

Once both wires are in place, use a pair of pliers to press the metal piece down into both wires. Be careful not to press too hard otherwise the metal may cut the wire in half. The metal will puncture each wire and make a connection between the two. Check and confirm that both wires are secure within the connector and pull the protruding plastic tab around the connector to close it up.

1. Position OEM Horn Wire and new wire lead into the connector.
2. Press the metal tab down into each wire with a pair of pliers.
3. Verify both wires are in secured tightly in place
4. Pull the plastic tab over the connector to close it up.

At this point, press your steering wheel to confirm that our valve opens and closes. You should hear an audible click from the valve. It may be hard to hear if the OEM horn goes off when you press the wheel. Make sure the toggle switch is flipped to the 'ON' position otherwise the valve will not open.

If you are still not honking, double-check and ensure that both wires are spliced together properly. You can also use a voltage-meter to confirm that you have +12v at the horn wire when pressing the steering wheel.