What coilovers do you have?

damn from ps3!?thats crazy! yea $400 bucks is Alot as my friend did my Springs for $100 and I'm sure it wouldn't be too much more for Coilovers when I decide to jump haha

 

Cusco Street Zero coilovers installed! This weekend.

Pros:
1). very good road feel without excessive jouncing. Yes this was worth it just for that reason. For those here who know the Washington DC roads, I can now take the I-295 curve over the Anacostia Bridge at (so far) 63 MPH. Previously I took it at max 58 MPH (I added a few suspension braces and things over the years to make that possible).
2). The rear view mirror is now free of the horizontal headlight-blocking bar and so now the rear view mirror auto-dimmer works great.
3). Not that hard of a job. Son and I installed the rear coilovers on Saturday in the driveway. We went to the nearby Fort Myer auto craft hobby shop for the front coilover install on Sunday (needed the shop's spring compressor to decompress the old shocks and re-use the top cap, and the shop had the necessary large breaker bars, large sockets and a mongo-size torque wrench). Three bolts per rear coilover, five bolts per each front coilover, but the entire wiper assembly + shelf also need to come off.

Cons:
1). finding a shop to do the necessary wheel alignment proved to be a PITA. The normal Gen III Prius is low to begin with and barely clears most alignment ramps. I lucked out at the 3d dealer I visited, where a real old pro head mechanic who took it as a personal point of pride (Toyota of Springfield). yes an alignment does wonders after the coilover install.
2). Although the drop is about an inch to an inch +.5, the car really IS lower - you can feel it walking up to it because the door handles feel lower. I haven't scraped anything anywhere yet, even on my steep driveway lip, but do check out the clearance below the opened driver's door picture at the gas pump curb... and now add 200+ lbs of pure American beef inside on the seat(s).

So far I'm very happy except for the price of the Cusco Street Zeros. Enjoy the pix..

 

that is pretty darn low!

comfort wise, how are they? You might be the first one here with cusco coilovers! where did you purchase them from?

 

I popped for them at JuicedHybrid | Hybrid Car Accessories & Prius Accessories | Auto Accessories . Good quality manufacture. They come with their four sets of spring compression rings pre-set and locked in for Gen III - street use: the rear springs are fully extended (rings are all the way down) and the front springs have their locking rings partway up - see the pictures. Rear shocks have easy-reach dial rings on the shock body for damping, set at #4 (out of ten) - it makes sense to me as the rear cargo area is where loads might significantly change depending on what a GEN III might be called on to haul. The fronts don't have adjustable damping (Street Zeros). The ride is "live" but very nice. Pretty comfortable.

We didn't need to compress the new front springs with a spring compressor - did it manually. Same with the new rear springs. But boy did the compressor come in handy to take the old springs off the old shocks. My son actually walked away when we had the compressor pawls set and I started cranking on the compressor's worm gear wheel. "Dad, I'll be watching from out here when that spring pops off on you".

Toyota of Springfield gave me the before & after adjustment values printout. Per the old mech wizard, there is no way to adjust caster on the Gen III - but they did adjust the toe and the camber. I was watching from the bay door and my oh my did adjustment technology change from when I helped my older brother adjust adjust toe-in and camber on his '56 VW bug back in the late 1970s ;-)

Note: Cusco Japan coilovers come with instructions in... Japanese. The old head mechanic scratched his head and figured the math out and did the adjustment for just under $100.

 

Thanks! I am trying to get my coilovers installed this summer. Hopefully I will have something good to say like you. I am concerned about losing my comfort, esp with my 45 series low profile sidewalls on 17 inch rims. I find that I can already feel a lot of cracks and joints on the road already. It would be a pity to loose the comfort in this car.

I will keep the old shocks. Only have about 15,000kms on them (10,000 miles?). If the suspension is too stiff, I'll revert back.

I was considering the Cuscos and Tiens before I purchased the Tanabes. Those two seemed to drop the car much lower. I only want to do a 1.25 in drop all around.

