I ordered the white colored hood struts off ebay. Received them in a week. 2009 2010 2011 2012 Toyota Prius XW30 White Color Shock Lift Hood Damper D4N5 | eBay They came well packaged and the instructions were very easy to follow. No more stick to hold up the hood!! First, remove the upper bolt off the hood bracket. Install the new bracket and reinstall hood bolt. You have to remove the small silver pin from the strut socket. This pin, when reinstalled, will keep the strut from coming off the bracket. Next, remove the fender bolt next to the headlight assembly. Install the new bracket and reinstall the fender bolt. Repeat the small pin removal, attach the socket to the new bracket and reinstall the pin. Here is one side complete. Repeat the same process on the other side. The first side took a little longer due to making sure I followed the directions. The other side took 5 mins. to complete. In all, it took around 15 mins. to install. One thing they don't say in the instructions is to remove the old stick support. I did because the bracket rubbed the strut body just enough to nick the paint. I repaired it with touch up paint. Maybe you can bend the bracket to clear the strut body and leave it in to retain the stock look. The struts work great and the white is a close match to the BP color. I would highly recommend these if you hate the hood support stick.
I wanted to put this thread together so anyone who was interested in these could see how easy it actually is. You will definitely like the white. They don't look like stock black struts. And I didn't do the carbon fiber because I don't have anything else that has CF. PlusIV
I share those very exact same sentiments. Not to mention, choosing black would cost a few more dollars... for what? It's not like it's at the center of the engine bay where 99% of the stuff are black. It's at the edge where the body of my car is white. Also, I'm not a big fan of fake carbon fiber or carbon fiber looks-only.
Did you have to cut the plastic next to the fuse box? I think if you close it. The top will rub against the damper on the right? I think L or R the same. I notice that on your picture you have the L install on the R side. Not sure if it matter
I could be wrong, but looking at the instructions photo, it looks correct to me. Besides, when you make a left turn, you are inside the vehicle, not standing in front of it. AFAIK, directions on a car are always relative to the driver position.
Whatever you do, just follow this thread. Don't follow the instructions. It confused the hell out of me.
Did you use the washer that came with it? My hood damper came with 8 washers. I see that you use the original factory bolt near the headlight. I had to buy new one since it wasn't long enough.
Just got a set installed in my 2015 Prius over the weekend. I was able to find the black ones, since my Prius is Sea Grass Green. Seems like Sokie changed the design a bit. The one that OP posted the pictures of seem to have metal connectors with a safety pin that has to be installed separately. The ones that I got has plastic/nylon connectors with the safety strip already installed in side the connector. I did buy them from the same seller, seems like he is the only one authorized seller on Ebay out of Taiwan.
Looking great! One question though. Can you open the fuse box cover after the install? It just looks very close to it.
