Prior to the S4, the Esprit had nice, European-sounding air
horns that were in character with the car. The horns didn't always age well
leading to the dreaded disease I call Sad Cow
Horn. So in late 1993 Lotus replaced the horns with electric units. The
problem is they make the Esprit sound like a Buick. So many owners have decided
to replace the horns on their newer cars with the proper air horn sound.
1 |
The electric horns are located in the front left
corner of the bumper. To access this are, you must go in from
underneath the car. If you have a post-92MY car, you will need to
remove the lip spoiler. Then you will need to remove the plastic under
panel. |
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2 |
In the front relay compartment is a horn relay.
Your relay location may vary depending on the Esprit model. Check the
relay location in your Owner's Manual or Service Notes. I recommend
you remove the relay while working on the horn circuit to avoid any
electrical problems that may occur by accidentally shorting the wires.
This also relieves you from having to disconnect the battery which is
a bigger hassle. |
3 |
Here you can see the electric horns in place. You need
to remove 2 electrical connections from each horn and the then remove
the bracket holding the horns in place. |
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4 |
In earlier cars fitted with air horns the compressor
was located in the front compartment next to the left headlamp pod. In
my installation I chose to mount the compressor under the car simply
because I didn't see a convenient way to pass the short air hose to
the compartment down below without drilling a new hole into the
fiberglass. |
5 |
Here's a picture of the air horn kit. These are sold
in many auto parts stores. I bought this particular kit in AutoZone.
Although sold under many names, most kits seem to be manufactured by
Fiam in Italy. The compressor and trumpets in the original Esprit air
horns were also made by Fiam. |
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6 |
I toyed around with a location for the air compressor
and finally decided to use one of the mounting bolts for the left
front fog lamp simply out of convenience. It had enough clearance and
was close enough to the trumpet compartment for the plastic tubing to
reach. |
7 |
Here's a shot of the simple mounting bracket I made
for the compressor. I just used a metal piece I had laying around the
house. Improvise! |
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8 |
I decided that I could mount the compressor behind the
driver side fog lamp. Here's a shot of the bracket sans compressor in
the location where it will be mounted. |
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9 |
The original setup had a pair of electrical connectors
per horn. Only one pair of electrical connections is needed to drive
the compressor, so I simply taped off the other pair with insulating
tape. I also didn't need to use the relay supplied with the kit, since
the car already has a horn relay. |
10 |
Here's a picture of an extension wiring harness I made
to allow the electrical connections to reach my new compressor
location. |
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11 |
Here's the compressor mounted in it's new location. |
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12 |
I was actually able to reuse the electric horn
mounting bracket to mount the trumpets. It was a tight fit, but it
worked. Again, improvise! |
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Replace the relay and test your horns to make sure
they work. Then replace the covers, lip spoilers and you're done. |