2 Mods - Strut And Chassis Brace.......

If you hear the word KN RUN! It is the WORST (as bench tested on a 1million dollar contaminate machine) air filter made.

We had this argument in another forum and they tested every air filter brand made and KN tested the worse by a long way. Uni was second. The factory GMC filter tested the best. The test was done under strict guidelines by a company that only does testing.

 

Stay away from K&N...i had one in my Tundra and i had to clean the MAF every 3,000 miles and the throttle body got dirty easily....lots of crap got in

 

I think the point is, you won't find a better filter than the filter the manufacturer uses. K&N may flow slightly better but I doubt it but no filter at all will flow better than a K&N so why not run no filter? K&N gets better flow because it has big holes in it. That is big compared to the size of a piece of dust. I have seen the damage a poor filter can do to an engine. Damaged, dirty or poor quality air filters are responsible for most valve seat damage.
The guy who did our head machining (when I was mechanicing) could always tell from the valve seat wear if an engine had a dirty damaged or crap filter.

I use the air filter which is recommended by the company that made the car and provides the 3 year warranty, they seem to have some faith in the product and put their money where their mouth is.

Sorry I can't comment on the strut brace and chassis stiffening plate as I only have the plate. I also have Michelin XM1 tyres, 195 60R - 15 and I am very happy with the handling of the Prius although I believe Australian models have the touring suspension as it has very little body roll.

I believe bang for buck do in this order
1 - tyres
2 - stiffening plate
3 - strut brace
however I am only speculating.

 

Sorry I got carried away. Edited last post before I saw your post.

 

Well I have the BT strut tower brace, the chassis plate (one of the first BT Prius products I think) and IO also have the TRD suspension and 17 X 7.5 rims. I also did a larger rear suspension bar (kind of like the old pan hard bars) that goes between the rear shocks. Some call it a sway bar, I do not believe it is a sway bar.
My car handles nice and it is not harsh or rough at all. I drive a canyon road four days per week and can roll through it at 65 and stay with almost anything else without much effort. I think it kind of unnerves the BMW, Mercedez and Porsche crowd when they look in their rear view mirror and see my little Prius staying with them. Hee Hee Hee.

 

K&N air filters are great and I fully support using them. The problems happen when people over oil the filter, causing issues from the excess oil.

 

I have the BT Tech Stiffening Plate installed. I also have the Strut Tower Brace but have not installed it yet.

I believe there are several or many who have installed both braces on their standard or Touring Prius, e.g., GadgetDad (Touring), Efusco (standard), NoMoShocks (standard), BobbyB (standard), Cairo94507 (standard).

I have read hundreds of posts on the Stiffening Plate and every post on the Strut Tower Brace.

For the Stiffening Plate, the most frequent comment is that the car is more stable at highway speeds and in cross winds.

For the Strut Tower Brace, the most frequent comment is that the car's turn-in lean (and to a lesser extent, body roll) is reduced.

I do not recall a single post that said that the brace(s) affected the comfort/harshness of the ride.

 

Hi Cairo,

A Panhard rod is the rod that goes from a live rear axle to the chasis. Its purpose is to keep the live rear axle from deflecting sideways under cornering loads and driveshaft torque variations. My first car was a Opel Manta, which had a Panhard rod, and a sway bar. These were seperate parts. It could do cloverleafs at speeds that stock Trans-Am / Camaro's would do a loop-de-loop. Later on the Panhard rod was added to the Trans-Am / Camaro suspension, but in the mid to late 70's this was not a stock item on these cars. And people wonder why "Unsafe at any speed" was a million copy selling book. GM is just too cheap for its customer's goods sometimes.

The Prius has the torsion bar-trailing arm suspension, and the torsion bar is secured to the chasis left-right, but can twist and rotate. So, no need for a Panhard rod. You probably installed an add-on sway bar, to improve the anti-roll characteristics. The torsion bar suspension uses the forward horizontal member as a combination sway bar and trailing arm support. So, rather than beefing up an existing sway bar, one has to add one on.

 

Cairo,

What's that rear bar you're talking about or where did you get it?

Is that one of the TOMs' braces?

 

The majority of our customers that purchased our BT Tech strut tower brace and stiffening plate are using the stock wheels/tires.

As there are a lot more "standard" Prius' out there, the majority have installed our parts on this version but we have sold a good number to those that have the "touring" version as well.

 

ditto. been reading up on suspension mods for a few days but haven't heard of this bar

 

ThanX for the summary. Very nice!

One question ..... what do you mean when you state that the "turn-in lean" is reduced? In other words, what's the difference between "turn-in lean" and body roll? ThanX!

... Brad

 

The way Drees explained it to me they're somewhat similar. But "turn-in lean" can be viewed as the initial part of body roll when making a turn.

BTW Drees started an excellent thread on the subject of improving the Prius' handling:

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-modifications/40806-how-get-go-cart-handling-theory-least.html