In the latest instillment of The Prius Diaries, I bought a 225k mile 2008 Prius for $500 (also known as P6; the 6th Prius I've bought.) The exact week of getting that car, my previous $1k Prius known as P5, now with a few miles short of 210k, fried the ABS computer. Out of these two cars, I have made one good car which is the P6.
Soon, P5, a 2004 Prius with 210k miles will be leaving. I'm mentioning it here as it might be a fun and quirky challenge build or etc. Price can be ultra negotiable for however it best works for your needed budget and recoup. The more parts I keep, the cheaper I can make the car from $300 to $1 and anything in between
What your getting will not have the cats or the hybrid battery bank. It also still has a bad ABS controller. I took its good 12v battery over to P6 but you can have the weak unit from P6. The good tires that were on P5 have gone to P6 but you get the flatspotted tires and good alloys (with good tread) that P6 came with.
P5 needs rear brake shoes. Nothing special about that job, just typical shoes. The AC on P5 also needs to be hit with a can of R134a about once a month.
Located in Sandusky, Ohio area
Direct: ... jwelsh02 ... yahoo ...
The car you're getting is on the right. Photo taken while swapping tires from one to the other.
sooo, who's gonna make this a mid engined beast to come play with the other middies at the 2022 challenge?
In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :
What I personally lack in build capability I can more than make up for with extreme enabling!
Ummmm. I think i'd like the dollar option if it retains the lights and other exterior bits, but can be devoid of most interior. For challenge reasons.
i need to stop
Let the enabling begin!
Thanks to everyone else who happened to consider this offer during the 31 minutes the offer was out there. 
This would be a quirky challenge car if it got 2zz and 6-speed swapped.
In reply to Patrick (Forum Supporter) :
A few years ago I might have smelled 3800 supercharged, but now I think I smell LS4 / 4T80.
I've dreamed of a mid engine prius for a long time, but with someone crazy like an ls+porsche trans or the like.
This dream started when I was at NASA event at Sonoma raceway and there was a guy who had a subaru based exo car. Naturally I went over and chatted with him. He took the time to go on multiple tirades about how much he hated prius, etc. It was a bad experience (and the exo-car was a late 90's automatic subaru...). There was a guy there in his prius (maybe the trigger?) and later that day the prius lapped the exo car - I didn't see the exo car again after that session.
Ever since then I've wanted a mid-engine, center drive prius to really put the hurt on some fast cars. I think it'd be fun.
That's my useless story!
Maybe if I can get my ducks in a row and no-one's already called it I can make my way to Ohio with the tow truck....
**oops, I missed it being called for already!
Just build a "sleeper" FWD LS4 powered Prius....think a bland version of the Nelsons' DSM with rumbly V8 noises.
In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :
Those only came in an automatic 4speed though, right? This doesn't make the bits tingle the same way for me.
Well that and the prolific understeer, haha
Any chance you'd be willing to part out a few things?? In particular the taillights and specifically the right one? I could send you my bad one in exchange if you need it!
In reply to jfryjfry :
i am not going to do anything just yet, need to get it here. Looks like the OEM cat is worth a fortune which is why john is pulling it. I am brainstorming but definitely don't want to just get rid of such a cheap challenge starting point or start removing things that will need replaced.
John knows a local to us prius part out guy who he can likely hook you up with
In reply to jfryjfry :
Pat doesn't know it yet but this Prius too is wearing a bad right rear tail light. I took the good one and re-instlled the bad one.
On this era Prius, from the bottom:
red is running light and regular bulb
white and amber are regular bulbs
top red is brake only but it is LED. It is this LED board that goes bad. Some, then none of the LEDs work eventually. The typical answer is just to replace the whole assembly.
Amazon has aftermarket units for like $75. RA has them for like $58 before shipping
This is the link to the Prius Dismantler that I have used before and according to his ad he is $35 before shipping
Junkyards out your way on car-part.com seem to be $50
Make note, 2004 & 2005 have smoked top portion. 2006-2009 do not.
In this picture the left car is a 2008 and the right car is a 2004. This difference is purely cosmetic. Either version will work if you don't care about appearance.
I actually took mine apart and replaced the leds. They were supposed to be super bright higher wattage but they are a little dimmer. Not much but that, coupled with the awful job of putting the lens back on has me wanting Another oem one!
id prefer to stick with the blacked out earlier version but a set of newer ones is fine too. I'll keep looking!
