Prius HSD transplant

wow, that is sweet!

 

Where did they put the traction battery?

Is that it in the front, the orange box?

SCH-I535

 

How about converting it to a plug-in?

 

The Power train is from a wrecked 2004, the Plug Ins did not come out until 2012. I bet the 2004 parts are cheaper.

 

Now that is cool ! What good use of a wrecked Prius and what a good instructional tool.

I know the students love driving it around campus.

 

This is cool.

I am wondering whether all electronics were transplanted or not. For example, the body ECU, immobilizer ECU, steering ECU, air conditioning amplifier. There's not much point to those for a very light vehicle with no doors, hatch or hood - but it would be hard to get the hybrid vehicle ECU and skid control ECU to work well without being able to communicate with some of those ECUs. And the car has so much open air space that it is unclear where all the electronics would fit, not to mention the 12V battery.

I am also wondering how the brakes work, whether all four wheels have hydraulic brakes installed, and how well the regen braking works when it is on the rear axle vs. front. Most braking load is done by the front wheels, so it may be weird to have the rear wheels playing that role.

Finally, it is not obvious where the engine/transaxle coolant radiator and cooling fan are located.

 

It looks like the radiator is behind the passenger seat.

I bet the rear-wheel regen works just fine. On a sand rail, there is a considerable rearward weight bias. The front brakes are often individual-wheel cutting brakes, used mostly for steering--they don't have much ability to slow the vehicle, since the front ends are so light.

I don't see rotors or drums on the front wheels of this one, so maybe they're doing all the braking in back.

 

What's the MPG like?