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Need help Identifying Parts

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by Joenjoe, Feb 3, 2023.

  1. Joenjoe

    Joenjoe New Member

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    and thanks to anyone attempting to help me out. This is for a 2005 Prius base edition, not touring.

    Recently, my roommate borrowed my car and got in a wreck. It's not a bad wreck, but I only have liability insurance. The shops wanted a fortune and a half to fix things, so I'm repairing it at home.

    I have taken a screenshot from a YouTube video, not mine, to show the area of the vehicle I need help with. The first picture is that screenshot, showing the parts underneath the passenger headlight.

    The passenger fender and front bumper cover were smashed. Underneath the passenger headlight, there should be one or two bottles that seem to hold liquid, similar to the windshield washer liquid bottle under the hood. My car is now missing these items. I need to buy them and reinstall them, but I don't even know what they are. Have a look at the pictures.

    Clearly I'm missing some parts under the passenger headlight and I'd really appreciate some help Identifying what I need to buy. I think the gray box in the screenshot is an alarm or aftermarket part. The white bottle/tank looks like an OEM part that I'm now missing. Surely a hose or something goes to it, but I haven't investigated that under the hood yet. I'm clearly missing some plastic brush guards that should be below everything and allow the front bumper cover to screw into it. The middle plastic scoop appear torn also.

    For body damage:
    So far, I know I need a fender, bumper cover, hardware and brackets for both, and the black plastic guards and scoop that go underneath everything.

    For mechanical damage:
    So far, the shop said it was the passenger lower control arm that is bent inward. You can see the wheel messed up with lots of negative camber. I haven't pulled the wheel to confirm yet, but my guess is the knuckle, hub, or strut got bent, or the lower control arm ball joint, but the control arm itself looks fine. Without removing the wheel and comparing it with the driver's side, it's hard to tell what got bent or broken. The car does drive, but there's an obvious steering/rubbing/out of alignment going on. It's been able to drive up the tow truck and into the driveway, but it can't go far without feeling very broken. I'll be battling this for the next day or two. Thanks for any and all input.

    Pic one is screenshot from video of car with all its components. The next pics are of my car missing components.
    Screenshot_20230203-131327.jpg IMG_20230202_170156.jpg IMG_20230202_165757.jpg
     
  2. JC91006

    JC91006 Senior Member

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    The roommate should pay, you should not have to worry about it.
     
  3. Todd Bonzalez

    Todd Bonzalez Active Member

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    It's impossible to tell what's missing from those photos in terms of pipes, wiring, brackets etc.

    Best I can think of would be to get a few places to give you estimates for the repairs, and then figure out if it's worth buying a parts car so you do the job yourself?
     
  4. PriusCamper

    PriusCamper Senior Member

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    Where did the missing components go? Looks like a fender liner and bumper cover and some of the plastic in front of the engine compartment. But it makes no sense to say you only had one accident if you now have stuff missing... Seems like you had two accidents and the second one is when the parts went missing.

    Regardless... Ebay sells Bumper covers in the $200 range and if you want to have the paint match it's an additional $100ish.

    As for the rest of the parts, go to a junk yard / Pick n' Pull that has a Prius and pull off the parts you don't have and buy them.
     
  5. ColoradoCrow

    ColoradoCrow Active Member

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    I'm pretty sure the white OEM Bottle is washer fluid reservoir. The 2 coolant reservoirs are central behind the radiator for the ICE engine and the inverter coolant one is top just right of center. Near the Brake Fluid reservoir. Your best bet would be to find a Prius at a junkyard and pull the parts yourself. The lower control arm and front sway bar bracket can be pulled if you need to. FYI A 2008 Corolla Front sway bar will fit as well. Just get the sway bar bushings and the bolts from the loaner car as well. Check the CV axle for rips in the boot. If your lower control arm is bent....odds are your CV Axle is broken as well.
     
  6. ColoradoCrow

    ColoradoCrow Active Member

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  7. Joenjoe

    Joenjoe New Member

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    Here's some photos of the inside of the wheel area. The components look A-okay. If the tech at the tire shop said the lower arm was bent, I'm going to have to pull the wheel and look with a flashlight. But this photo makes it look not bent. Ball joint looks ok. Axle, tie rod all ok.

