šŸ”§ BUILD #imwithher. Frankā€™s ā€˜07 Prius adventures.

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Bought a Prius. Itā€™s exactly what I thought it would be. Like driving a washing machine. No thrills. All the economy.

Basics;

2007 Toyota Prius Base. 166,000 miles. Ex Lake County forest preserve vehicle. Came on brand new Goodyear tires, full tank of fuel and like 100 miles since the last service for $3,500. Everything works. No rust. Put 218 miles on it since yesterday AM. Averaging 51.2mpg. Most of that was with a passenger and trunk full of Costco purchases.

The purpose of this thing is to be a daily driver, and for me thatā€™s a big ask. It has a hitch on it with 1ā€ receiver for a bike rack, Iā€™ll add wiring to tow my 5x8 trailer. The rear suspension is sitting about 1ā€ lower than stock. From what Iā€™ve seen itā€™s a pretty common thing. A company in California used to convert these 2nd gens to plug-in hybrids, and used a local spring align type company to make the HD rear springs for the added battery packs they used. That company still makes the springs for customers if they ask so Iā€™ll be giving them a call tomorrow. Itā€™ll end up going from like 1ā€ of sag to about 3/4ā€ above stock ride height and is a stiffer spring. Perfect for packing full of stuff or trailer tongue weight. Figure Iā€™ll order new struts as well since Iā€™ll have them apart anyways.

Rear suspension upgrades, trailer wiring, window tint and regular maintenance is about all this will see. I imagine the thread will just be filled with pictures of me doing things in a Prius people donā€™t do in a 1500 pickup.

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Outlaw

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That's a nice flip, nice work. I bet with the current gas prices, a nicely cleaned up Prius with zero issues would sell very well.

If you wanted to be a real asshole you can get like $1,500-$2,000 for OEM Prius catalytic converters as well. Buy em cheap, replace OE with a $200 replacement cat, detail them up and sell lol.

I thought about doing that with my car... the flip put me in mind like $1,600 now, if I sold the cat Iā€™d own it for free.
 

OffshoreDrilling

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The GEN 3 we had there was an open recall on the power inverter failing under heavy loads that Toyota didnā€™t have a fix for. Before anyone picks one up Iā€™d make sure that got sorted.
Theyā€™re old enough now that the recall should have been sorted out. Good call though
 
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Outlaw

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Got a chance to mess with it today a bit. Looks like everything is kosher. You want to see under 30 milli-ohms for internal resistance and voltage levels as close as possible in the pack. They look like they vary greatly but theyā€™re within .12v of each other which is acceptable. Iā€™m going to do the ā€œFull battery testā€ and ā€œLife expectancy testā€ tomorrow. The app is free for the basic stuff but those tests cost money. I went ahead and paid $30 for the unlimited amount of tests. Itā€™s like $5 to run three of each or something reasonable.

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Outlaw

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Iā€™ve gone down the rabbit hole...

ProjectLithium makes a bolt-in Lithium battery to replace the OEM NiMH battery. Half the weight of NiMH, 260amp peak vs. 100amp factory, better at maintaining optimal voltage so the car will favor the electric motor and improve mileage...

The only downside is that if the pack fails, there are not individual cells to be replaced like the OE NiMH packs.

$1,900 with 2-year unlimited mileage warranty... and I can probably get $800+ out of my pack lol.
 
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Bob Kazamakis

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Those Husky mays look good. I was let down by the Weathertechs in my Gen 3. They were more like thin/hard plastic/vinyl than rubber, the passenger mat didnā€™t fit quite right and slid around all over the place. They sold quickly though.
Weathertech sucks across the board compared to husky
 

Outlaw

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Those Husky mats look good. I was let down by the Weathertechs in my Gen 3. They were more like thin/hard plastic/vinyl than rubber, the passenger mat didnā€™t fit quite right and slid around all over the place. They sold quickly though.

I had weathertech mats in my first ā€˜13 F-350. They had no channel on them, so the salty water that melted off your boots would run straight onto the door sill and under the carpet. I had to put a small washcloth under it to soak it up and replace every so often.

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I sold that truck with those mats because I knew I would look for an alternative down the road. Ended up going with Husky in my next F-350 and bought a set for the GFā€™s ā€˜16 as well. Notice the channel on the outside leading edge that makes fucking sense...

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My ā€˜05 Yukon came with weather techs and Iā€™m not too disappointed in that truck, but I wouldā€™ve never paid for them in an $1,100 truck. Super glad theyā€™re in there, but I wouldā€™ve gone with a universal.

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The huskys in this Prius are way thinner than the truck mats though. but as far as fit goes theyā€™re dead on. The cargo mat took a day or two to find its shape again as it was shipped rolled up.

Weathertech sucks across the board compared to husky

Agreed
 
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Outlaw

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5th tank average was down this time to 47.1 MPG. I attribute it letting the GF drive it.

Did 100 miles yesterday, half of which was cruise set at 70 on the highway. 53.5 so far. Might try airing up the tires a bit and see what happens. Also going to be doing plugs, oil change, air filter, cleaning the MAF and a new PCV valve if it looks gummed up. Common Gen2 issues. Going to pull the rear panel and clean the fans that cool the hybrid battery as well, guys say that's a big thing on these cars.
 

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