Mod Journal - Charles the Prius

Where did I read the matrix was 22mm?

This means I won’t see any benefits other than now I have an aluminum bar for looks?

 

I’m grabbing a TRD rear and Whiteline front next year. Dont notice any difference with the new bar other than it looks special underneath haha.

TRS sent me a whole brand new unit instead of just that one part! Installed the lights again today and I’m sooooo beyond stoked at the better light output now.

I’ll have a comparison video and photos up sometime. Super busy with school but when I get the chance I think the next thing I wanna do is touch up some rock chips, scrapped paint, pull some roof dents and a fender dent courtesy of my fellow college students. Then I’m planning an audio upgrade in the name of a flush mounted sub, some deadening, and replacing some blown JBL speakers. My plan is to let the JBL’s handle mostly highs and mids and letting the sub do all the lows. I keep blowing my JBL’s because they lack so much bass when the volume is below 30.

 

I actually think I may have read that the progress rear sway bar is 22mm and my mind automatically assumed they were all 22mm

I know what they do, definitely wanting to fix the cornering given I live out in the mountains with about 15 sharp switchbacks and a massive 90 degree turn. Plus all the other adventures I take. She likes to lean a little too much. I also want to do a Ground Control suspension upgrade. Not sure when though.

 

Did a thing! Can you spot it?



I’m now running a JL 8W3 8” Sub powered by an Alpine MV500 mono amp! I keep blowing the 6.5’s and the whole system sounds good but at lower volumes the bass really lacks. This 8” sounds silky smooth. I’ve got it wired up to just one channel for now but plan on doing a second later. The setup is running a little quieter and I’ve turned the treble and mids up on the factory setup so it balances out. Really happy with the purchase, especially since the whole thing cost maybe $350. Was planning on doing my own custom fiberglass box and sourcing all these components but everything kinda fell in place and it cost me half as much and took way less time to get it together.

The battery being in the back was just screaming “install a subwoofer!”



Mind the clutter, my next project is cleaning the car ha!

I also need to find a speaker grill so stuff in the back doesn’t rupture my cone.

*should be noted the camera captures the difference in carpeting color way better than the naked eye. It looks almost identical*

 

Covereted blinkers to LED! The rears I swapped amber for red. Did a LED relay instead of those other things haha.







Once I do my Morimoto foglight swap I’ll be all LED! Excited for that!

 

It’s tough. It’s wedged between the relay box and a metal bar behind the steering wheel. I had to lay on my back looking up using one hand to push the relay block back and another using a screw driver to pull the relay block out.

One the original came out putting the new one in was an easy task!

 

I’m a little lazy and more importantly am afraid of creating more rattles then I already have so I just did it how I did it ha!

I’m not sure how your relay will act but let me know if you see about a 1 second on delay before it starts clicking. Mines doing that and it’s a little annoying.

 

Today was super warm for an Oregon winter. Sunset and an open field begged for a quick snap!

 

It’s been a while!

Not too much has changed with the Prii, since December Life has been wild.

My girlfriend broke up with me after breaking the news she was cheating on me. We stopped dating a few days before Christmas, since then I’ve been avidly spending time doing what I love (and honestly life’s been so much better). I’ve put a bit into the car. I’ve got a new Yakima roof rack setup, I plan on purchasing Kayak mounts and a basket. I travel a lot, more now that I’m single, and it’ll be nice to put fire wood and anything else up and out of the interior.

I keep having problems with the Morimoto HID setup. Not a fan of the Morimoto brand and I honestly should’ve done an LED retrofit over HID. Latest setup includes a new igniter and new Osram HID bulbs. If something craps out again I’m throwing a LED retro fit in.

I’ve wrapped the roof in gloss black. With the color of the car, you don’t 100% notice it. But under lower light and especially on camera (like my drone) it’s noticeable.

Lastly I’ve thrown 3300k LED bulbs in the Fogs. They have slight glare but I haven’t seem to piss anyone off. I only really run them in Fog anyways.

In April I plan on putting up tinted windows, and either putting wheel spacer or wheel or both. At that point, I think my build will be pretty much complete. May upgrade sway bars. I don’t know.

 

I bought it off here on PC. I was going to make my own though using YouTube tutorials. It’s not too hard, just takes some time.

I just moved to Osram bulbs. I don’t think those will fail. It’s just the Morimoto stuff that craps. I haven’t had ballast issues, but recently an igniter crapped out. And three times the passenger side shutter for hi/lol got stuck open and after that would never act normal. I’ve also gone through 2 Morimoto HID’s in the time between the retro fit to now. Just too much work and too much money to not wish I hadn’t done LED projectors.

 

I bought it off a member here!

I’m running a JL 8” 500w Sub with a 250w/500w mono amplifier. I have my system setup so the stock speakers have little bass and the sub handles it all. Really feels nice, not overwhelming but definitely packs a punch. You can get these boxes custom made at most audio shops