Hello Prius Chat! Myself and my girlfriend recently (December 29th, 2014) purchased 2 brand new 2015 Prius II’s. She went with the Sea Foam Green and I with the Winter Gray. We are absolutely ecstatic about our new cars. We love the fuel economy and the comfort/features. So far I have done the following to my car: Plasti-Dip Emblems Window Tint I love my Prius and find myself scouring Prius Chat for things to do to it! I have a question regarding ride stability/chassis flexing. Let me first say that I am in NO WAY mechanically inclined, I understand the basics but have never really done any work to any of my past cars. Here is my question: When driving down the freeway, let’s say 70-80 mph I find the car feels very “flexy” or “twisty”. I wish I could describe it better and hope someone out there knows what I’m talking about. My last car was a 02’ VW GTI VR6 that I loved the feel of. Very stable, fast, and it whipped around corners. I understand the Prius is a completely different automobile and I in no way expect it to perform like the GTI. I do however want to improve this “twisty” feeling. From what I’ve seen/read online it seems like a front/rear sway or strut bar are what I need. I am not familiar with these items, I get the general gist of what they do and where they go but I’m wondering if any of you can help me better understand the following: Which bars/product should I get? Brand? Do I need front and back? Install, is this something I can do myself? I have a garage to work in with basic tools but like I said I am not mechanically inclined. I know there are step by step tutorials on how to install but I’m wondering if someone with no expertise can handle it. If strut/sway bars are NOT the way to go then what do I do to improve the twisty/flexy feeling I am experiencing. Thank you in advance for any information/help you can provide. I am so excited to be a part of this community and look forward to connecting with everyone and giving back in any way I can. P.S. I live in Orange County, CA. If there is anyone out there interested in meeting up to discuss stuff I would be interested in doing so, always looking to meet cool new people with similar interests.
Get some 17" wheels and it should help your "twisty" feeling go away. You'll lose about 2 mpg in the process.....
Thanks for the info but I would rather not do anything with wheels/tires right now. I am more interested in the bars.
I know exactly what you're talking about. Before getting the bars, try setting your tire pressure to 42 front, 40 rear and drive it around. it will make a little difference. The Prius will never drive like your GTI but you get used to it. I am still debating the sway bar myself.
First,, allow me to say, welcome to this fine forum. I bought my first Prius in June, after driving a Lexus RX350 and a Corvette [ multiples of both ] and readily can affirm your ''problem''. What I did was to first have the dealer install a factory TRD sway bar,,not enough. I then went with 16'' new wheels and the Michelin ''Premier'' ties in 215-55-16'' tires and that helped a lot---- after some member here said that the factory Yokohama tires tend to ''wander'' and follow road ruts. Still not satisfied, I added the mid and front ''Cusco'' under chassis braces, and finally added the ''Cusco'' FST brace--- fine enough for me now. Probably--- as another member suggested above, another set of tires will solve a lot of this, though. Eventually I will put my factory wheels and tires back on as I have beefed the suspension up, and plan to see if I can get 300,000 on this car. Hope this helps, it would be different for me if I had to do this to two of them.........
Since you're asking about meeting up and kicking tires..... Maybe we'll see you there. PRIUS ASSOCIATION 2ND MEET AND GREET SOUTHERN CAL.- FEBRUARY 28TH, 2015 | PriusChat
I too am very interested in these after market suspension upgrades as well like the strut tower brace, rear sway bar and various chassis stiffeners. Do any of them make a real impact on daily street driving?
I have Tanabe Struct Tower Bar, Tanabe Front Sway Bar, TRD Rear Sway Bar and Tanabe Sustec Front Underbrace installed. The difference is night and day. A more solid feel on the highway; no body roll.
