Suspension upgrades?

Tires - cheap fix. made the econocar cooperate while i am driving the Prius JBox. Before the fix it was modestly vague steering with the Good-for-a-year Fuel Max. The Bridgestone Ecopia422 definitely improved the handling and traction. Will probably put in a rear sway bar, after i pay off my Amex.

 

lowering springs, cross brace and rear sway bar are what I'm looking into.

 

Added in a TRD/Plus RSB and swapped in an OEM RAV4 FSB. The RSB is easy. The FSB requires unfastening of one of the swingarms.

RSB came first and although had a significant effect in limiting body roll, the car felt 1) unbalanced, rear axle felt obviously more resistant to roll than the front, and body attitude was determined predominantly by the rear axle; and 2) the rear felt more tossable than I'd like in a car with a very disconnected throttle and no torque.

FSB came quickly in response to that. Addressed all of the issues raised by the RSB except that the car has returned to near-stock tossability, a little more tossable rear (but less than with just RSB) would be nice. The Prius is not a car I would always try to weight-transfer into a corner (runs antithetical to the idea of fuel efficiency) except on a downhill... so I have to more wary of entry understeer.

Months later the bushings have worn-in and softened, and the ride is great. The only remaining issue is that increase in side-to-side spring rates would benefit from uprated shocks, for which I'm waiting.

 

I have:
1. TDR rear sway bar part number PTR11-47010
2. generic mid chassis cross brace from Ebay (made in China)
(this might be optional on a 2013 since it has a improved stock mid-chassis from my 2010)
3. a Sustec front/mid "under brace" TUB153F chassis cross brace from Amazon. Incorrectly listed as a "Rear brace" on the Amazon page.
(this might be optional on a 2013 since it has a different/improved front mid-chassis from my 2010)

I did them all myself:
1. rear bar - best done while jacked up and on two jack stands. Much easier to bolt in the end links if you can take the wheels off.
2 and 3 You can bolt them while laying on the ground. If your over 200 pounds you might not fit.

 

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iPhone ?

 

I've been very happy with my Cusco suspension up grades. Nice and solid in the turns...

 

Here are my four recommendations after two years of GenIII ownership:

Gen III suspension modifications - my four recommendations. | PriusChat

Good luck!

 

FWIW, I'm looking into installing a TRD (or similar) rear sway bar...if the price is right.

However, the SAME money will pay for a LOT of gasoline...