What did you do to ur Gen III Prius today????

Audio upgrade (mis)adventures continues...

JL Audio JX500/1D amp...



...and CP108LG-W3v3 subwoofer installed yesterday...



...with a remote bass roll off knob in a switch blank below the start button for quick bass adjustments on the fly...



Ruh roh...

...first comment from my gf after the install..."Is the music louder?"

 

Thanks...

Yeah, 17" Konig Feathers. Don't understand all rim lingo but I think you mean center bore? When I ordered these off of discount tire direct back in October they gave me free hub centric rings, but they fit perfect.

 

Did that bass knob on mine too... ain't it neat?! Love it!

 

Man, I need to do this! Is there a how-to guide anywhere around here?

 

Which do you need to do?
Horns are plug n play and are pretty easy to access, I'm sure there is a how-to thread on it here.
Headlight bulb conversion involves a tweak to the H9 bulbs (easy if you have a dremel tool).
How to: H11 to H9 Headlight Bulb Conversion | PriusChat

 

I do apologize. The sound deadening is what I'm interested in. I've retrofit my headlights to RX350 bi-xenon projectors so my lighting needs are taken care of.

 

Gotcha...
I like this guy's (Don's) site for a simple and sane how-to on making a car quieter
www.sounddeadenershowdown.com

Some people cover every inch of sheet metal with "dynamat" type material, which weighs about .5 lb per sq ft. I think that approach is just retarded, unless you are driving around with a 3500 watt autosound competition system.
Don's site recommends you strategically cover only 25% (I used even less) to kill the vibration and resonance. His site has a great how to guide on addressing various parts of cars (doors, trunk) and has examples of cars he has done, including a couple of Prius.

What I did is very mild. My goal was to dampen and quiet the doors while adding minimal weight.
If I wanted to go further, I might pull the interior and the headliner, cover the floor with Frost King, put a small amount of "dynamat" pieces on the sheet metal that sounds like a drum when you tap on it, such as the roof or rear wheel wells, and maybe attach a layer of thinsulate to the roof and other large panels.

I followed sfprankster's lead on using Frost King to cover the inner door panels.
sfprankster's (mis)adventures modding a 2014 Prius Model Three | Page 4 | PriusChat
Using Frost King is less expensive, lighter weight and simpler/quicker than Don's approach of making mass loaded vinyl and closed cell foam panels to go between the door and factory door panel. Don's approach is better, but I didn't have that kind of time to devote to this project.

There is a guy on this forum named phoenixgreg who has done a lot to chase down and eliminate road noise, search out his posts too.

 

Well these came in today from eBay for $25 bucks... guess I'll get around to putting them in pretty soon

 

oh wow, those will definitely be brighter than reg LEDs. cant wait to see the night-shot results!

 

IF the REAR LED light are too bright. Can the cop give you a ticket? They can make an excuse I can't see your plate. You never know what they can say. I was thinking of buying it but was scared.

 

Depends on state statute. I'm in Ohio and the ORC says that license plate must be visible at night from a certain distance. I think 50 or so feet. Maybe more, but there's no ORC for amount of light.

 

Oh I do not know but I would imagine they would give me a warning first then I may swap them.....every time I see one now I drop my windows so they don't get me for tint! So I look a little suspect dropping the windows in the rain or cold lol

 

I drive with my window down 80% of the time. My front is dark. I feel your pain Almost got a ticket on the highway the other day. The cop was following me for long time on the side. He know I had dark tint. If I roll it down. For sure he pull me over. Lucky there was a car that was speeding.

 

Getting my tails tinted here at Logans Square car wash in Chicago.
Don't have a good picture but will post the finished product.
Thanks for cesar.

 

Done tinted tail lights.

 

I finally got around to installing my Cusco front Sway Bar.

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Cusco parts are usually blue. I had mine powder coated gloss white to match the TRD sway bar and the UltraRacing braces.

This post from @Dark_matter_doesn't was helpful.
Tanabe Front Sway Bar Install | PriusChat

Here's a couple of snapshots of the driver side before, and after, bolting it all in.

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The 'before' image gives you a visual sense of what I had to unbolt. The vertical bolt at the rear of the A arm is just loosened. This gave me plenty of space for the sway bar to pass through.

I also took this opportunity to install the G's sway bar bracket and the G's front suspension brace. If you're in the habit of trolling buyee.jp like me, then these probably look familiar.

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I wasn't exactly sure where these were going to bolt in. I also wasn't sure these were made specifically for a left-hand-drive car. The good news is that they bolted right in. Once I was half way through the Cusco sway bar install it became pretty obvious where these guys go.

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For these images (above) I laid these two braces next to their anemic non-G's counterparts. Here's a quick snapshot of them after I finished bolting them in.

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There was one quirk. The mounting holes for the rear-most plastic splash guard [which covers the sway bar bracket(s)] didn't exactly match up with the holes in the new sway bar bracket. I just drilled a new hole about 3/8" inboard of the original and the plastic push-pin snapped right in.

 

To further quiet the PIP interior, I added some polyester batting as insulation in the door panels. I would prefer to use something better such as 3M Thinsulate, but that stuff is crazy expensive and hard to find.

I stopped by a local commercial upholstery supply place and they have a very light but about 2" thick material so I figured it would do a passable job when it compressed and the price was right... 30 sq ft of their generic dacron/polyester batting cost a grand total of $7. I have approx 6 sq ft remaining, and may stuff some in the kick panel area.

This was relatively quick and easy, taking about 30 minutes per panel. I will likely replace this material with a better quality insulation when I come across some at a reasonable price. When I do, I would also like do the headliner too, for both sound and heat.

For $7 and 2 hours, I think this was worth doing. A friend who has an identical but box stock PIP, rode in mine when we went across town to get a bite to eat, and she commented how much quieter my car is compared to hers. She did not notice the mercedes like "thunk" when she closed the door though, until I pointed it out.

Stock front door panel, where Toyota put a little bit of very thin thinsulate type material (about 3/16" thick).




Front panel after I was through with it, batting is held in place with a few dabs of hot melt glue




Stock rear door panel, with even less of the very thin insulation




Rear panel almost complete




Working on a moving blanked on the garage floor was somewhat back breaking, now that I finished with the PIP, I get to take the garage queen out for a cruise this afternoon

 

Did the rear wiper delete today
And once my roof spoiler gets here I'll be deleting the washer nozzle, but still no springs installed.

 

My wiper delete kit is in the mail, and my roof spoiler is on back-order.

Have you identified the solution for deleting the wasther nozzle? I'm thinking that it's a round hole which can be plugged with something from a hardware store.

 

I've had them on for a few months now and I've had no problems. It's definitely brighter than any regular leds out there including the overpriced vleds.