JustDidIt - Modding My 2007....The 2008 Touring died.

From a safety perspective, I believe this leaves room to be desired. Look how much metal is in contact between the seat frame and the Prius body when the seat is bolted in as from the factory, then look how much is in contact when all you have is a washer against the body.

You're creating a huge lever arm by putting such a long bolt between the seat frame and the Prius body, and a lot of force (thousands of pounds) is transmitted to the seat in a rear-end collision. Those bolts will tear right out of the body the moment that seat gets a hard jolt... unless you spread the force from the seat over an area larger than a stack of washers.

Short of having a custom riser fabricated out of 1/8" steel (which I'd be happy to do for a fee), I'd recommend using a stack of fender washers (>=2" diameter) instead of those machine washers.

 

In the factory configuration, the bolt head isn't in contact with the Prius body. It is the seat frame (more accurately, the seat rails) that sits right in contact with the Prius body. Think of the seat rail as one giant washer that goes between the bolt head and the body.

Now that I think of it, what happens to the rear set bolts for this mod? Are you simply loosening them? That's bad... you're removing nearly all the metal-to-metal contact at this point.

What might make more sense is to modify the seat itself instead of the seat mount. The part of the seat that goes under your butt isn't nearly as safety-critical as the seat rails, or seat back.

 

Great job on your Prius. Have you found a great mechanic that works on Prius in San Diego. I am looking for one for my gen II.

 

Thanks, new to the area and got a used gen II. Nice to know somebody besides the dealer to do things.

 

Nice job on the front/rear bars. Had no problems with the Progress bar even if i still used the old bolts. No creaking nor rattles for 1.5 years. Rear doesn't tip much, but felt the fronts do need more roll stiffness. So now planning on getting a front bar tomorrow from a local yard. But it remains to be seen if i'm able to land a 24, or 22mm. No Matrix-equivalent down here (unless someone offers to enlighten me). Still confused about the corollas over here.
Best match is a 2004-2006 ZZE122R (Corolla Conquest). I'll just bring a caliper to be sure.

quick question, did you ever feel a difference when you added the Tanabe front support bar first?

 

thanks for the additional info man. been to a scrap yard today and as it turned out, the E130s with the 24mm bars never landed in Australia. Only the E120, 122, 123 were sold here and only had 21 to 23mm front sway bars, i guess, basing it on the D-bushes product codes. And all the gen2 prius here looks to be the touring edn with the 22mm front bars.

NHW20R ToyoDIY.com
ZZE122L ToyoDIY.com
ZZE123R ToyoDIY.com
ZZE130L ToyoDIY.com


So it looks like i'll have to cough up more dough for this alternative: Whiteline BTF72Z 24mm adjustable sway bar. Whiteline BTF72Z Sway bar - 24mm heavy duty blade adjustable

 

thanks for the ebay.au link! didn't show up in my searches before.
i'll probably buy the OEM rubber D-bushes for this to save me the trouble on potential squeaks.

Torque is a really good alternative to a scangaugeII. Too bad for me it doesn't work well alongside a SGII when i tried to use both using an OBDII Y-splitter, so out it went. If I haven't bought the SGII first, I'd be using Torque instead.

Good choice in the PIDs. Perhaps you could try replacing the two air temps with (or add) state-of-charge (SOC) and Amp draw (BTA in SG). These two along with your other chosen PIDs are the most useful info and really help me a lot in my driving. You can view other PIDs anyway in other pages. I'd have one page dedicated to battery bank voltages as well to keep track if they're pretty much in line and healthy. Can't view those in SGII which is a bummer for me.

 

Just bit the bullet and went for it! Will give feedback when installed.

If you go for a tablet, 6-7" is perfect. When I tried torque, I did this. But since I stopped using the Torque app, it's now just a back-up GPS, video player and ornament.

 

Had the Whiteline swaybar installed already and BOY (!) did I feel a huge difference when i turn in a corner! The front felt much firmer and planted itself pretty well upon turn-in... and this is just on the soft setting (23.5mm equivalent or +29% stiffer). The hard setting is 24.5mm or 53% stiffer than stock (22mm). One note of caution though... this Whiteline sway bar (BTF72Z) for the ZZE122, 123, as it turns out, is not exactly compatible with our Prius! The diameter of the drop link bolts are smaller (10.7mm) vs 12.5mm in the Prius. It's a good thing my mechanic had access to an industrial drill press to bore out the spring steel to spec. Another note, I couldn't use (yet) the hard (24.5mm) setting because, somehow, the sway bar is hitting the steering arm slightly when the suspension is fully unloaded (wheel dangling). We need to clear the steering arm on the full range of motion. I think it can be done by trying to move the sway bar a tiny little bit to the front as there's provision for adjustment in the clamps. I'm taking it back on friday to my other mechanic who specializes in racing setups and ask for his opinion.

In my opinion, though, the 23.5mm soft setup is already perfect. Another 24% stiffer and it wouldn't suit my current spring/shock combination. My front shocks wouldn't be able to handle the much stiffer ride. That's next in my to-do list.

I have yet to test this setup on a track and in a safe wet environment to ascertain what kind of behavior this setup (23.5mm front / 24mm back) would give me. In hindsight though, a 22mm front /24mm back already gave me a slight momentary slip of the rear on a wet road entering an oddly shaped small roundabout near where I live, which is like a small chicane that has a quick left-right nature. If this is the case, then increasing the bar to 23.5mm would hopefully make it neutral. fingers crossed! track day / skid pad here I come!

 

Yes, you can adjust it.

there are two holes, in between the two holes is 24mm equivalent. the hole farthest from the bar is the soft setting at 23.5mm while the one nearest is 24.5mm.




In this photo, the car is fully jacked up with the wheels dangling. it almost touches the steering arm even at the soft setting. Notice the bored holes? We realized to late that the holes were different and had to take out the whole sway bar again. He tried drilling it in place with a hand drill but couldn't even get 1/4 of the way in. He had to use a quality drill bit and a generous amount of drill coolant grease to bore through the high tensile steel.