    I'm veering towards a bent strut or just stripped where the two lower bolts hook up to the top of the steering knuckle. The strut, or knuckle could be the culprit. Or maybe the arm. Not sure what else could cause negative camber like that. I'm gonna find out real soon.

    The passenger headlight is perfectly intact except for the topmost bracket fractured right near the upper bolt in the engine compartment. The other two bolts seem to be fine and the light holds pretty steadily. I think I'm gonna rig the top bracket to hold better and not buy a new headlight. But, I will get a new pair of LED bulbs. Just because.

    Yep, I'm ordering these body parts already paint-matched from Amz:

    front bumper cover
    passenger fender
    passenger fender liner
    passenger side mirror
    center engine splash guard plastic scoop
    lower center grille
    fog light trim and lamps (mine had factory fog lamps)
    fog light LED bulb upgrade
    headlight LED bulb upgrade
    100 rivet clips
    touch-up paint

    The roommate is paying for the repairs. She is good for it, so that is a very lucky relief.

    All the mechanical parts are on amz also. Same brand of control arm and ball joint the tire shop wrote on invoice. moogs. Except at 1/4 the price.

    I'm still tracking down the Toyota-ish bolts and screws I might need. Checking dealer websites and their parts diagrams. I think the bolts for the bumper and fender are still intact almost completely. The missing parts stripped right off the bolts instead of taking the bolts with, almost like they were meant to.

    The tire shop said $1250.00 for the fixed mechanical components, labor, and alignment. I didn't bother going to a body shop or the dealership to estimate the body damage which would probably double the total.

    I have a garage, a jack, 90% of the tools, and I know how to work on all of these parts. Anything I'm new to, I've found videos and/or forum help already if I get stuck. One bolt in particular on the passenger control arm is a true queen bi*ch to get out. Now I know that before I even start. Everything else is just dirty.

    So, instead of the roommate paying two shops what would have easily been $2000.00+, I'm going to get all of the mechanical parts, the body parts already painted, and the hardware for $850.00 + tax, free ship to the house. Everything except the side mirror comes from Amz. The mirror comes from a color-matched donor car on flea ba. So, simple and free returns if need be. Prime shipping, but the body parts will take a bit longer.

    What do I get out of it? The deal is that I'm also getting $500 worth of tools, such as a good torque wrench, a 12-point socket set for axle nuts, ball joint press, and some other goodies that I'll need to do the job correctly, in addition to a few tools I need for a new job I might be starting soon.

    I'm saving her a small fortune and I'm getting tools I will end up using a lot, especially if I get this new job, and some good tools that should last me many years. Plus, experience working on my own car in case I decide to sideswipe a flatbed semi-truck like she did.

    IMG_20230202_170213.jpg IMG_20230202_170217.jpg IMG_20230202_170244.jpg IMG_20230202_170259.jpg IMG_20230202_170329.jpg IMG_20230202_170337.jpg IMG_20230202_170432.jpg IMG_20230202_170551.jpg
     
  8. dolj

    dolj Senior Member

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    It's not, it is the intake resonator.

    The OP should use the parts diagrams on a site like Amayama Genuine Parts Catalogues or Toyota Parts Center Online to work out the missing parts. Then he can procure them by any of the means mentioned already
     
  9. ColoradoCrow

    ColoradoCrow Active Member

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    Nice. Seems like you have everything you need. I agree on the tools It is nice to have new gear to help out future projects. Best of luck to you. Please post photos of the repair and let us know how it went. Thanks.
     
  10. Joenjoe

    Joenjoe New Member

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    Thanks for taking the time to read my write-up fellas.

    Thank you. I was thinking it looked like just a white block of styrofoam similar to the bumper styrofoam. A resonator makes perfect sense because one section of the stock cold air intake goes down through a plastic pipe and terminates facing down at the ground just below the passenger headlight. Another end of that same plastic pipe looks like a snorkel and sits up in the engine compartment facing the passenger headlight. There's a small baffle that makes an insulated wall when the hood is down, separating the hot under-hood air from the cooler air the snorkel is pulling from next to the passenger headlight and around the wheel well. Yet another reason to buy a Prius, the fact that cold air intakes are better for emissions, Toyota built a stock cold air intake that is quite effective.

