Prius II Front Strut Interchange

Left strut on my car (2005, 95k miles) has started weeping oil. One great benefit with early year cars (04's-05's) is the great availability of fresh used parts (08's~09's). Not for everyone, but great for those experienced in assessing mechanical parts for reuse.

I especially like fresh low miles factory struts because they come fully assembled with their low miles coil springs, all for around $100-150/pair. Long story short, it's surprizing how much ride and handling improvement you get by replacing 100+K mile springs (and this from one who drives high miles cars and doesn't replace parts just for fun). Even so, I'd put a lot more miles on this car before replacing struts if one weren't leaking.

Anyway, Steve at autobeyours thinks all 04-09 front struts interchange fine. I just wanted to check to see if others here feel the same or have replaced struts with a pair from a different year car. Thanks.

 

My OP wasn't very clear on that. I'm currently looking into putting 09 front struts into my 05. Haven't done it yet on this car, but have done it in the past on other cars.

So far it looks like the physical bolt-up features and fit are the same. Probably have different dampening and spring rates, hence the different PNs. I'll acquire a pair of used ~09 struts/springs soon, get them in and report.

 

I have both front strut assemblies, 2009's. Next week I'll try the swap. It's 12°F outside right now, garage is much warmer, still a bit chilly though.

For those who have changed front struts already, did you remove the windshield wiper tray to get to the strut tower fasteners, or can you get to them as is?

 

Today I replaced the original front struts from my 2005 with used 2009 strut assys. Strut assys were identical. Very easy job since I didn't need to change over the springs. Probably took me as much time to move the wiper assy out of the way as it took for the strut change. The used 2009 strut assys were $160/pair. Or just get a new pair of KYBs from rockauto.com for $125 shipped and change over the springs.

A couple of salvage yards said front struts wouldn't interchange past 03-2005. Manufacturing date on my car is 09-2005. However I can't imagine toyota would change either their top or bottom mount features mid-generation, would be way too costly. It's likely just a minor change to something like the small brake line/abs wire bracket. I think 2009 front struts would bolt onto any Gen II including 04's. Someone will have to prove it out for the 04's though.