Lightly totaled spare gen 2, what to salvage for backup parts with limited storage?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by 2gen2s, Jan 6, 2026 at 10:13 PM.

  1. 2gen2s

    2gen2s Junior Member

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    Totaled for frame bend from low speed front end crash. Obviously want to pull the HV battery and looking for first principles/ best practices for keeping the whole thing healthy in storage as backup. It was in a working car getting decent mileage so I don't want to worry about reconditioning or measuring right now (e.g. the full advice in this thread: What’s the Best way to: store hv battery. | PriusChat ) just storage for pack swapping if any in my DD start to go.

    Recommendations on any other high priority parts that could be pulled and stored in a boxes before the body gets scrapped would be great. For context, I plan to only buy gen 2 Prii for the rest of my time.

    Unfortunately I think the brake actuator was well on its way out before the crash so probably not worth wrenching out. Inverters are 1-200 dollars (?) and rarely seem to actually need replacing from my understanding. My time draining stuff, wrenching, cleaning up mess etc. is worth a lot to me.

    Coil packs, fuel rail/oem injectors? What would you keep?
     
    #1 2gen2s, Jan 6, 2026 at 10:13 PM
  2. pasadena_commut

    pasadena_commut Senior Member

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    Besides all of the HV pack, consider:

    MFD, radio, and the ECU under the floor on the passenger side. These won't take up much space in storage.

    Parts of the HVAC system? Evaporator, heater core, condenser maybe. It should be evacuated professionally first if there is still refrigerant in it. Taking the evaporator out is normally a pain, but if it is off to be crushed disassembly can be, um, rough. Maybe just pull out everything from the actuators on the driver's side to the one on the passenger side as one big unit. I wouldn't bother with the blower.

    Three way valve and inverter pump. Rinse them out with some distilled water and cap them before storage. Presumably they were still working at the time of the crash.

    The exhaust system, or at least the catalytic converter.

    If the gas tank is still working well maybe that. New replacements are pretty expensive. I don't know how well one of those would hold up in storage though. Probably there is something that should be done so that the pump will still be OK much later.

    Airbags?

    HV pack fan.
     
    #2 pasadena_commut, Jan 6, 2026 at 11:47 PM
    bisco likes this.
  3. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    cat, if it is oem
     
    #3 bisco, Jan 7, 2026 at 2:44 PM
  4. Aegean

    Aegean Active Member

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    Parts with value are common replacement parts including HV battery, Catalytic converter, Actuator, Compressor, combination meter, MFD, fuel bladder, wheels and 12v battery.
     
    #4 Aegean, Jan 7, 2026 at 7:27 PM
  5. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk MMX GEN III

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    What does “totalled” mean? That the insurance company has bought the car? Are you allowed to strip various components, hand them what’s left? Just curious.
     
    #5 Mendel Leisk, Jan 8, 2026 at 9:49 AM
  6. TinyTim

    TinyTim Active Member

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    It means someone trashed it and the OP is planning on stashing it.
     
    #6 TinyTim, Jan 8, 2026 at 10:52 AM
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