    Anyway, a resonator. Now, I'm no stranger to intake resonators because I owned a Chevrolet 2500 truck with a diesel for a while. The intake has a turbo on those Duramax engines, and the resonator is supposed to quiet down the turbo whine. Anyone doing mods to their Duramax would remove that plastic box resonator and chuck it. They're almost entirely useless and who doesn't enjoy a loud turbo anyway?

    Well to translate that over to Prius land, I'm going to guess the resonator is pretty useless too. I'm going to use those links you suggested that ought to have diagrams for parts.

    The idea is to obviously return my Prius to its stock form, however, I'm not going to get too worried if I can't find a resonator or if it's too expensive.

    The journey continues. I'm going to remove the wheel today and search for the bent part(s). The tire shop I brought it to initially said the lower control arm bent, but I'm not yet agreeing with that. I did pay a diag fee, so I hope that wasn't a total waste of money.
     
  11. Joenjoe

    Joenjoe New Member

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    Update*

    Sun Feb 12, I finished changing the passenger control arm. Took quite some time. About 6-8 hrs over a few days of bad weather. Why so long?

    Well the brackets that hold the lower control arm in place via bolt through bushing were bent or really crimped around the bushings from the impact of the wreck. It made taking the old arm out and lining up bolt holes during installation a real challenge.

    For the infamous blocked bolt on this passenger control arm, I went with the prying the subframe option. Worked well with a helping hand once I positioned the pry bars. It was much harder getting that bolt fully back in

    I did not end up changing the ball joint for two reasons. 1) It was absolutely ridiculous trying to get it off and I had no open-end 19mm or 3/4 to try. No chisel either. 2) The ball joint survived the wreck fine. It still feels supple and full of grease. So I left it in. The driver's side b joint is worse, missing all grease, even tho it avoided wreck damage. Neither b joints do anything bad yet.

    I was able to drive to the gas station and fill up. The front wheels both appear to be neg camber, yet now they're about equal. I'm pretty sure fwd cars prefer a touch of positive camber not neg. My steering wheel pulled left a bit and wouldn't do so well returning to center after turning. Needs an alignment. Will go for one tomorrow.

    All in all I saved Wreck-it Roommate $700 on the mechanical bill already and we haven't done the body yet. I haven't been given any body work estimates, and I don't exactly care to. Amazon has everything I need, including painted fender and bumper cover. Wreck-it Roommate has to get a paycheck or two to cover the body stuff so waiting on that. Driving the car all hoopdy at the moment.

    Tomorrow I should receive the last two goodies from the mail for right now: the resonator box and the passenger side mirror. Currently black tape is holding the mirror.

    Coming along.
     
    ColoradoCrow likes this.
  12. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    It's funny the number of people who think that. The Helmholtz resonator on the intake is an example of some interesting physics.

    The intake noise you hear without it is the sound of kinetic energy in the intake airstream being wasted and not helping to charge your cylinders. Intake valves close and the flowing air piles up behind them and makes the high-pressure half of a sound wave traveling back out the intake. When the next intake valves open, that's the low-pressure half, and the intake has to suck air that's even below its average pressure.

    By putting the resonator there, you get a standing sound wave that stays within the intake and pushes the charge more efficiently into the engine. The reduction in intake noise you hear from outside is a nice side effect, but the real reason it's nice is how it proves the energy of that pressure wave is staying inside the intake where it does you some good.
     
  13. Joenjoe

    Joenjoe New Member

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    Yes interesting is right. It's similar to the two-stroke banana exhaust pipe thing I suppose.

    Now, I wonder if the fact that the g2 Prius uses a 50% Atkinson cycle which pushes fueled air back out the combustion chamber into the intake manifold during half of each combustion stroke exacerbates the effect you're speaking of or if it diminishes it. Judging by the fact that Toyota uses a resonator on the Prius, but not on any other Toyota non-hybrid I know of, it's probably the former.

    Regardless, said resonator should be coming in the mail today. New, unused. I do hope it's more than an $80.00 glorified milk jug.
     
  14. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    I think it's pretty much a glorified milk jug.

    Tuned to the engineers' favorite rpm range, whatever that was.
     
