Mods considered for 2007 Prius
 

Last December, my 2000 Honda Insight was in a collision. As with any old car, it was repairable, but totaled, so I got a good deal for a 2007 base Prius. Enjoy the Prius, but definitely miss the Insight....it gets 50+ mpg on cold short trips - not 30, better highway mpg (80-100 vs 60-70), The Honda ECU is not as intrusive.

I'm planning to mode this Prius, then get a 2nd car. That second car might be an EV, plugin hybrid, another Gen I Insight. I also might refurbish old Prius' and make a little money after I balance the traction pack.

My plans for the 2007 Prius
Phase I

1. ProLong Grid Charger (should improve the battery health - can use on other hybrids)
2. Block heater (common on Prius, get the ICE warm enough to get the EV mode quickly
3. EV switch - Don't expect too much from this, most drivers initally pretend their car is a plugin. This is like Honda Insight driver that get the MIMA kit installed to overide the Assist/Charge function

This will be the low-hanging fruit to improve mpg

Phase II

1. Steering wheel cover - wheel is damaged from oily palms
2. Replace rear-view mirror with racing mirror. Use instead of a cam - remove side mirrors
3. Add a 2nd ScanGage under the speedometer so frequently looking at MFD in center will not be necessary.
4. Replace weathered OEM antenna with shark fin

Phase III

1. Sane option: Do minor body and paint work keeping the original dark grey color and avoid a total redo. Insane option: Repaint it white to keep it 15 F cooler during Texas summers. Repaint except inside the engine. Prius owners know the eco-friendly paint often chips a lot - I might chose a harder one at least for the engine hood. I don't plan to resell this car.
2. Use bondo on wheel rashes and paint OEM silver
3. Use very low air dam on front bumper. Will have to be flexable for ramps, etc.
4. Insight-type fender covers
5. Replace the OEM cover underneath with a more complete, aerodynamic one, use a heat shield where the catylatic converter is.
6. the chassis will cover 2/3 of the wheel to deflect air that gets past air dam
7. Deploy side panels like on 18-wheelers that flex

Estimated cost is $1500-2000 USD.

Thought about a plugin conversion, but it makes more economic sense to make this a "lifeboat" car and road car and safe for a used EV or plugin later on. Most 3rd party plugin manufactures are out of business because any Prius that was not explicitly manufactured to be plugin won't do very well in this mode...the electric motors are not desiged to do EV over 42 mph in Gen II, 46 mph in Gen III (think Gen IV is 64 mph :) ) In other words, Toyota designed the Prius to need both the electric and ICE motors under heavy load to get the great fuel economy.

I am uncomfortable driving pickups daily because the long bed poses parking and other maneuvering issues. For that reason, I'm not considering a boattail unless a shortened one makes aerodynamic sense.

Hi Chuck, that's quite a list.

Block heaters help but are fiddly as you have to hook up and unhook before you drive (and never forget to!). You can have the same effect by tricking the system into thinking it is heated up by spoofing the temp sensor, Daox has a thread on that.

I made a wing sleeve round my antenna. Wings have less resistance than round bars. Mine tore up a few months ago, but will redo it.

A full repaint would be expensive, how about just the roof? That's where most of the heat gets through. Or go for two fat white stripes over the hood and roof; saves you from some heat and it looks cool :)

Would not bother with air dams as the under car aero is already reasonable. Low air dams only do good on cars with a messy underside. Darin reported no benefit from having a low air dam on his Prius II IIRC.

Plugin conversion is feasible, if you follow Planetaires example. But if you aim for a speedy ROI you need to buy gas in Europe, your gas is just too beeping cheap to justify the cost of batteries etc.
To take full advantage of the EV conversion you need to trick the system into using EV mode (emergency gas station trip mode) and drive and accelerate slow.

A tail extension may be effective for highway trips, a 10% reduction in fuel usage is possible from just that. It has obvious drawbacks though.

Whatever you do, keen to know how it turns out. Subscribed to this thread ;)

I'd buy back the Insight from the insurance company, fix what needs to be fixed, and not worry about the rest.

I wouldn't bother with the grid charger personally. Toyota's battery management is way better than Honda's was. Its fairly rare to hear about issues with the Toyota packs even with as old as they're getting.

I would definitely look into blocking the grill. I get along all summer long with a full grill block on mine even with A/C use. Granted, it doesn't get as hot here in Wisconsin, but I'm sure you can still block off a decent amount without any issues. At the very least, block the upper grill.

I do like my ECT (engine coolant temp) spoofer. It works well to get you into S4 mode faster. Its quite handy for getting heat out of the car in winter here, not that that is much of an issue in Texas though. I also still do like my block heater as it also gets you into S4 mode faster as well as get you heat quicker.

Are both 'not's necessary for it to make sense?

A wild and ca-razy guy.

