Does anyone have any specs on what rear swaybar comes with the Prius? And if the V has a different/thicker bar as well? Unfortunately the Toyota website was uninformative. I'd like to consider throwing on a rear sway, so it would be good to know as well what bars can fit on this guy. Also would be good to know if a Prius gen 2's bar (e.g. from the touring version) can fit as well. BTW, I have seen another website talking about throwing on a swaybar from another car (Vibe or something), but I'd rather not consider this since rear swaybars should be carefully matched to the car. Thanks!
I have played with sway bars for 3-4 decades and usually have to get custom bars or mounts. I was not aware that the prius had an actual sway bar on it?? The last vehicle I installed a sway bar on was on a 86 fiero gt in 2008, I ordered a 1.25 inch bar for the front and then took the front bar, reversed it and installed it on the rear (.875" bar) I was able to get solid end links made up by a person by the name of Rodney Dickman, who is a techno engineer. As for this car you have to make sure that the rear is somewhat smaller then the front and that you are not affecting the ground clearance too much as we are already at 5.5" There was a significant difference in handling and driving with the bars on and it actually appeared to be a lot more solid. I would be interested if anyone is able to assist myself and other members with an answer to the original question.
According to Sigma Automotive, the Gen III Prius (regardless of package) only comes with a front sway bar -- there is no rear sway bar: Toyota Prius 2010 ZVW30 Performance, Handling & Electronic Accessories :: Sigma Automotive FWIW, the Gen II Prius came with front and rear sway bars with these thicknesses: Standard Prius: Front 21 mm, Rear 19.1 mm Touring Edition Prius: Front 22 mm, Rear 20 mm
It's my understanding that in a FWD (front, not four) car, the rear swaybar is the one of the better bang for buck upgrades you can make in terms of handling performance. i found a thread somewhere on the interwebz about someone fitting a pontiac vibe (matrix/corolla) rear swaybar into a prius II without problems....do not know about the III
Interesting. I crawled around under my Gen III with package V this afternoon to check out the sway bars (and change the oil/filter). The front suspension seems to have a conventional swaybar that's about 1-inch in diameter (I didn't have a caliper, so couldn't make an exact measurement). But the rear suspension is interesting. I'm certainly no expert, but it appears to be a trailing link setup with coil springs. There's a heavy "U" shaped beam that connects each of the trailing links close to their pivot point. The bottom of the U is facing up and each end is heavily welded to each link. The U seems to be about 2-inches high. Could this structure be acting as a swaybar? It connects both of the trailing links after all. There's another round bar about 1-inch in diameter a bit forward of this U, but it appears to be directly attached to the frame and seems to be hollow. Once again, I'm no expert in these matters, but it seems to me that at least the V has what serves as a swaybar.
FYI, Following is copy of my post. ----- FYI, Following figures are Iconic Prius rear suspension with the stabilizer bar and Auris rear suspension. I think Auris's one (same as 2010 Prius) is stiffer eliminating to add an independent stabilizer bar. Ken@Japan
Ken, Thanks for the info. Is there any bolt-on then that can give the Prius better handling - most importantly less roll & more "direct"/precise driving feel? The three things for my former car ('99 Honda Civic EX) that helped the most in order was: 1. better gripping tires 2. front strut tower brace (made slight steering inputs more directly affect the car by reducing front chassis flex, no more mushiness or vague steering) 3. thicker rear swaybar (reduced roll significantly). After I did those things the car handled like a totally different car than stock. If the Prius Gen 3 doesn't really need a sway, then I wonder what I can do then to 1) reduce body roll 2) make the steering/turning/handling more precise . The stock Gen 3 is still much better than the Gen 2's I've driven, but I'd still be interested in what things can improve this. There's a website out there that I saw that had various bolt-ons from $150-$200, but I'm not one to spend on something that might not give any handling benefits. Thanks so far guys!
I'm not a fan of suspension modification, but I found only one about the rear swaybar mod, Cusco rear stabilizer, in Japan. Also, TRD Sportivo suspension kit looks good. Both of them are supplied by Sigma Auto which link is shown on Tom(Boo)'s response above. Ken@Japan
Do you really think body roll is a problem? A few weeks ago I remarked at the stability of the vehicle to myself. I couldn't get it to rock from side to side even with my 240-pounds jumping on a back-door sill! It seems more stable than my Nissan Frontier pickup and it sure handles a lot better.
Thats actually a good question. I took the car out for a spin today, and did some more test driving just to assess it further. The roll really isn't that bad, its better that most economy cars I've driven, so I could definitely deal with it even without any swaybar upgrades. Now that I think about it, the main issue I have (which isn't that big of an issue really) is the steering response and crispness of steering and turns. I don't know exactly what it is though - I just got the car a week ago so need to drive it more to feel out what the issue is - having never driven a car with EPS steering might be some of the issue. Maybe I'm expecting a more tigher steering ratio. Maybe I'm expecting to have a more direct response when I turn the wheel either slightly or greatly. Maybe I am just used to hydraulic steering instead, which my Civic, Acura TSX has. Good question though - the roll really is not that bad. I've done far worse (better than a Toyota Yaris for sure, and better than the Rav4, CRV, Subaru WRX I test drove a few years ago).
From my experience with the Gen II, I'm a big fan of adding a strut tower brace as the first step to improving handling. I think it reduced turn-in lean and body roll and single handedly turned my Gen II (with its POS handling) into a fun car to drive. You can get the Japanese Tanabe strut tower brace for the Gen III for only $189 from Sigma Automotive which says it should fit all Gen III Priuses (although I thought I read something to the contrary here?).
I've driven the base Gen II as well and I'd agree with you that a strut tower brace would help - that car felt a bit imprecise when steering. That one bolt-on can do wonders for cars it seems. The Gen III feels a lot better though so I don't know if the front brace would help as much. Would be nice to see if someone has tried it on this forum first. Otherwise that $189 price of the brace is instead going to go towards a nice set of winter tires & rims next winter
