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docwyte
docwyte PowerDork
3/23/22 8:53 p.m.

Do you already have a cat for it?

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/23/22 9:32 p.m.

In reply to docwyte :

No cat yet.  The least expensive,  made for Gen2 Prius, on Amazon are...

$87.90

$102.99

and an O2 sensor needed too

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/23/22 10:06 p.m.

The former daily driver and recent graduate in Mathematics...

 

Her father is a 57 yr old, registered Democrat who lives in a $240k condo.  I'll probably call him tomorrow and find out more about what I have.

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/23/22 10:22 p.m.

It was an unseasonably warm 70 degrees here today which allowed me to verify that the AC is strong!

californiamilleghia
californiamilleghia UltraDork
3/24/22 10:56 a.m.

Just to ask , did you check the battery condition before buying it ?

and what is considered to be a bad battery and do you walk away if it's a good car / bad battery .

thanks for the info......

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/24/22 12:52 p.m.

Battery before buying...

The 12v battery was dead but I brought my jumper pack and the car fired right up. 

I have the battery charger on the 12v with hopes it can be saved. If not, $200 battery, new

 

Hybrid Battery

I brought with my my Bluetooth code reader and ran Torque Pro.

This in my customized screen for Torque Pro.  Most notable, there are 14 cells to these Hybrid batteries.  In this screen shot the 14 cells are all running 16.4 to 16.1 (generally the same number) which seems healthy.  

I ran a battery life expectancy test with the Dr Prius App.  It came back with a 68.86% battery life remaining.  Its grading system is
90% is new/excellent
70% is good
50% is fair
40% is poor
less than 40% = replace

68% is just a hair away from good.  I'm gonna call the battery good.  Most importantly, the car is acting/performing as it should!


 

Contingency plan though always was that a used hybrid battery runs about $500.  

 

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/24/22 3:14 p.m.

I spoke with the owner.  Nice guy.  All the story checks out.  Daughter was DD'ing the car when the cat got stolen.  They had had the car for about 7 years.  Been a great car right up to the final day.  12v battery had been replaced recently.  Other than that no issues and really wishes he still had the car.  

Though he was very cool, that's where it got a little dicey.  You see, he did not get an insurance payout rather he sold it to the tow truck guy for $500.  But, he's moved on and he's happy to hear that the car is getting a second life. 

The bumper dent is daughter hit a yellow post in a parking lot.  Airbags never went off.  He commented that, they tried to make it a little better.  

Passenger window was once broken but operates fine.  A smash and grab in downtown Cleveland a couple years ago.  

 

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/24/22 3:30 p.m.

So, here is the GRMer offer:

The car in current condition, $2,200

Needs:

$100-ish cheapo cat pipe

$50-ish O2 sensor

$300-ish Westlake tires.  The current 2 front tires are crap. The backs are slightly better. They'll drive a short distance but I don't have much faith in them.

If a GRM'er does the work, this could be a $2,700 Prius.  Use some better parts and it could be a $3,500 Prius.  

 

This could be sliced a lot of different ways. 

  • Come with a trailer and get it
  • If your near, I could bring it to you with tow dolly
  • If you're far, I could bring it but need some compensation.  
  • I can get a pipe installed and drop it at my Walmart for tires if you want to drive it home.

Let me know what you're thinking. 

...jwelsh02...yahoo...

 

If the GRMers pass, I'm gonna get all the work done and list for $4,500 under the expectation of selling for $4k.  

Here's the current Gen2 Prius market within 200 miles of me:

'08 w/282k asking $3.4k

'08 w/ 200k asking $4.2k

'09 w/ 200k asking $4.5k

'08 w/320k asking $2.4k and overheats

'08 w/ 230k asking $2k destroyed

'09 w/ 207k asking $4k and only 3 of 4 doors have dent

Indy - Guy
Indy - Guy PowerDork
3/24/22 3:54 p.m.

In reply to John Welsh :

John, I want the car.  Let's work out the details: sent you a text.

 

yupididit
yupididit GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
3/24/22 4:49 p.m.

I'm still 4th right? 

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/24/22 5:31 p.m.

In reply to yupididit :

Right

m4ff3w
m4ff3w GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/24/22 6:03 p.m.

To be fair, I haven't read the full thread.

I bought my daughter a '06 Prius in August.

It appears the fuel bladder has an issue and will only hold about 5 gallons of fuel.  Did you encounter this?

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/24/22 6:16 p.m.

In reply to m4ff3w :

Try this...

 

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/25/22 8:21 a.m.

The Prius is going to Brian in Indy.  

The wheels are in motion

It will be a great first car for his daughter!

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/25/22 8:24 a.m.
yupididit said:

I'm still 4th right? 

The hunt continues. If you are shopping out your way, send me links and I'll tell you what I see.

Billy_Bottle_Caps
Billy_Bottle_Caps SuperDork
3/25/22 12:10 p.m.

