Suspension upgrades worth it for handling?

You've got no power to really suspend? Body roll is the only thing fun about the car dang . 120hp give or take and 4K pounds .

 

The TRD rear bar plants the car, makes it more stable in crosswinds and track better on the highway.

 

Gotta ask: what’s the miles and how long have you had it?

 

When I got my 2012 Prius v in February 2012, I was so surprised to find out how flexible the entire body was.

Even my 1998 Mazda MPV minivan which I had previously was better planted on the road.

Through many trials with my dad's friend, he experimented and developed many chassis stiffening methods and eventually came up with the setup which I have today.



I've had this setup for over 9 years and have been completely satisfied. Toyota eventually adopted multiple chassis braces to stiffen the Gen 4 Prius and beyond.

Adding a rear sway bar would be only effective if the chassis is stiffer. If no stiffeners are added, the flex would still be evident and felt.

 

Vo used all that at TRD in the 90,s good stuff I guess . I kind of like the handling like the Citroen that soooooft mushy feel it's perfect for a city driver . The Prius with 8 inches of suspension travel hale yeah. I mean I'm into stol aircraft things like that . So banging my kidneys for switch backs is not really a thing anymore .

 

I tried and ditched rear sway bar, finding that the chassis braces did the job better.

Another thing I got was a full sized spare and the 18lb. two ton Walmart Hyper Tough trolley jack.

The jack fits perfectly in the foam storage well space underneath the lift up panel.

The extra weight actually help even out the front heavy bias of the car, while improving handling.

 

Yeah, the chassis is overly flexible.

 

Late in the day, but I’d concentrate on EGR cleaning. See top two links in my signature. (On a phone turn it landscape to see signatures)

also timely to change the engine water pump.

 

Keep an eye on fluid level in the reservoir then. Sounds like early stage, coolant getting by the head gasket. If the EGR's never been cleaned it's typical time to start those symptoms.

Yeah first priority at this time would be head gasket diagnosis, then EGR cleaning. The latter is needed for sure, but it will not "reverse" a head gasket starting to leak.

Borescope inspection of the combustion chambers, preferably first thing in the morning after driving the previous day, and preferably with the cooling system pressurized, to exacerbate leaking. A borescope that can look "over it's shoulder" is preferable.

There's a couple of head gasket related links in my signature as well.

For pressurizing the cooling system, removing the engine coolant reservoir cap and replacing with a one-hose stopper connected to a pressure source is one way to go. A crude gizmo I've cobbled, yet to use for this application though:

 

If the chassis doesn’t flex going up on the jack, and it doesn’t, then it doesn’t flex under driving loads, either.

Of course I may be lucky to have a well-constructed 2012 v Five chassis.

 

Our 2010 hatchback has very noticeable front-to-rear deflection of the underside when jacking up the front end, at least a couple of inches.

 

All structures flex. Some more than others.

Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it does not exist.