Greetings! Just picked up a 2005 Prius with Package 2... $500 MSRP, no waiting at Alexandria Toyota in Arlington, VA. David Reynolds, the GM, was very helpful. We named her Nighthawk 'cause she's black and, with the ICE off, stealthy. Plus I have a history of naming my cars after birds of prey. I love my baby... got a thumbs up from another Prius owner yesterday. Enough bursting with pride over my little bundle of eco-friendly joy, here's my question. I REALLY want to install the factory EV button, but my fiance is worried about me performing open-dash surgery on our first major joint purchase. Does anyone have any words of wisdom that will help her see the light? -Dan AIM: TheEmperorOfRome
I would recommend the Costal E Tech EV switch it is much easier to do and involves less surgery. It is also is hidden. The only trick is getting the pin into the plug properly and that is a matter of following directions and getting it far enough in. I was worried about the surgery but the dash comes apart very easily. It helps to have small hands and long fingers.
Go for it. I was amazed at how easy things came apart and went back together and look like new when I was done. I had some fear with regard to that portion of the work because I had a problem getting a speaker out of my old Ford Explorer and broke a few fasteners and had to buy new ones. The Prius was much easier to work on and far more intuitive.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DanCole42\";p=\"82575)</div> I installed my own switch myself. I used the coathanger approach to fish the wire from the driver side to the passenger side. I used a twisted pair extracted from a CAT5 cable. Really though, you don't need a pair, as you could take the ground to feed to the switch from a close point on the driver's side. Of course to have your own pushbutton switch, rather than the OEM version, you would need to drill a hole into the plug (as I did), or make something up to fill the slot. Used a radioshack pushbutton switch. There really has to be a better place to get electronic parts locally than RadioShack. Their markup is ridiculous. As for warranty, there has been great debate about that. Considering that you are not doing any more of a modification than adding/changing a radio, less even, and that the EV function is already there, we are just activating it, Toyota would have a poor leg to stand on. But they do have greater financial resources to fight you if it came to that. But then again, Toyota has a reputation to be quite lenient in even blatant warranty voids in the name of good will. For example, someone reversed terminals while jumping their vehicle. Blew just about every ECU. Toyota did a one time coverage of that.
I think the EV switch looks cool, and put it on my list for "someday" since I prob won't use it much (just can't stand the empty spot where it looks like I didn't get an option! hehe) There are post from people here who went to a custom audio installer and they did it in 10 mins for $50. Bring the instructions, apparently it's not hard. That's what I plan to do, thou not going to Circuit City or Best Buy.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DanMan32\";p=\"83027)</div> Just curious, but since the EV button is standard in non-US cars, is the warranty (8 years 100,000 miles) the same for the battery? If not, then I could see the reason for voiding the "US warranty".
