I had an advisory notice with my MOT this year saying rear axle bushes worn has anyone changed these? any feedback would be appreciated also has anyone fitted ROCA bushes? Thanks in advance
I have not heard of anyone having problems with the axle bushes, and no experience of ROCA bushes. Your bushes have probably deteriorated by being permanently wound up by the extra weight of your engineer kit. Having said all that the OEM lasted 8 years so I would stick with those. John (Britprius)
Thanks John, those bushes have only had the Enginer kit to contend with for less than 3 years and I have fitted after-market bushes on other vehicles and found many benefits in ride and handling, just never heard of Roca and don't know of any others available for the Prius
It is quite possible the bushes from the Celica and Corrola fit the Prius, but I have no way of checking. Again I have not checked this out but often suspension bushes should be fitted so that there is no wind up on the bushes when the car is sitting on it's wheels. In your situation this would be with the engineer kit fitted. John (Britprius)
I notice from your list of modifications that you run 205's tyres on the front and 195's on the rear. Do you have any problems with the ABS or TC with this setup at speed. I am also interest in going the EV route but using lead acid as I have 6 12VOLT 90AH deep cycle AGM batteries sitting idle and this looks a good use for them. John (Britprius)
Hi John no problems with tyre sizes on my Prius but pre-2006 didn't have to have resistors fitted for led bulb replacements either, made a huge difference to handling together with the strut brace I fitted and fuel economy on motorway wasn't affected which surprised me, I did think bigger tyres at the front would be the more aerodynamic route I still expected a hit with wider fronts. I would not advise the lead acids unless you do very short journeys the weight penalty and perket affect make them hard to get any return on investment. If I was buying my battery now I could get a 120Ah at half the price and almost half the weight now, the 80Ah 48Volt battery I have works well for me since I changed the BMS to a very cheap one from "BatteryBMS"
I am not sure about the Celica but the Corolla shares the same Toyota part number. One thing I don't like about the rubber bushes is the windup / memory position I would rather have urethane bushes with their grease. I would like to fix this once I am getting a bit old to be crawling under cars
This was something I was just considering as I already have these batteries brand new surplus to requirements. My longest normal regular run is a 100 mile round trip where I can charge at journey mid point. The batteries would be charged as individual units and being a retired EE the only thing that I would need to purchase would be the 48 volt to 201 volt (nominal) inverter. The rest of the bits I can source from my extended workshop of parts from my working life. I also have an off peak tariff of Less than 6 pence per KWH. John (Britprius)
I run 205/55/16 tyres all round and gained 3mpg over the OEM tyres. Plus a car that now handles well and is so much quieter. I would not go back to 195's but would like to try 205/50/16's but not enough to buy them to find out how they work out as the 205/55/16's are cheaper against both other sizes. John (Britprius)
I have a pair of 205 50 16 I tried at the front but the 55 profile seems to handle so much better, I will use them on the back when I need them replacing
I have been out of the loop for a while but I believe Fountain electronics china can supply just the inverter for you it is easy to hook up and I am happy to help if you want it, once you see the benefits you can easily upgrade later to lithium phosphate pack which will be twice the power and half the weight
I wonder how US readers will react to that the 205 was a common size for a lot of BMW's here and so much cheaper, the initial fuel economy comes from not being run flat tires which are heavier, like you say much quieter and more comfortable and you can get a puncture repaired if you have to. I wouldn't go back to the 195's either
She has 120,ooo miles on her so far andhas had a hard life many tools or camping gear etc on top of a 4KWH Enginer plug in kit.
