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sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/5/23 5:59 a.m.

It's way earlier than I want to be awake.  I have a carry-on, a slightly broken camera, an extra pair of underwear, and a plane ticket.

It's been a little while since I've gotten to have one of these adventures.  Our Leaf has been a revelation, but it's range-limited.  Our MDX mostly does well, although it seems to kill its battery whenever I get the itch to buy another car... and gets between 14 and 26mpg.

Time to pick up something that can hopefully "just turn over miles", and help me get out to the track... sometimes to drive, sometimes to be a support person.

Come along for the adventure, which will turn into a build/ownership log.

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/5/23 6:41 a.m.

Through security, and onto one of the signature aspects of my memories of Dulles airport: the people movers

I've got an hour and twenty before the flight boards to find some roasted caffinated hot beverage to consume... hopefully

Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
2/5/23 1:23 p.m.

Giggity 

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/5/23 1:25 p.m.

Teaser pic...

While we eat lunch

secretariata (Forum Supporter)
secretariata (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
2/5/23 2:01 p.m.

Looks like you are in Dusterbd13's neck of the woods from the info on your table.  Going to meet up with him?  Is it his Prius?

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/5/23 2:44 p.m.

Indeed, I have bought Dusterbd13's Prius

Lunch was great.  Good to talk cars and travel.  Now it's time to take the longer, but more familiar, route home.

Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
2/5/23 2:53 p.m.

Amen sir! This was a thoroughly enjoyable sunday. Safe travels, hopefully more comfortably and quietly than the acr.

Indy - Guy
Indy - Guy UltimaDork
2/5/23 4:32 p.m.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

Well .......

This explains the recent interest on my Prius thread.

 

Congrats yes

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/5/23 4:56 p.m.

2 hours down.  4-4.5 to go, not including fuel/food/etc stop.

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/5/23 5:54 p.m.

Stopped at "the cheap gas" as the sleepy-in-laws call it.  Also, grabbing some dinner.

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/5/23 10:44 p.m.

a-a-a-and, home, about 20mins ago.  400-something miles in the Prius.  Kept up with traffic fine, other than a couple times I decided to hang behind a truck rather than force it to accelerate up a hill.  First half to two-thirds, the computer was showing ~50mpg; then I locked on the cruise to "going with the traffic, don't want to get a ticket in the dark" speeds, and it lowered to ~47mpg.

Took the long way in order to play around a little bit in some of the twisty's between Dusterdb13's and 81, hung out with a Prius C for a bit through that, and missed a turn.  Some interesting things to learn/experiment about 'D' and 'B' mode, w.r.t. "spirited driving".

Also, I've got some figuring out to do with the suspension.  Dusterdb13 mentioned the spacers on it made the steering a bit more 'lively'.  What I found was that under some road imperfections the back end would... 'wiggle' through an oscillation and a half.  I also had a few times where it felt like the front-end was tram-lining a bit, and then another few times where it seemed there was some bumpsteer going on.  It's not 'bad', although I think I'd like it to be a little more consistent... assuming there are things I can tweak to get that.  I also noticed there were some times when the struts would take more period than I expected to settle down... which is kinda a bummer, since (afaik) there's not really "other struts/shocks" with higher damping without going to coilovers.  Which, isn't in the cards right now.

The steering is... interesting.  At speed, I perceived deflections for lane changes and sweepers to be about what I expected.  But, tighter radius mean you'll be using ~90deg of wheel deflection, where most other cars are probably 45 or 60deg (this was something I was aware of before purchasing).  At speed, I felt like the steering loaded up nicely, although there's not much of a centering force... when combined with a little bit of dead-space in the middle probably accounts for some of the comments about the Prius' steering lacking 'feel'.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the little thing.  No, it's not as fast as the TL; and it's not as big/authoratative as the MDX... but it does what you tell it, and if you plan ahead (or have patience when 'calling for more power' isn't a good option), it will ably keep up with (imho) one of the more demanding highway environments.  Also, it's a lot of fun to be able to use regen to 'keep position' in a pack of cars and watch the consumption display push power into the battery, instead of it getting turned into brake heat or engine noise.

Alright.  Time for bed.

Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
2/6/23 7:06 a.m.

Glad you are home safe. 

Hopefully you can sort the dynamics to suit your use case. I never checked alignment, so maybe start there?

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/6/23 9:26 a.m.

