Daox
07-06-2009, 06:40 PM
Yep, I'm me and can't leave the dang thing stock for more than two days. :)
I brought the Prius down to the Milwaukee Electric Car Club build day to show it off and install the EV switch.
A big thanks to efusco for writing up the instructions! His full instructions can be seen here:
http://www.calcars.org/prius-evbutton-install.pdf
The first thing I actually had to do was take apart the lower half of the steering column trim. In there, the headlight/foglight control stalk connector has a bunch of pins in it that have no wires going to them. I needed to pull one of the metal connectors out of it to use in the EV ECU plug since it doesn't have any connectors in the empty spots.
(took this image from the PDF instructions)
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius011.jpg
The next step was to take apart the the panels to get at the EV ecu. This is about as easy as it gets, no tools involved, just pull stuff. Its almost impossible to see in this picture, but there are three ECUs stacked next to each other! There are wires eeeeeeeeeverywhere.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius005.jpg
Here, we got the connector out that we need to get at. The white piece on the connector pops up a little bit and allows you to put the connector I got out of the steering column into the plug.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius006.jpg
The next step is to crimp a new wire to the connector and slide it back into the marked spot on the ECU plug. Very easy. (image taken from PDF again)
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius012.jpg
Here, I'm already starting to reassemble it. The connector is plugged back into the EV ECU. The white/red wire is the one I just connected to a blank hole in the connector.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius007.jpg
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius008.jpg
On the white wire, I crimped a ring connector to go to the ground. I simply took out an ECU bolt and put this under it.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius009.jpg
This is a momentary switch I had laying around. This connects the white and white/red wire and grounds the pin on the EV ECU to put you into EV mode. For final mounting I'll probably find another switch. Its hard to find a flat surface to mount something like that. Everything is so curvy it will never mount flush! So, for now its sitting in my favorite spot for switches... the glove box. :) Yay for zero cost mods.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius010.jpg
I brought the Prius down to the Milwaukee Electric Car Club build day to show it off and install the EV switch.
A big thanks to efusco for writing up the instructions! His full instructions can be seen here:
http://www.calcars.org/prius-evbutton-install.pdf
The first thing I actually had to do was take apart the lower half of the steering column trim. In there, the headlight/foglight control stalk connector has a bunch of pins in it that have no wires going to them. I needed to pull one of the metal connectors out of it to use in the EV ECU plug since it doesn't have any connectors in the empty spots.
(took this image from the PDF instructions)
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius011.jpg
The next step was to take apart the the panels to get at the EV ecu. This is about as easy as it gets, no tools involved, just pull stuff. Its almost impossible to see in this picture, but there are three ECUs stacked next to each other! There are wires eeeeeeeeeverywhere.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius005.jpg
Here, we got the connector out that we need to get at. The white piece on the connector pops up a little bit and allows you to put the connector I got out of the steering column into the plug.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius006.jpg
The next step is to crimp a new wire to the connector and slide it back into the marked spot on the ECU plug. Very easy. (image taken from PDF again)
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius012.jpg
Here, I'm already starting to reassemble it. The connector is plugged back into the EV ECU. The white/red wire is the one I just connected to a blank hole in the connector.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius007.jpg
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius008.jpg
On the white wire, I crimped a ring connector to go to the ground. I simply took out an ECU bolt and put this under it.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius009.jpg
This is a momentary switch I had laying around. This connects the white and white/red wire and grounds the pin on the EV ECU to put you into EV mode. For final mounting I'll probably find another switch. Its hard to find a flat surface to mount something like that. Everything is so curvy it will never mount flush! So, for now its sitting in my favorite spot for switches... the glove box. :) Yay for zero cost mods.
http://www.tercelreference.com/downloads/prius010.jpg