John Welsh said:What is this a picture of? Hood scratches? Is there a clear bra on the car?
That's the hood & headlight yellow fade that I'm trying to show. It's time in California baked some areas of paint. I'll have to get it washed first so I can get a better evaluation.
Edit: no hood bra, just failing clear coat.
P2 (your Prius #2) will run just fine on the 15" combo. I was just trying to find a cheap way to keep the good 16" tires on the road. But you should buy that $200 set for P1 (your first Prius.) Then buy some JY 16"wheels to keep P2 on the Michelins.
Via car-part.com this place in West Indy is showing 4 Pontiac Vibe 16"ers for $40 each. The listing says they are on the shelf, already pulled. I'd call and ask, "if I take all 4 can we do $130 instead of $160?" After tax you'll be about $35 each. Or, start with a lower offer!!!
So, $35 wheel and $20 remount and you'll be in for $55 per wheel. Or, about $220 for the job. So, I guess maybe just buy the FB ones for $200???
Yeah, they're Pontiac Vibe but that makes them Toyota Matrix and the correct size.
If the hood scratches bother you, at least know that a Prius hood is aluminum, so, it's not gonna rust. If the condition still bothers you, replacement hoods, in the correct color can often be had for $100. This place in Indy shows one in your color and asking $150. I'd call and offer $100. Don't be concerned about adding a northern hood to your California car because since aluminum, the northern one wont be rusty.
I thought the spoiler looked "different" but I thought it was a camera trick. I had no idea that the Touring model got a little more spolier. Not that much, but some.
Internet pictures:
Double is now tagged ($220) and insured (extra $30 a month)
The 12 Volt battery is dead. It would Not take a charge; actually got really hot when I trickle charged it over night.
I proceeded to hook up a temporary one, but in the process, hooked it up backwards = reverse polarity = BAD results. After several days of worrying, red triangle of Deathing, researching and some debugging, discovered a blown fuse. Replaced it and we're back in business 
Had the cars parked like this today and reaffirmed the "double-ness" of the two:
Same color and both have a bumped in bumper on the front passenger side.
Also drove it for the first time tonight after dark and holy E36 M3 ! Do the headlights on this thing SUCK. Like worst car I've ever driven. Must find improvement. First step will be polish the lenses. Any suggestions on better replacement bulbs?
Bulbs: The high end touring model had the HID headlamps (high intensity discharge.) As these bulbs wear, they are less likely to stop working and more likely to just loose intensity. Said another way, they don't stop working, they just get weaker/dimmer. Replace the bulbs with some fresh units and you'll be back to brightness.
I have no specific brand recommendation. I put some amazon cheapies into my car like that and they were a good improvement.
Before I made the change, I found that I could drive all the time with my brights on and no on flashed me about them being too bright (because they were dim by bright light standards.)
On this page, I gave detailed photos of headlamp bulb replacement. Its possible to be done w/o assembly removal but you have to know what the orientation is because you can not see what you are working on in the tight space. In that sample, I replaced Non-HID bulbs.
Hilarious about the matching fender bumps!
Indy - Guy said:Double is now tagged ($220) and insured (extra $30 a month)
The 12 Volt battery is dead. It would Not take a charge; actually got really hot when I trickle charged it over night.
I proceeded to hook up a temporary one, but in the process, hooked it up backwards = reverse polarity = BAD results. After several days of worrying, red triangle of Deathing, researching and some debugging, discovered a blown fuse. Replaced it and we're back in business
Curious as to which fuse it was that was blown? PO of my Prius also ran it out of fuel and had 4 dead cells in hybrid battery. I added gas, replaced 4 dead cells, and charged up 12V battery from Jan 2020, and still red triangle of death and will not go into any gear but P and N.
In reply to 90BuickCentury :
I physically pulled and checked 100% of the fuses on the box under the hood. Those were all good.
Turns out it was the obvious 5 amp fuse there on the positive battery terminal connector. Here's a pic:
Edit to clarify that it was the 5 amp fuse pictured
In reply to Indy - Guy :
Thanks!
I hear all the cool kids with high mileage Prius's are cleaning their high voltage battery fans, so just to fit in, I went ahead and cleaned mine this weekend too:
Obviously the before pic.
I'm still rocking the hideous wheels. The TPMS has been warning me about every 5 days to top them up with a little pressure. I'll pull the trigger on some wheels when I can get a good deal. No hurry.
John Welsh said:Bulbs: The high end touring model had the HID headlamps (high intensity discharge.) As these bulbs wear, they are less likely to stop working and more likely to just loose intensity. Said another way, they don't stop working, they just get weaker/dimmer. Replace the bulbs with some fresh units and you'll be back to brightness.
