Passenger CV Axle Weight?

2 of mine do not have it 1 does no difference I also do not have weights on bottom of actuator either no vibes have one with the weights nada.

 

From the looks of your picture I'm fairly certain it can't be removed without cutting it off. However if your Prius is in really good condition and drives super quiet then I'd suggest cutting this off and taking pictures of how its built and we can come up with something else to put on their that will have the dampening effect.

But keep in mind most of these and other sound dampening measures Toyota does tend to be specific to preventing noise complaints when the car is still under warranty. So if your car is making all the usual noises of an old car, there's no reason to worry about one more noise that most people wouldn't notice anyways.

 

Here's what it looks like in gen 3, I wouldn't guess gen 2's much different.



You can take the damper off by loosening the damper clamps and sliding it. But you need to disassemble the joint on one end of the axle to slide it off ... and on one end of your aftermarket axle to be able to slide it on.

If you're open to the time/labor of joint/boot disassembly, just rebuilding the original Toyota axle becomes a possibility too.

 

Can you help us better understand the purpose of that dampener? Does it serve any purpose beyond making the car run quieter?

 

I'm sure NVH is its reason for being there ... one of those little touches so it feels like driving a Toyota when you're driving a Toyota.

 

I bet if I look hard enough I can find a clamp on with Allen key in that diameter and weight would be close if made of same similar material . Or if too small drill out the hole .

 

I haven't looked closely at it, but to serve as a "damper" I would bet that it has some kind of circumferential mass (maybe a heavyish metal ring) molded into its outer circumference, with rubber of a certain flexibility and compliance between that and where it attaches to the shaft, all tuned to dampen vibration in a certain RPM range.

A "harmonic damper" like the engine's crankshaft pulley is made kind of the same way (and, according to the article, not just for noise reduction, but to damp resonance at certain RPMs that might damage the crankshaft). Things like buildings and bridges can have much larger versions of tuned mass dampers.

A key thing is, you're not just adding some extra mass to a shaft; you're adding some extra mass attached through some medium that allows some relative motion to happen between the shaft and the mass, and dissipates energy when it does.

 

It's 85 bucks from Toyoda and a bunch of aftermarket designs just like you talking bout weighted etc rotating mass etc . A whole site dedicated to this damper . People do add them apparently .