Has anyone used a paint kit on their Prius steering wheel? I have a 2006 Gen 2 that only has 140k and is in great condition. Have gone through two covers.

Hey everyone,

​Looking for some insight or second opinions from anyone who has dealt with high-voltage battery issues following a fuel-out situation.

​Background & Vehicle Info:

​Vehicle: 2004 Toyota Prius (Gen 2)

​Pre-Incident: About two weeks ago, I ran a Dr. Prius capacity test and the pack tested at ~80% overall health.

​The Incident: A few days ago, I accidentally ran completely out of gas. The hybrid system tried to keep moving and repeatedly cranked the engine using pure battery power, deep-draining the HV battery down near zero.

​Current Symptoms:

​Battery gauge on the MFD rapidly plunges straight down to 1 red bar under normal acceleration or climbing hills.

​Gas engine revs loud and high to compensate.

​The gauge rapidly charges back up to green under regenerative braking.

​Dr. Prius Log Findings:

​Delta V Under Charge (-22A): Block 7 spikes to 18.30V while Block 12 sits at 17.90V (a 0.40V gap—causing Dr. Prius to turn yellow).

​Delta V Under Discharge (+23A): Block 6 drops down to 15.45V while Block 7 stays up at 15.76V (a 0.31V gap).

​Internal Resistance: Block 10 has elevated IR at 27 mΩ (consistently 1 mΩ higher than the rest of the pack at 26 mΩ).

​Weakest Blocks: Blocks 1, 2, 6, 7, and 14 sag the lowest whenever current is drawn.

​Questions for the Community:

​Is it safe to assume the deep-discharge event caused cell reversal / permanent chemical breakdown in those specific weak blocks?

​Given that the rest of the pack was sitting around 80% health prior to this, is swapping ~5 or 6 individual module blades (and parallel balancing) a solid fix, or will I just end up playing whack-a-mole?

​Has anyone else had their pack suddenly start collapsing right after running out of gas?

​Appreciate any advice or feedback from folks who have done single-module replacements!

I have a 2013 Prius without a backup camera and in looking to buy one. Wanted to see if there’s one you all recommend. I was thinking of the one posted here.

Is there a significant difference in hard wiring vs this one that plugs on to the cigarette charger?

My trusty steed... 2012 V III 350k km

Does anyone know what is the difference between this new black color "inked" and previous one "black midnight metallic"?

(Don’t mind the license plate lol)

Took this beautiful picture with my Minolta Maxxum 7000i. I'm in love with this car!

Hi all, I need a new front license bracket and wasnt sure if I need to buy a prius specific one, since the license attaches to the bracket and the bracket attaches to the bumper, or if there is a cheaper universal option? Thanks!

I bought a new prius in 2023. car's been great ever since. replaced the windshield after a rock kicked up and cracked it while driving on the highway, and replaced the tires. at 59k now. no real problems.

but the audio that comes out of the car when driving at 25mph or lower is just .... odd. I realize that it is an audio noise generated out of (what i'm guessing) is an undercarriage-mounted speaker. but where is it? and is it hackable? in other words, can i replace the audio file that is used with one of my own liking? like ducks quacking.wav or Favorite_goat_scream.mp3?

just my enjoyment of all things technology and mild case of A.D.D. preventing me from doing more worth-while endeavours like finishing the laundry or replaceing my kitchen cabinetry.

how do i hack in and replace my slow-speed-audio-alert to cats purring or yacht rock favorites? Thanks.

P.S. i was forced to choose Mechanical Help flair because "dumb software question" didn't exist.

Old pic from 6 years ago when I got her BUT yesterday I officially put 100k miles on her. I bought her in 2020 with 65k and she hit 165k. Such a bittersweet time I love my old girl 🩷

Picked up a 2013 C a couple days ago and confirmed it has a bad head gasket. This is apparently an anomaly, because there's basically no one else that has had a HG fail on a C, but alas, I have coolant visibly leaking into cylinder 2 checking via borescope. I've tackled a gen 3 head gasket job before and it was not out of my comfort zone, however I had quite a lot of guides, forum posts and tech sheets to fall back on with every single torque spec I could need.

That does not seem to be the case for the C model with the 1NZ-FXE. I know these engines are used in the gen 2, and there are a couple of guides for a HG job with them, but there's quite a lot of difference between the two engines, such as the timing cover, ERG system and other components, so I suspect torque specs are going to vary across their differences.

I've dug around the internet quite a bit, but I'm constantly getting thrown gen 3 information. Is there anyone here who has done this job on a C and has any reference material they could share? The hand-holding video guides for the 3rd gen were nice, but I don't necessarily need that again. Would mainly like to at least have torque specs/tightening sequence for the cylinder head/timing cover and any other important, gasket mating component. I would love to get this little nugget back on the road, and any info would be appreciated. Thank you muchly.

It was wonderful. Had the car on Ready all night and it was nice and cool while it was still 70 degrees outside. Started at 44mpg and lost 5 after the night was over.

I do wish the flattened seats were more flat, but not too big of a deal. I laid on a cot from Amazon.

I also bought these perfectly fitting window shades also from Amazon for $39 bucks. They shipped from China and they work great

Overall I’m down to camp in this thing again!

My Prius of 11 years has broken to the point that I can't afford to fix her. She has given my family lots of great memories and been driven just shy of 200k miles. My daughter had named her Daisy when we first got her because she was a bright yellow Prius C. We sold Girl Scout cookies out of the back and hauled kids everywhere.