Watching with interest.

subscribed

:o

I meant having driven pickups and not comfortable with their parking and other issues from being a lot longer, I hesitate to do that to my Prius.

If a moderate boattail makes aerodynamic sense, I would consider.

Not my 2007 metallic grey Prius, but like it without the front chipped from road debris (which is common). Also minor small dings.

http://images.gtcarlot.com/pictures/49261951.jpg

The metallic flakes that make today's cars look so cool heat them up in the parking lot. A number of articles state silver and white cars are 15 F cooler than other colors....my OEM color is closer to black. Kind of expected someone to say a dropcloth to drape the car outdoors would be cheaper.

Admittedly, filling in 2-3 minor dings and touchup with a paint gun, keeping the OEM metallic grey color would be a lot less trouble.

BTW, I plan to do the painting myself....have to do a little practice before painting the Prius.

I've had bad experiences with traction packs, so my paranoia might be understandable. My 2000 Insight went thru two packs - Texas heat, me not understanding batteries better, and Honda's less than resilient batteries. After my Insight collision, I bought the 2nd Prius looked at. The 1st Prius' traction pack State of Charge went from 1 to 7 bars like a yo-yo, meaning that traction pack was a dead man walking. :eek: :eek: :eek:

A secondary motive for getting a traction pack is I might buy older Toyota hybrids and resell them after refurbishing the pack.

My finances are not that good now. I could probably get another Insight in better condition for less in a couple of years. I loved that car, but the question is choosing between another Insight or an EV? I lean slightly towards an EV.

I liken the experience between driving a 5-speed Insight and a Prius as the difference between a shell Linux interface and using the latest Apple OS on a Mac. While I enjoy driving the Prius, it's very different and don't have near the control I had with the Insight. One of my biggest Prius frustrations is on short trips, my Prius is getting 30 US mpg, where a 5-speed Insight would be getting at least 50 mpg. Even after the Prius is warmed up, if you restart it goes thru the 4 or 5 stages of warm up and insists on idling/getting 30 or so mpg, although it warms up quicker. :(

On just starting a trip or driving slowly, the ICE is idling excessively compared to the 2000 Insight - I could kill the Insight's ICE in 2-3 ways to improve my fuel economy under those circumstances. I don't know the answer, but just maybe that extra idling the Prius does is what protects the traction pack - I'm not sure.

You can also use the EV switch mod to avoid unnecessary idling on cold starts.

It was a qualifying question. So Okay.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ail-33283.html

The Morelli fluid tail thread shows the Mooncraft Prius body kit, which is only 3/4 complete by theory.

http://i1271.photobucket.com/albums/...titled7_22.jpg
versus
http://www.mooncraft.jp/yuratakuya/g...prius03-04.jpg

Then the trailing edge can be treated to plasma actuators. The site search function is borked right now, but there is a member here testing these for truck bodies.*

Spot painting metallics is problematic. You should repaint to the panel edge.

Or just do the top in white PlastiDip and put a shark mouth all across the front.


Edit: *There's enough to get you started here:

http://slideplayer.com/slide/8653868/

I wouldn't take adding a tail completely off the list of possibilities.

Adding a tail about 10-15" long would put it almost exactly the same length as my truck. Your wheelbase is a bit shorter and your width is very similar, and parking the truck is a snap even in crowded conditions. Your experience even with a modestly lengthened Prius should be similar. The gains wouldn't be as impressive as a full-on boattail, but not nothing either.

Freebeard's suggestion of PlastiDip on the roof and hood are pretty good ones in my opinion. Provide most of the cooling you're looking for, protect the original paint and completely reversible. Win-win-win.

My understanding is that the excessive idling is purely for emission reasons; to get the engine coolant and catalytic converter up to proper temperature. The ICE is programmed to come on to charge the battery when needed regardless of the other reasons the ICE is commanded on.

As DAOX suggests, you can install an engine coolant temperature spoofer in the Prius to reduce the occasions when the engine idles just to maintain a certain temperature. This does not affect the engine turning on to charge the traction battery when needed.

I wouldn't spend much on improving the Prius because the return on investment is not likely to ever come, the 2007 is 2 generations behind now, and it already gets fantastic fuel economy.

Save the money and put it towards replacing one of the vehicles in your household with an EV. I bet used Leafs will be a couple grand shortly after the new one is released.

That's what I'm leaning towards now - modding the Prius on a budget. It's my only car, but destined to be the 2nd car/road car.

It would make more sense in a few years to get a Leaf than to a plugin conversion for my Prius.

If you Plasti-dip the roof white, you could peel it off in the winter when you don't mind the cabin getting a little warmer.

i know a lot of hypermilers don't care about looks, but plastidip can sometimes stain on hoods and roofs. Also if it gets excessive heat (like your hood) it can be a pain in the ass to remove unless you lay down about a dozen coats. Last time i plastidipped my car I had to use a power washer to remove some of the dip on my hood and roof.