Dual tone 'BMW' horn?

B

Ben123

Member
This has been driving me crazy.

The horn on my Z4 sounded like one of those farty French horns, you know, the type you hear on an old Renault Clio. For me, the sound of a BMW horn should be a loud dual tone and, well, masculine.

So I asked my local independent to source a better OEM horn. They get OEM supplies and BMW sent them a high pitch horn. It sounds just as bad as the old, except slightly louder. Apparently there are only two types of OEM horn for the Z4. The one I had and the one I have now.

In comparison, I got the garage to sound the one on a 7 series they were servicing and, hey bingo, the sound I wanted. Trouble is, these new horns come with tons of new wiring making it cost prohibitive.

Has anyone else had a problem with the sound of their horn? Is it impossible to get the classic dual tone horn on an e85?

Help!
 
Are you sure both horns are working? E85 has two, a high tone and a low tone. Together they produce the dual tone you describe. They are both low, behind the bumper on either side. My understanding is when one does not work the sound is pretty insipid.
 
I'm glad I searched this because I have the same problem. A Z4 should sound as good as it looks but mine sounds like a clown car.

Should it definitely have a dual tone horn then? I was kind of surprised when I bought my zed that my old 318ti Sport had a better sounding horn.

Is it just one part or are there two horns?
 
My horn has a really nice dual tone sound to it so I'm guessing that's what it has, will have a look at them when it stops raining! :x

My car is a 2005 Alpina Roadster S but I don't think they do anything to the horn when building it that would make it different to a normal E85
 
As said above, it has two horns, one high tone one low tone. The low tone is on the nearside of the car, high on the off-side. They are behind the fog lights, accessible through the lower hatch in the wheel well with some effort. Top tip, point the wheel outwards on the side you want to get into. Mine went in my last car, twice. Have a look for used ones on eBay - £5-10. You can use e46 3 series low tone horns on the Z, they are the same, with the same connector.

Worth saying that on an M you need to remove the bumper to change them as the air ducts are secured to the bodywork inside so you cannot get them out of the way to get at the horns.
 
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