Daox's 2004 Toyota Prius Build Thread

[Daox]

Originally Posted by alohaspirit

i figured youll do this soon

but probably much cheaper

Toyota Prius - Wheel Skirts - Toyota Prius Wheel Skirts by Hybrid Effects 1 pair (Shipping Included)



EDIT: or these
2004 Prius Custom Hubcaps
(this should be a sticky somewhere)

Yeah, I'm definitely not sinking $375 into wheel skirts. As pretty as they are, there is no way that would ever be worth it. The wheel covers are a definite possibility. But, I'm still thinking about mods and prioritizing what will be done first. I'll probably focus on aeromods since thats kind of where the Prius lacks a bit, and I do do a lot of highway driving. But, I also want to get some additional instrumentation too. Of course everyone at the EV build wants me to go PHEV which would be awesome, but 20 batteries = $$$. If anyone has any other suggestions feel free. I know a bit about the Prius, but not a ton.

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Wow - 2 days, 2 mods. I expect no less for the rest of the month.

Haha, don't be disappointed when that doesn't happen.

Originally Posted by orange4boy

Countdown to avatar change...

Well, the Prius is really more of the wife's car. She had the Matrix and this is replacing it. The Paseo is mine. I might do a cool split avatar like Darin though.

[SVOboy]

Get an undertray laser cut out of aluminum that bolts up nice and clean.

[Nevyn]

What version of the Tiger Paw? I know at least *some* of them are pretty low.

0.00683 Michelin TIGER PAW AWP P225/60R16

Low-rolling resistance tires - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Daox]

Good point Nevyn. I just checked and they are Tiger Paw AS65s. According to a few google searches they are a 65,000 mile tire which is nice, but they seem to be designed a bit more for handling than rolling resistance.

[Daox]

Yay, I got pics from Ben of the EV switch install. Also, big thanks to efusco for writing up the instructions! His full instructions can be seen here:

http://www.calcars.org/prius-evbutton-install.pdf

The first thing I actually had to do was take apart the lower half of the steering column trim. In there, the headlight/foglight control stalk connector has a bunch of pins in it that have no wires going to them. I needed to pull one of the metal connectors out of it to use in the EV ECU plug since it doesn't have any connectors in the empty spots.

(took this image from the PDF instructions)



The next step was to take apart the the panels to get at the EV ecu. This is about as easy as it gets, no tools involved, just pull stuff. Its almost impossible to see in this picture, but there are three ECUs stacked next to each other! There are wires eeeeeeeeeverywhere.




Here, we got the connector out that we need to get at. The white piece on the connector pops up a little bit and allows you to put the connector I got out of the steering column into the plug.




The next step is to crimp a new wire to the connector and slide it back into the marked spot on the ECU plug. Very easy. (image taken from PDF again)




Here, I'm already starting to reassemble it. The connector is plugged back into the EV ECU. The white/red wire is the one I just connected to a blank hole in the connector.






On the white wire, I crimped a ring connector to go to the ground. I simply took out an ECU bolt and put this under it.




This is a momentary switch I had laying around. This connects the white and white/red wire and grounds the pin on the EV ECU to put you into EV mode. For final mounting I'll probably find another switch. Its hard to find a flat surface to mount something like that. Everything is so curvy it will never mount flush! So, for now its sitting in my favorite spot for switches... the glove box. Yay for zero cost mods.

[orange4boy]

Does the Prius have an alternator? If it does are you going to do the disable? Or does it use the synergy drive to generate power for the electrical system?

I understand there is a lead acid battery somewhere in there which has an unusually short life. Probably not getting fully charged by the only intermittently on engine.

[Daox]

No alternator. The high voltage pack feeds a dc to dc converter to keep the 12v auxiliary battery charged. I hear they have problems here and there too. I'm looking up a bit more on that to see if I can't do something about it.

[alohaspirit]

Thats cool stuff.

How do you intend to fully utilize the EV button?

[Daox]

To be honest, its really not that useful. I did take it for a spin just to make sure it worked and I just ran around the block and drained the hybrid pack enough to kick the gas engine back on. It is nice for moving the car around in a parking lot, or in a driveway when you don't want to fire up the engine. The max range you can go is about 2 miles and then you pay the price with the gas engine since that and braking is the only way to charge the pack back up.

[alohaspirit]

yeah, its a pretty nifty mod

tho i dont know if i wouldve chose the switch or the headlight flasher