How to replace your Gen 3 spoiler, step-by-step with pictures

Nicely written, clear and detailed photos, Thanks a lot.

 

Just be careful when using metal tools like those grippers near to glass surfaces, best to cover them with blankets or something similar. Learned it the hard way when I just nicked the front glass and it fell apart, 1700$ (covered by insurance)

 

Thanks for all the effort you put into this. Good to know if we ever need it.

 

You da man!

 

great write up u/d, thank you! (well played on she who must not be named)

 

In my case, I'm "she". Hit it maybe three times, so far...

 

same here. luckily, haven't ripped it off yet.

 

Great post, wealth of information.

Really should be made a sticky.

 

Great explanation, well done! Yet another reason the people on this forum are great.
This did happen to me on my 2010, backed out of the garage with the hatch up. Errrr. Had a body shop do the job at the time.
I am going to use your instructions to remove the rear panels and spray the metal cavities with Boom Mat spray for sound deadening.

 

Toyota says 80 in-lbs on the five nuts holding the spoiler: https://techinfo.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/rm/RM1290U/xhtml/RM000003CVM005X.html?sisuffix=ff&locale=en&siid=1463589573613

 

I just did this repair with a used spoiler and it was nearly impossible to fully pop in both plastic rivets on either side, but the bolts are torqued down pretty well. The 'newer' spoiler was also missing a gasket on the wire hole and a bit of water got in when I went through the car wash. Added some electrical putty to the hole, so we'll see how that works out.

 

Thanks for putting this up. My spoiler is held on by the third brake light wire right now so I've been mulling my options.

This thread has made my options much clearer and I'm just ordered a new spoiler ($320 including shipping).

 

Having done this maybe a year before you posted it, thanks for putting it all in one place. However for me it was not as simple as bolting it on. The single layer of aluminum it bolts to was bent and the seals near the ends that are only held against the sheet metal by the force of the pushpins leaked slightly after going through a car wash. I had to take it to a body shop to get the metal straightened. It was pretty obvious after installing that the angle of the spoiler was different than before and comparing it with other Priuses in the neighborhood confirmed it.

My other advice is that you can hold down the hatch by putting a rope through the metal loop that's part of the latch and looping it under your foot or through the cargo tie down loops in the tailgate area.

Finally when I was searching for info on this repair there seemed to be a huge debate here on whether the spoiler is painted or just glossy plastic. Yes, it's painted. My replacement had a piece of masking tape on the back that was painted black and when I peeled it off there was gray plastic underneath.

 

Hi UALDRIVER
Nice Instructions ~ just sheared our spoiler ~ WHERE did you get the painted one? Regards, JanJ

 

THANK YOU ~ the task of replacing the spoiler was accomplished in about 5 hours ~ working alone and at my relaxed pace. Replacement also came black, that matched well with the dark blue of our Prius ~ so no paint brush used Cheers, J in Michigan

 

Thanks very much for the in depth writeup. Saved me some green. My question is how the heck do you get the wiring back in place? I've wrapped some speaker wire around the wiring to the third brake light and still cannot pull the connector through. I'm using factory parts. Not sure what to do next. I know I don't want to pull on the connector.

Any further helpful tips to thread the wiring through the spoiler?

 

Glad I'm not the only one that's been exploring under the spoiler. Wife tried to back out of the garage with hatch up. It pulled all the bolts loose from the spoiler. I took the bolts out as shown in the picture above and used JB Weld to put the bolts back in the spoiler. I was in a hurry and didn't let the JB cure enough and one end came loose. I took it apart again and cleaned it up and reglued it with JB and let it cure overnight. A few days later, I noticed the right end had loosened up so I made two thin metal brackets and attached them to the outer end of the spoiler. The spoiler is now solid, will try to post a picture.