My official Prius mods thread.

This will be the thread where I will post all my pictures and write-ups for all the mods I will do to my 2006 Prius. This way I can have everything in one place.


INSTALLED
Centerline RPM Forged wheels, 17x7, 42mm offset, w/ 215/45 17 General Exclaim UHP tires
BT Tech stiffening plate
Chromed amber turn signal bulbs
Sharkfin antenna
TRD Sportivo suspension kit
Tom's strut tower brace
Tom's front suspension brace
Sherwood carbon fiber dash kit
HID fog light conversion
JDM Signal Mirror Housings
PIAA wipers (super-sized driver's side and rear)
Window tint
VAIS AIC-100i and iPod w/ video
JL Audio 300/4 Amplifier
JL Audio 250/1 Amplifier
JL Audio ZR650-CSi Components (front and rear)
JL Audio CleanSweep CL441-dsp
JL Audio CleanSweep CL-SSI
JL Audio 8W7 Subwoofer

STUFF I HAVE BUT NOT INSTALLED
PS2 video source


FUTURE STUFF
Kenstyle front/rear spoilers/side skirts
Touring model spoiler
Tom's floor brace
Tom's rear lower brace
Tom's exhaust system
AV Electronic NVI nav screen interface
Alpine 6.5" Widescreen Monitors


So there you have it. More things may be added to this list and some may be removed if something tastier is released in Japan. On that note, I want to thank those crazy Japanese for first building a great car, and then making all the crazy parts to make it better!

Finally, you may ask yourself why I'm doing all this. It's a very simple answer. Because I want to. I see nothing wrong with making a good car even better. Toyota made certain sacrifices to limit cost, I don't like that, so I'll remedy the problem.

 

Oh yeah. This is certainly not the first. My Explorer was getting really bad. I had half the components to build a supercharged 347 cu.in. stroker motor to throw in it, when sense caught up to me. Well, that and the wife... I did have it heavily modified well before the warranty ran out.

 

Nah, I only weigh 135, and I probably won't carry a spare, so it'll still weigh the same. Besides, all the add-on stuff won't weigh more than maybe 100 pounds. Not too much. I expect I'll still get at least 40-45 mpg easily.

 

Zero. Haven't even picked up my car yet. Doing that tomorrow. Probably won't get a chance to swap the wheels until after Christmas, so I'll have a week or two of milage to get some baseline numbers. Might take a drive down to Miami also. Should have about 800-1000 miles by the time I get the TPMS valves swapped into the new wheels and get them on.

 

Here she is.

 

Well, none of the mods are actually for any sort of Bling. Al of them are purely functional, and would be virtually invisible unless you looked for them. I'm only getting the Tom's exhaust as it's necessary for the floor and rear braces to fit.

The fog light HID conversion is meant to make those lights actually functional, and I would use them quite often.

The only things that would be simply for decoration would be the Tom's logo and the carbon fiber dash kit, and those I'm just doing for myself.

The only one that is somewhat questionable are the braided brake lines. That is not one that I'm definitely doing though.

 

So far I have 150 miles at 50.5 mpg. That is pre mod. THe wheels will go on sometime next week.

 

The HID kit and hte carbon fiber dash kit arrived yesterday. Here are two pics of the HID kit. It's a direct plug in kit, not requiring connections to the battery. I've heard some say that this is not as good as those that have a connection to the battery, but I'm not so sure. The initial ignition takes quite a bit of current, but the ignitor stores enough charge to accomplish this. Besides, once the arc is lit, it requires LESS current than a regular halogen, so the factory wires can easily handle this. Should be an easy install, as it just requires you to plug the harness into the bulb, then to tha ballast, and finally to the factory plug. Stay tuned.

The carbon fiber dash kit looks just like the wood one that I got for our Volvo. It's from Sherwood Dash up in Canada, and I'm very happy with the quality so far. The temperature needs to be at least 70, so I'm going to wait a few days to do this.



NOTE: If you read the first post of this thread you can see what I've orderd/received/installed. I update it each time I get/do something new.


EDIT: Forgot the pics.

 

I'll be posting them pretty soon. We're supposed to be having temos in the upper 60's/lower 70's soon, so I can install it then. Also, if I park the car outside, it'll warm up enough to do it. The pieces look pretty nice, so I have high hopes. I thought the CF would be a better choice for the high tech Prius than wood.


EDIT: Actually I'm not taking care of people. I decided that one doctor in a family was enough (my wife) so I deceide to scrap the 4 years of med school, and I'm starting law school in January! :blink: Yeah I know. I can't figure it out either .

 

SUCCESS!!! Well half success at least.

I installed the HID bulbs and it works, or at least one side works. I think I have a bad bulb. I installed the bulb, plugged it all in and got nothing. I switched to the other ballast and still got nothing. Then I tried the other bulb and bingo, there was light. Here are some pics. I'm going to try and plug in the other bulb anyway and see if I can't get it to work. Maybe one of hte connectors is a bit off or something. I just won't use them until the new bulb arrives. Anyway, here are the pics so far. It's a side by side comparison of the HID on the passenger side and the factory halogen on the drivers side.

PS. The difference is much more apparent in real life. THe pictures really don't do it justice. Maybe I'll take some nighttime pics to see if it turns out better.