Glad things worked well in your setup. new wheels planned for the future?

 

My new Cusco Street Zeros came without a new top mounting plate. A pillow ball mount plate is an option. Several mechanics recommended against buying these for street use, because of supposed large increase in road noise and decrease in comfort of ride. I just re-used OEM mounting hardware.

I like Cusco stuff and prefer it over Tanabe stuff - have had a Cusco Strut Tower Bar for a while now. Cusco IS pricier though.

I'll keep the Prius Plug-in OEM wheels - they work well and look good.

My OEM shocks have just over 45,ooo miles, so I'm sure there is some deterioration. I'll keep them for when (if ever) I have to get the Cuscos rebuilt.

Best of Luck on your mod!

 

How much camber are u running on ur fronts? Ur currently running 19 in. Rays right?

 

I'm running -1.5 camber..... and my wheels are just 18s.... 18x8.5 Rays 57 Extreme Velvet series.......

 

Update - 15 thousand miles later -- I LOVE my Cusco Street Zeros!

Pros:
1). The car is more comfortable - much more comfortable. I waited this long to make sure - multiple long-distance trips, mountain trips, daily commuting etc. Very varied loads as well. Just had my Big Sis, two grand-nephews and all our luggage in the car for a multi-state, two+-week trip, and everyone was comfortable and the car drove well on all manner of roads and speeds.
2). The car is now (along with previous mods i.e, the Cusco Shock Tower Brace, the TRD anti-sway bar in the rear, and the two Rude person's underbody braces) just a superb-handling car. Matter of fact, it consistently overdrove its tires. I upgraded to Michelin Defenders and that finally gave the car a set of tires equal to its suspension, and I quit scaring myself in corners ;-) I now regularly go around unsuspecting Mustangs on the outside lane in tight corners.

Cons:
1). That roughly inch drop in road clearance is a significant penalty on angularly sloped driveway / roadway transitions and on vertically steep speed bumps. I do scrape. Can't help it. I just have to go slow and I learned (mostly) where to go slow.

Lesson learned #1: maybe because my car is a PiP, the rear shock locking rings were set too low for the car's weight on the shock body. The car wasn't level - it dipped in the rear. I experimented and settled on adding another 3/4 inch of compression (moved the locking rings 3/4 inch higher). That leveled the car.

Lesson learned #2: the adjustable rebound damping click-wheels on the rear shocks are useful. When I overload the Prius and take it over West Virginia roads to Kentucky every few months, I click the rebound rate wheel adjusters up and it significantly helps, without it being painful to do.

BLUF: if your Prius shocks are 50 thousand miles old or older, you plan to keep the car and you can swing the steep cost, the Cusco coilovers are a damn good deal. Enjoy the pix.

 

15k????wasent it jus not long ago u installed them??

 

Nice thread! Good Job @DadofHedgehog !!!

 

yep... lotsa drivin'... ;-)

 

I'll do it for $200 installed.
But I'm in NJ...

 

Megans includes upper mount right? Is it a bushing or pillowball mount?

And does anybody have the D2 coilovers? I'm really about to purchase these but want a upper mount included. These are a little more than megans.[/QUOTE]

 

[/QUOTE]
Don't grt the megan. I have megan on my prius and the front springs are so horrible. They bottom out a lot. I have to swap Swift springs in.

 

Does BC at least include rubber upper mounts?

Megans have seperate height adjustment for that reason of not bottoming out the shock, lowering on the bottom body perch and not the spring perch, do they just have soft springs rates causing bottoming out?
So only the Megans include upper mounts?

 

Tein Flex Z withp roper adjustment is very comfortable ride.

 

I just put the tein basis on at the and have them on lowest settings. It feels a lot more bouncy than my TRD with dead struts, did I miss something lol. I like the look of it though, do you know how far I should raise it for a more stable ride without losing too much of the lowest setting look? Thanks.