Indy-Guy you got a great deal! John know the Prius well and I bought one from him several years ago that was awesome!  Helped out me and my brother's family both.

 

BBC

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/25/22 12:24 p.m.

In reply to Billy_Bottle_Caps :

Thanks.  Yeah, Billy bought P3, after I replaced the rear bumper cover.  Detailed here on page 4 of this thread.  Almost exactly 3 years ago.  

m4ff3w
m4ff3w GRM+ Memberand UberDork
3/25/22 5:17 p.m.

In reply to John Welsh :

Did that a couple of months ago no luck :(

She was excited 2 days ago when she got 5 gallons in it.

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/25/22 5:25 p.m.

In reply to m4ff3w :

I'd put a one gallon gas can in the trunk and drive until empty.  I just feel there is more than 5 gallons in the tank.  I feel it's saying empty when it really still has 6 more gallons in there.  I would do the "drive till empty" to test this out.  Set the tripometer to be sure.

 

If not, $45-$75 seem to be the going rate around here for a used tank off car-part.com.  There is one in Austin too, $75.  Only $30 in San Antonio

Caperix
Caperix New Reader
3/25/22 7:49 p.m.
m4ff3w said:

To be fair, I haven't read the full thread.

I bought my daughter a '06 Prius in August.

It appears the fuel bladder has an issue and will only hold about 5 gallons of fuel.  Did you encounter this?

My wife's car had that issue as well. It fixed its self when  had to replace the high voltage battery.  If the inclination reset does not work, it may be worth trying to disconnect the high voltage battery for some time & let things reset. The disconnect can be accessed from the trunk

Indy - Guy
Indy - Guy PowerDork
3/26/22 8:24 a.m.

Indy kid #1 here. We're on our way to come pick up the Prius now. The Van's all hooked up with the borrowed trailer and ready to roll. Some light snow at our place this morning, but we've been driving through other areas with at least an inch and a half on the ground. Probably planning on stopping for breakfast sometime soon!

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/26/22 8:35 a.m.

I was rereading this thread and an interesting observation on used car market...

On page 4, March 2019 I was hypothesising what that car would sell for when repaired:
2004 Prius w/159k ask $3,200 and accept $2,800

Now, March 2022 (3 years later with a car 5 years newer or a net 2 years newer) my hypothesis of retail when repaired is:
2009 Prius w/ 239k ask $4,500 and accept $4,000

If we let the attraction of 2 years newer negate the detraction of 80k more miles we can kind of say that the "equal car" has gone from $3,200 retail to $4,500 retail or about 40%

Maybe not perfectly equal as the 2004 wore a rebuilt title and the 2009 does not but I probably took just $500 off the retail for the rebuilt title (I knew the damage was minimal.)  Even so,  more than 25% more for the "same car"

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
3/26/22 3:40 p.m.

The above Prius (P7) is now sold and headed off to Indianapolis.  It has it's own build thread too.

 

Another GRMer Prius build thread, Salvage to Rebuilt here

John Welsh
John Welsh Mod Squad
4/15/22 2:10 p.m.

My DD is ole P2, the 2nd Prius I ever bought.  A 2008 which just yesterday rolled 197k.  

Today in the Prius Diaries...  needs a headlight bulb.   

Prius that were factory equipped with fog lights have HID headlight.  On lesser optioned models w/o fogs, like this one, the bulbs are just standard halogen bulbs.  Specifically 9003 bulb.  I needed just one and bought just one at Menards for $6.99.  Sure, they had some more wizz-bang bulbs that are better for 2/$30.  But $6.99 sounded good to me.  

 

Non-working headlight:

 

To do the bulb correctly, some bumper needs to be pealed back.  From the wheel well, undo two phillips screws.  With that then peeled back from the side there is a side 10mm screw that needs to be removed.  Not the rusty one.  That actually holds the black plastic bumper retainer in place.  Below the rusty screw there is another 10mm that bolts to the headlight.  The rusty one does not need to be removed. 

Peel back some of the front bumper portion to reveal another 10mm screw near the radiator support.

Overview of the bumper pull back a little from the car. 

Headlamp out

Silver retainer clip that holds the bulb in place.  Shown closed.

Retainer clip shown open.

Bulb out

Bulb unplugged

Assembly is the reverse of installation.  Now shown with a working bulb. 

 

It can be argued that the bulb can be changed without removing the headlight and thereby saving the need to loosen the bumper, but...  When doing that, the whole procedure is a blind affair.  You have to feel your way through the installation.  The hardest part being that you can not see the retaining clip that keeps the bulb in.  So, I thought this photo essay could possible make it easier for me or others when doing this in the future.  

Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
4/15/22 3:23 p.m.

Thanks john!

Next project for mine after this is the fog lights and fresh hella headlight bulbs. Both of which require the bumper to be removed....

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