If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Car horn question
Actually, two questions...
Just how is the noise produced? I know that large air horns, sirens and such produce the sound by blowing compressed air through holes, like playing a wind instrument, but how is the noise produced in a normal car horn? And as far as the circuitry, I noticed a while back when I installed a new horn on my old Mazda, that the horn would honk (even with the electrical lead connected) only when its mounting bracket was touching car metal (grounded?). I notice this again this week when I installed a new "actuator" in the center of my steering wheel. Even when connected, and with the plates in contact, the horn would honk only when the plates were mounted in the wheel, not when holding them in my hands. Just curious about this. -- Cliff |
Ads |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Nate Nagel wrote: <snip> Thanks Nate, that explains it pretty well! -- Cliff |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
> wrote in message oups.com... > > Nate Nagel wrote: > <snip> > > Thanks Nate, that explains it pretty well! > One other thing, car horns are also marked as to the musical note the produce. A and F are the most common, they make a chord. You can also find horns that are C and make ACF to make a triad, sounds kind of cool. I've also seen D as well in the bins in the wrecking yard. Ted |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > One other thing, car horns are also marked as to the musical note the > produce. A and F are the most common, they make a chord. You can > also find horns that are C and make ACF to make a triad, sounds kind > of cool. I've also seen D as well in the bins in the wrecking yard. I think my old '75 Toyota Celica had two notes, because I noticed after having owned the car a while that one of them died, leaving me only one. But it's still kind of amazing how the volume of sound is produced. I halfheartedly tried to take my old, dead Mazda horn apart to see inside, but gave up as it was pretty well put together. -- Cliff |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
|
#7
|
|||
|
|||
And creating another hassle: corrosion of ground points. Some of
us live in areas that get snow and other icy crud in the winter, and the highways maintenance people like to save effort by using salt along with sand to melt ice and give grip. The salt and water eats cars alive, and when there's electrical flow through joints or terminals that can get wet, the corrosion accelerates enormously. A bad ground can be difficult to diagnose. A common one used to be at the taillight: a bad ground on one side would make the other side act funny. For instance, if you had the left turn signal on and the right taillight was dimming when the left signal lit up, you had a bad ground in the left light. The left signal current was seeking a path via the left taillight filament, through the taillight wire to the right bulb, and through the right tail filament to ground. Reversed electrical flow through the tail wire caused the dimming. Dan |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
A lot of cars have floating grounds now that produce those results. I
noticed it 1st when I installed an aftermarket stereo in a Nissan Sentra for a friend of mine. I always check to make sure it works before I lock them down in the dash. Hers wouldn't fire up so I checked & double checked all the connects. After then doubting my own expertise, I just slid it in the dash so I could get a 2nd opinion and it just turned on. I grabbed it to check for a shortage, and it went off. That's when I noticed that the negative lead was basically a dummy lead. It had noting to do with the supply circuit to the Nissan Sentra Stero. The frame in the dash was the ground/neg terminal. I supposed Honda has adopted some of the same. > wrote in message oups.com... > Actually, two questions... > > Just how is the noise produced? I know that large air horns, > sirens and such produce the sound by blowing compressed air > through holes, like playing a wind instrument, but how is the noise > produced in a normal car horn? > > And as far as the circuitry, I noticed a while back when I > installed a new horn on my old Mazda, that the horn would honk > (even with the electrical lead connected) only when its mounting > bracket was touching car metal (grounded?). I notice this again > this week when I installed a new "actuator" in the center > of my steering wheel. Even when connected, and with the plates > in contact, the horn would honk only when the plates were mounted > in the wheel, not when holding them in my hands. > Just curious about this. > > -- > Cliff > |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Where to get Official Speed Limit Info | [email protected] | Driving | 40 | January 3rd 05 07:10 AM |
Horn Wiring Hell - Escaped | Spike | VW air cooled | 0 | November 14th 04 05:37 PM |
horn cable connections. spare brown wire!?? | Spike | VW air cooled | 1 | October 16th 04 02:51 PM |
Horn Installation on SL2 97' | BR | Saturn | 1 | September 28th 04 03:19 AM |
Replacing Horn 96 Saturn (Wiring and Access) | Clive Hayward | Saturn | 2 | September 6th 04 11:00 PM |