Created on: 2018-12-17
How to replace the horn assembly on 06 Honda Element
12mm Socket
Socket Extensions
Flat Blade Screwdriver
Rust Penetrant
8mm Socket
Drain Pan
Ratchet
Needle nose pliers
Trim Tool Set
Hi, I'm Mike from 1A Auto. We've been selling auto parts for over 30 years.
Hey, everyone. Sue here at 1A Auto, and today I'm going to show you how to remove the horn on an '06 Honda Element and how to replace it with a universal. If you need this part or any other part for your car, click on the link below and head on over to 1aauto.com.
Okay. To start with, we have to take the front bumper off. I'm going to raise my vehicle up on a two post lift. You can use jack and jack stands at home, and you're going to get all the bolts underneath first. To start with the bumper, I'm going to take the outer cover off, and there is two on each corner, 10mm socket style bolts. They're probably pretty rusted, but you can't get up in there with the spray, unfortunately. Let's see if this one will come down or if it's spinning in place. Yep. I'm going to try to get some spray up there, because this clip does have a cutout right here. I'm going to have to let that soak. This one I think is spinning in place. I'll come over here, get these ready.
At this point, we tried to remove these little bolts here holding. They're middle clips with welded nuts on them that hold the plastic down, and they're so rusted that the knot has broken off on the metal clip, so all four metal bolts two on that side--two on this side, are just spinning in place. What we're going to do is bring it back down and we're going to disconnect the top of the bumper and see if we've pry it out, if we can access these and go from that point.
I'm going to remove this plastic clip that's still intact. The other one's missing. Now I've got one fuse out from underneath. Now, I'm going to bring it down halfway because I got to go in the fender well and see if I can take the two bolts out from the fender well. I'm going to take the fender flare, this bolt off both fenders so that I can access the bumper. It goes in here on a clip. That's an 8mm socket. I'm going to do the same thing to the other side.
Obviously, everything on this vehicle is somewhat broken and causing havoc, so you just got to get this piece out. Now we're going to move onto this one. Hope they all don't break. There's five total on this. Look at that, just like the way it's supposed to go. Obviously, we're going to have to get a whole bunch of body clips for this vehicle, because we just started and this is how much they're all just coming apart and breaking. There's so brittle. Let's see what we get. There we go. No, we just simply lift this up. There you go.
Now, we're going to remove all the other plastic clips that we see up here. I think I'm going to have to use multiple tools at the same time to try to save some of these. It's like they're made of steel. I've never seen anything like it.
Okay, let's move on to the three on each headlight. Okay, we'll come over here. The reason we're changing these headlights, they're not as foggy as they could be, I've seen a lot worse. But something else that's pretty common with these Elements is these ears break off. It's a lot of weight on this front nose design, and I think that has a lot to do with The cold. Just tapping, you tap it. Both headlights are broken on the assemblies. That will give an improper headlight alignment, so obviously you get on the road, the headlights will shake or they're not lined up properly.
I took this bolt out and I took these other two body clips out, and I'm going to take this last one here just to give it a little bit more flex. And now you need to pull this, I'm going to pull this flare out like that. You've got this ear tab that goes over there. See it mounts right over that screw part. Then these are plastic push-ins, so you're just going to grab it from the top, pull it out. Now we got to do the same thing to the other side.
The clip on the inside of this fender well is just spinning, so I'm going to try a pair of angled needle nose pliers to try to hold that clip in place while I take my 9mm socket. Let's see if I can spin this free. Perfect. I'm just going to keep removing the broken clips. Just going to remove as much as I can. Now I can pull this flare out, grab the bumper, and give it a pull. There we go. Now, let's lower it down and see if we can get to these broken tabs on the bottom.
Now that we have access to the bottom multi-bolts, you see the clip is broken. I'm going to use a pair of locking needle nose pliers. Let's see if I can grab onto this. I'm going to use an electric 3/8 drive down below here with my 10mm socket. There we go. We're just going to end up breaking the plastic, I think. I've got one more over here. Now that I can reach it better, I'll spoke it. Now, I'm going to put the locking pliers on this one. I'm going to go down below and see what happens. I'm going to try at this angle. Nope.
Basically, every clip is rotted, busted. Now, the bumper's off the car. When it comes to the time, we're going to have to remove each one of those clips, whether we have to cut them out or just let them soak a little bit longer. We'll have to replace those. Now I can remove my bumper from the area.
Once you've removed the bumper, you have access to your horn, and the horn. It's pretty self-explanatory to remove, but I'll show you how to. You got a connected here with a push tab. You're just going to squeeze on that tab, pull that off. The mounting bolt is a 12mm, so I'm going to put my socket on there and dismount it. Now, if you bought a universal form, that means that you can, you can install that on this car. It does not have to be open one from the manufacturer. What you would do is the new universal horn would come with a bracket and a connector just like this, or two tabs into it. I'm 90% sure it will have a connector, two tabs with a speed.
You're going to have to cut your terminal end. You have a single wire, and you put the single wire tab on the feed and the other wire would go to a ground, and you could ground that right off on the bracket if you had to. Just remember when you install the universal horn, to make sure that the opening to the horn is not facing out or up. You want it facing down or towards the fender well, because you don't want water and debris to get up in there. Obviously, if it's facing like this, you're going down the road and fills it up. It goes like that. It fills it up. So make sure you mount the new one in the fender well facing or facing down so it drains. As you can see, this one actually mounted an angle, so if water was to get splashed up in there, it would still drip and run out. We're just going reverse the procedure to install it.
Can you see how they did? They bent the tab on the body here. They bent the tab off just a little bit to hold that bracket. Tighten it up and reconnect the connector. Line up this guides and snap it in.
Now we're ready to put the bumper back on. We had a lot of hardware breakage from the age of the car, a lot of dry plastic, so we have to replace almost all of our pieces. I'm just going to line it up and show you how to line it up. You know, you took it apart. I'm sure you can gather it. This notch is going to go right into the plastic notch that's in that fender flare. So hold it up, line that up, and just push it right in. I'm going to do the other side of the same way. Hear are things starting to set themselves in.
Now, you're going to put all your clips back in on the top, so you're going to put one center clip in. Then you're going to install your top radiator cover and the outer force going after. And then, don't forget to take each fender well and put this tab over. You got to tuck the inner front well and put the tab over that. Then you place your top fender well over it and then put the screw in.
Thanks for watching. Visit us at 1aauto.com for quality auto parts, fast and free shipping, and the best customer service in the industry.
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