What did you do to ur Gen III Prius today????

Work in progress...
- Installed TRD springs (5hr job) Thanks Thanh T.
- Front Strut rubber boots
- BRZ 17's (45mins)
- Vent shades (30mins)
- Photoshoot

 

You can take a bruddha out of the Aloha State but you can never take the Aloha Spirit out of the bruddha! Shakas!

 

closest thing I got to a PriusChat twin! Same blindspot mirrors, wind deflectors, wheels, color, etc.. and funny story.. I almost bought that SAME top rack fairing because it was green

 

I can see we need to create an "honorary" membership in SoCal Priinuts for some of yous out of State guys. Good job!

 

we're one in a few when it comes to non-Californian modders tried to make a meetup in Illinois and it failed. But the two I made in NJ this past Summer was actually pretty nice. Will try again next year..

update: no new mods since June, still on "mod-break"

 

& im still waiting for my rear bumper guard from the mail! Just like yours too

 

Had a busy weekend. ...


Masta Sean (@sfv41901) set me up with a fresh Softex interior.


Also got my APEXi installed.

Masta Sean also got my rear hatch SKS installed. Now I can open the rear hatch without having reach into my pocket and push a button.

 

Where you find the Prius 5 seats? Did you get the rear with it?

 

It's a complete interior: door panels, rear, center console, and front seats.
@sfv41901 has his ways.

 

I would like the rear SKS done as well. First World problem, but it gets annoying having a handful of groceries when you need to reach into your pockets for the key fob.

What mode do you guys with the APEXi use btw? Does it just give you some in-between settings compared to the Eco>Normal>Pwr modes?

 

More truth than poetry in what you say! If people only knew! Shazaam, an OEM oil drain plug washer and a Japanese high tech rear wiper delete grommet magically appeared for me this last weekend at the mod party!

 

the Apexi Accel Controller is definitely on my To Do List! Just not in the front of the list... the harness is the same as the BRZ and FRS btw if anyone was wondering.

 

- Were you talking to Terry Benedict and Danny Ocean?

 

WHAT! What happen with Clazzio interior!?

 

I just dropped my car off at the dealer to have the wheels fixed after they were damaged last week when they changed my tires. They told me 2 days and comped me a rental car. I was put in a rav4.

 

Now that it's almost that time of year when there's barely any sunlight on my commute (both to and from work...so depressing ), I want to change out my headlight bulbs. I've never done an HID retrofit... I never had projectors and didn't wanna be that guy blinding everyone with bright reflectors. I've been looking at the OPT7 LED bulbs, but some of my research says that HIDs are still better than LEDs, but those comments are from like 2012 and I'm assuming LED tech is better now, especially if the Prius Five has LED headlights. I live in a metro area so it's not like I need anything overly bright. I just want something brighter, and more of a white hue to match the LED parking lights. Or am I better off just getting some Phillips bulbs?

 

The bags of groceries in the parking lot scenario is exactly the reason I wanted this. It works great. The rear hatch handle also gets another button which you can use to lock the car. It works awesome.

The APEXi is a neat gadget. But it should not be confused with a so-called "performance chip" mod. The APEXi throttle controller simply alters the signal that the gas pedal is transmitting to the ECU. The ECU parameters for timing and fuel injection are unchanged. I think this diagram spells it out pretty well.

These charts illustrate the normal pedal position signal compared to the altered signal that APEXi sends to the ECU.

I experimented with it a bit on my morning commute today. Sitting at the traffic meter, I put the car in Power mode and the APEXi in the red "Hi Throttle" mode. When the light turned green I floored it. The result was full power immediately. But I didn't burn rubber and I didn't reach 60MPH in 3.5 seconds. The APEXi by no measure turns our Prii in to high performance sports cars. But it does give you improved lurching capability when you're shooting a gap, or merging on the freeway.

 

Sean made me a limited time offer that was too hard to refuse.

 

I looked into LEDs as well, specifically the OPT7 LED package, and it seems solid.
However, its $100 with overall positive reviews on Amazon, but I didn't feel confident in its ability to put out enough light and also having the room for the HUGE cooling fan on the back of the bulb.

I ended up going with The Retrofit Source Morimoto Elite H11B (the "B" is super important to avoid the "squirrel catcher" shadow you'll read about their older kit) HID 35W 5500K kit for $150+shipping. Super easy (I think you can take the whole car apart with a 10mm socket.) and clean install w/o the need of the included HD Relay or Canbus or the anti-flicker capacitor. It's very bright and white no noticeable blue hue which I like. I've had the kit on for a little over a week, drive in town after dark everyday, and haven't been flashed once. Just as a note one of the other reasons I went with the Morimoto kit over the LEDs is that I live about 1.5 hours from their main office so I know if I have a problem I can just drive down there.

Check this install video, it's from another company but this is exactly where/how I put my ballasts except I used zip ties instead of 3M VHB.

A few pics, but I don't have a view against a big solid wall yet. The last pic is after replacing the 194 halogen parking lights (you can see in the middle pic they are clearly very yellowish) with Morimoto T10 XB Pure White LEDs to better match the HID headlights, and my always on DRLs. I hadn't put the antifreeze overflow bottle back in place at the time I took the pic.