I should probably move this into "Build Threads" after this post.  A post that is critical to "Prius Science":

Confirmed, Prius 2G 16x6 "touring" wheels are 15.4#s with 4 wheel weights stuck on it.  I'll, try weighing the other four later today, and see if an improved average emerges.

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
2/6/23 12:13 p.m.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

You've got yourself what should be one of the finest Gen2 Prius available. Michael has given it a lot of love and refurbish since getting it. 

Just meeting up with Michael is worth the trip and bringing home a new car makes it even that much better!

I will say that for a brief moment I considered selling my two Prius to afford Michael's one Prius.

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/8/23 10:54 a.m.
John Welsh said:

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

You've got yourself what should be one of the finest Gen2 Prius available. Michael has given it a lot of love and refurbish since getting it. 

[...]

I will say that for a brief moment I considered selling my two Prius to afford Michael's one Prius.

Yes, the quality of the car was definitely part of the reason I jumped on it.

It's a bit of a blessing and a curse.  The blessing is, that hopefully this means it will "just cover the miles" I need.

I typed that all while trying to get it through state inspection. Which it apparently failed do to an out brake light... which I didn't check before hand.  There's a new inspection guy here, so I wonder if they've changed to a "find/make niggling issues" model, instead of the previous guy that seemed reasonable.

But, yes, I'm going to have to keep the "need it to turn miles"/"in a condition sleepywife will want to drive it if needed"... and not go to the level of "racecar" I did with the TL.

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
2/8/23 12:46 p.m.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

So, it looks like Michael sold you a derelict car, with a bad tail light. Ha. devil

But, therw is a common Prius problem where the rears are bulbs , EXCEPT, for the brake light which is led.  More often the right side, but there is an internal failure with the LEDs.  Aside from disassembly and soldering work the answer is an aftermarket full tail lamp assembly or a know good used one. 

Also make note... For '04&'05 the top portion of the tail lamp assembly is black/smoked. For '06+ the top portion is silver/clear. Be sure to buy the correct one. Either will work properly but won't look proper. 

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/8/23 12:50 p.m.

this was the driver's side, brake light.

that makes me even more suspicious that they reached in a pulled the plug on that light to claim that it was "out".

edit:
after them "fixing that brake light", it passed state 'condition' and emissions inspection.  now to the dmv, maybe tomorrow, to do paper work.

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
2/8/23 1:00 p.m.

The lowest red bulb is a single filiment bulb. As is popular by European standards, one bulb is for the running light and another bulb is for brake rather than the US system of using a double filment bulb. 

Check that they didn't put a double filiment where a single should be. 

Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
2/8/23 1:20 p.m.

Oof. Im sorry for this.

It did just pass nc inspection in January, but that doesn't mean that they didn't miss it. 

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/8/23 1:56 p.m.

It's just part of the process... and brake lights are the kind of thing you can't check/notice all that easily.

Here's the bulb on the driver's side:

And this is from the pax side:

 

In other news, I've weighed all the 16x7's on my bathroom scale.  3 are reading at 15.4#s, and one is reading 15.6#s.  So, I'll probably use 15.4 for my "nerdy spreadsheet stuff"

Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
2/8/23 2:20 p.m.

Those appear to be different part numbers. New is a 194, old looks like -57.

I think 

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/8/23 3:07 p.m.

In reply to Dusterbd13-michael :

I'll have to study up on that...  maybe check Advanced, and preemptively swap out both.

sleepyhead the buffalo
sleepyhead the buffalo GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
2/8/23 3:14 p.m.

Oh yeah, first weight reduction (4.35#s)

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
2/8/23 3:45 p.m.

In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :

Personally, I like the "trunk shade". For the when you fold the seat or carry bulky items there's even a dedicated storage area for it under trunk floor in the black bin.

myf16n
myf16n GRM+ Memberand New Reader
2/8/23 3:57 p.m.

I had a 2007 that the prior owner lowered (springs only), installed a body kit and big wheels. The wheels dropped mpg to 40-42. They likely hurt acceleration too. 
 

The suspension on the Prius is a parts-bin affair. I don't remember what car shared the front suspension, but if I remember correctly the rear was shared with the Pontiac Vibe and its twin Carolla. I found a larger rear swaybar from a Vibe and it bolted right in and had a noticeable effect.  The car railed around on and off ramps. I didn't get around to upgrading the front bar before selling it, but it was possible. 

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