I have no specific brand recommendation. I put some amazon cheapies into my car like that and they were a good improvement.
Before I made the change, I found that I could drive all the time with my brights on and no on flashed me about them being too bright (because they were dim by bright light standards.)
On this page, I gave detailed photos of headlamp bulb replacement. Its possible to be done w/o assembly removal but you have to know what the orientation is because you can not see what you are working on in the tight space. In that sample, I replaced Non-HID bulbs.
Hilarious about the matching fender bumps!
Thanks for the information on the HID bulbs in the Touring model. Saved me a return on the wrong ones.
I bought these cheapo's on Amazon and set out today to install them.
Here's a bunch of pictures of the process. Bumper removal was 100% required on these HID bulbs.
Gonna use the boiling water trick to soften this up and push the bump back out
Cracked & broken mounting tab so I whipped up an expoxy repair too
While I had the cover off I wanted to put in a"grill" section. The old one was broken out and missing when I bought it. I got this tip from you guys on here: bought some wire cement lattice from Home Depot. I was gonna paint it black, but I like the shiny accent:
Zip ties are your friend.
I actually kinda like it
In reply to Indy - Guy :
It looks kind of angry now.
Super diggity on the wire mesh. Looks great. The shinny-ness of the mesh probably works well with the chrome wheels! Plastic bumper reshaping looks good too. A very productive day!
Bumper off reminds me... This has proabably been one of my greatest purchases. I bought this set of plastic fasteners in Sept 2018. It has been wonderful to have and the red handled tool is very good. I paid $23 and I see it is now just $20.
In retrospect. The fasteners aren't exactly Toyota replicas but there is still something I can find to replace anything the car is missing or that is broken. If I did it again, I might look for something more Toyota specific.
I went looking for something more Toyota Specific. Though not perfect, I might upgrade to the $25 huge 900 piece set. The reason is the green connectors are Toyota Style for holding on interior trip panels like door cards. These are great to have. I have made a habit of pulling them off JY cars when I am there.
Or, just buy the greens separately
Indy - Guy said:Thanks for the information on the HID bulbs in the Touring model. Saved me a return on the wrong ones.
As for if a Gen2 Prius is HID or regular headlamps.... If the car has factory fog lamps then the head lamps are HID. They only came packaged together. No factory fogs = non-HID headlamps.
John Welsh said:Super diggity on the wire mesh. Looks great. The shinny-ness of the mesh probably works well with the chrome wheels! Plastic bumper reshaping looks good too. A very productive day!
Bumper off reminds me... This has proabably been one of my greatest purchases. I bought this set of plastic fasteners in Sept 2018. It has been wonderful to have and the red handled tool is very good. I paid $23 and I see it is now just $20.
In retrospect. The fasteners aren't exactly Toyota replicas but there is still something I can find to replace anything the car is missing or that is broken. If I did it again, I might look for something more Toyota specific.
I went looking for something more Toyota Specific. Though not perfect, I might upgrade to the $25 huge 900 piece set. The reason is the green connectors are Toyota Style for holding on interior trip panels like door cards. These are great to have. I have made a habit of pulling them off JY cars when I am there.
Or, just buy the greens separately
Yep, once again, based on your recommendation, I've added something to the Amazon shopping cart. ( the other vehicles in the fleet have a few missing too )
Thanks for the tip.
After racking up about 7,000 trouble free miles on this Prius, last night it flashed the "red triangle of death" LOL.
I briefly hooked up my scanner to check it, and it's throwing a "P0A80" code. I'll have to investigate, but probably going to need the High Voltage Battery Pack reconditioned. Car is still running and driving. Drove it to work today with no problems.
Oh no!
Clearing the code isn't helping?
Is it still driving what seems to be normally?
In reply to John Welsh :
Still drives "normally". I need to hook up the full torque pro app and do some more diagnostics. OBDII code it's showing is P0A80
With Torque or Dr Prius get a reading of individual cell voltage. 14 Cells.
If I remember correctly, you have 3 Prius now. If the battery is bad, what might be your course of action?
In the meantime, I'll spend some time scouring the areas (your and mine) for possible good deals on batteries.
In reply to Indy - Guy :
I know someone in Lafayette who's selling an 09 Prius for fairly cheap. The hybrid battery was replaced in 2013 & he just put in a new 12v. I think he said it has 180k on it. Message or text me(I think you still have my #?) if you're interested.
In reply to John Welsch & Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :
John, I'm going to try and keep all three Prius's roadworthy, and learning the battery reconditioning process is probably the route I'm going to take.
Pete, I'll send you a text. If it's cheap enough, I'm a potential buyer. I also have a co-worker who's talked about getting into one if it's out of my budget.
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