  15. ColoradoCrow

    ColoradoCrow Active Member

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    Hi. I just replaced the Front suspension on my wifes car. I noticed the 2 bushings on her lower control arms are pretty toast. While I had it apart I figured I would change them with OEM. No luck you have to buy the entire control arm. $152 each plus tax and not in stock would take 3 days. So I put it all back together. Since her car was never wrecked will it be difficult to remove the old ones? Or easy? From your description it seems your was harder due to the wreck. Is that accurate? I'm just trying to get an idea of how difficult this job will be.
    Great Post on the repair and resonator info. I have enjoyed learning more.
     
  16. ColoradoCrow

    ColoradoCrow Active Member

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    Worse case is there anything I can lube those bushing with? They still squeak pretty good.
     
  17. alftoy

    alftoy Senior Member

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    Control arms $24-70 Rockauto, includes ball joint.

    2008 TOYOTA PRIUS 1.5L L4 ELECTRIC/GAS Control Arm | RockAuto
     
  18. Joenjoe

    Joenjoe New Member

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    Not sure there. There might be a rubber rejuvenation liquid out there, but it's likely a gimmick.

    Yes, it's par for the course to throw out the whole part just to replace a bushing. The good news is two Moog control arms are cheap from Amazon. And they're better than OEM.

    Yes, replacing the control arms will be easier having not been in a front end collision. Still, changing those on the ground with jacks is a challenge compared to having a shop with a proper lift.

    The driver side won't be much of an issue, but the passenger side is trouble. You have your choice of digging under the hood until you can get at the engine mount, simultaneously jack up the engine, or you can pry at the subframe. I chose the latter. Neither way is easy, and prying the subframe is easier with a helping hand briefly. YouTube has both methods easy to search for.
     
  19. Joenjoe

    Joenjoe New Member

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    I held off replacing the resonator for now until we get the body parts in. I should be ordering that this week. Again, almost all parts are from Amazon. Bumper cover and fender come shipped painted, though I'm told the bumper will have a small paint defect due to the shipping process. No big deal. I'm getting a little can of color match touch up paint, so maybe I can remedy any crease or blemish.

    I've been driving the car all week and only had one small issue. I used three bungee cords and a handful of zip ties to hold the broken bumper and lower splash guard together so it won't drag. I think I got it solid because even on the interstate I'm not hearing plastic waving or dragging. My mpg is still great, maybe 1 or 2 below what it used to get which is to be expected until I can get the aerodynamics fixed.

    The one issue I had was I kept hearing a ticking in sync with a spinning wheel. It sounded louder in the middle of the car than on the passenger side where I did work. I thought it might be a wheel bearing, but it turned out to be a slightly loose axle nut. I undid the axle and moved it to the side while working. But I only tightened it back to the spot it originally had a dent in the nut where the last installer notched it in. Don't do that. I ended up having to tighten it about 90 degrees past that old spot and set a new dent. I used my impact and held it down for about 15 sec to tighten the sh*t out of it. My impact isn't very powerful. I put the breaker bar on it to test the tightness and it was solid. I think the spec calls for 200 ft lbs. I did use a torque wrench on everything else.

    The ticking went away completely. It runs smooth, quiet, and straight. Haven't got an alignment yet, but it's more than good enough to drive until I feel like getting that done. Hoping for good weather when I go to fix the last of the body work.

    My roof and rear spoiler area are getting sun rashes in the paint. The sun has faded through the clear coat and it's starting to beat on the paint. It looks bad, but it's not to the metal yet. I want to fix that up when I get the collision stuff fixed also in the next week or two.

    I think I'll just wet sand the roof, then spray a new couple layers of spray can clear. Wet sand again to smooth the orange peel and a final buff with some polish and it should look like new. Can't wait!

    Oh here are some photos of the resonator. I noticed there aren't many closeup photos of this curious item on the net.

    IMG_20230213_205559.jpg IMG_20230213_205626.jpg IMG_20230213_205649.jpg IMG_20230214_094733.jpg
     
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  20. ColoradoCrow

    ColoradoCrow Active Member

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    Nice info. TY. Keep me posted on the paint prep. I need to respray my clear coat on my roof and good as well. Going to buy a HVLP sprayer and some base and clear. I’ve watched a bunch of videos on you toob Paint Society. Tackling that in the spring. Something I have never done before. Lol
    Looking forward to it.