Strut/shock replacement and “shocking” discovery!

howdy everyone! So I purchased a complete set of KYB preloaded strut assemblies for the front and rear of my 2006. KYB has a promotion until the end of the month, buy all 4 and get $100 off. Plus rock auto gave me another 5% off so I got all four for under $400 US.
Anyhow I got started replacing them. The fronts went off without a hitch. When I got to the rears I thought I’d clean the HV battery cooling fan for the first time in recorded history. Naturally it was all gunked up with dust. It took air, a toothbrush and flossing the squirrel cage with an oversized pipe cleaner to get all that out.
When I turned my attention to the battery brackets I discovered that this area was not virgin territory. Many of the upholstery clips were broken or missing, then I noticed to my horror that of the 20 or so bolts associated with holding the battery and side brackets down like 3/4 of them were missing! You heard me there were only a few bolts holding the battery case together, the battery down to the chassis and the side brackets in place (?!?!?!)
Now o bought this car last May for a really good price. I have a lot of service history but nothing on the traction battery. Obviously some lazy assed hack has been at it. Who knows what kind of lazy work was done if he didn’t even bother to put all the bolts back in. I sure wish I knew that battery status. It seems to cycle fine. Torque Pro says all blocks are within .15 of each other.
I guess it goes to show you, if you want something done right, do it yourself.

Carry on!

 

Hey all. So Aegean is probably right. It looks like someone did a hurried service on it. The PO owned it for 7-8 years, I’ve had it since May of this year. I can’t find any official records on the battery and I’ve got lots of records for it’s 220K mike history. I’m fully prepared to recondition-it with a prolong or replace it with a NEW battery if necessary. The rest of the car is near mint.

Mendel, yes I’m monitoring all 14 blocks in real-time with torque pro and a CEL phone permanently set up as extra gauges. They seem to perform fine. The only time it goes purple is if it’s 100 degrees F outside with AC on in stop and go traffic. Fair weather my SOC stays in the 50%-65% range according to torque. And real-time monitoring shows less than .2 volts difference from highest to lowest measured block.

JC91006: I think you have it. The missing ones were all in places where they’d be impossible to reinstall if he were lazy and worked on it with the seats and trunk side panels in place. Since I had the panels off and the seats out for the struts they were all exposed leaving me standing there wondering what the “F” his problem was. Now I see it. If the panels and seats were in place (and his wife was hollering “what’s taking so long?!?!”)
I could see him say sing ah screw it it’s close enough. I dug around in May garage and was able to cover all but two of them. All together I was missing 16 or so. I lost count. At some point I’ll replace the battery and I’ll put stock bolts in rather than the mosh mash menagerie I came up with.

I did email the guy a couple weeks ago asking if he had any history on the traction battery. Not surprisingly he’s not responding.

 

On the plus side my car no longer makes all those pops and squeals and rattles from the rear area

 

Since my original struts were shot when I got the car last May I don’t really know how they compare to a new car. There was strut oil everywhere inside the wheel wells and the boots were gone. With the new ones on the car rides higher and more evenly corners firmly. It’s absolutely more sure footed. Since the cars doesn’t wallow it sends more torque to the tires and I’m getting chirpy tires here and there. On fresh smooth pavement it’s so quiet. But with the current lousy condition of pavement in California it rides like a buck board over bumps and potholes. This is not a Cadillac and it really feels like a penalty box on anything but glass smooth pavement. Also I absolutely NEED an alignment now. I was able to inspect all the other ball joints and everything seems firm. Does that answer you?

 

Just an add on. I got the car aligned yesterday. Holy cow it was bad. Apparently the P O aligned the wheels based on worn out struts so with new ones it wasn’t even close! Word to the wise folks, keep your Prius aligned!

 

Sorry I wasn’t clear. The rear was fine. Fronts were off. I forget what direction and don’t have the paper with me.