Toyota RAV4 Forums banner
Cancel
Create thread New Garage Forums

PetitFrereRav4's 2025 Rav4 PHEV; Maintenance/Upgrades/Adventures and more...

3 reading
Jump to Latest
21 - 40 of 149 Posts
#21 ·
PetitFrereRav4 said:
You are correct. The Prime can maintain the top speed for a long time. Being the second fastest car from Toyota, I was hoping it would be faster than that. Especially when on reddit 2 people had claimed that they had their Prime to 125 mph and the other claimed to 120 mph. But I could not get my 2025 past 118 mph. I guess the information they provided may not be accurate.

With the high center of gravity, the Prime is not very stable if one has to do some sudden maneuvers at high speed. That is why I am getting a front strut bar and a beefier rear sway bar installed. It will help with the stability and handling, especially on curves and overtaking above 70 mph
Click to expand...
I read that its HV battery, being so large and positioned so low in the vehicle, actually gave it a relatively low center of gravity. I have no complaints about its handling, but I may be biased since I like the car so much.
 
Discussion starter · #22 ·
I received my Megan Racing Strut bar and Hardrace rear sway bar. I also received my Landcruiser Premium Horn. I installed the Horn and it was pretty easy after I had watched a lot of videos online. It was pretty straightforward. The horn sounds really loud and bold. Now I can get someone's attention when I honk at them.

I will install my tower strut bar and rear sway bar someday when I really have time. I still need to watch some more videos to help me out.
Image

Image
 
Discussion starter · #23 · (Edited)
I installed my Megan Racing Strut Bar last night. It was easy to install.

The install on the driver side strut is easy and straight forward.
Image

The strut tower on the passenger side has a black piece that needs to be removed from the car. It has 2 nuts that you remove with a 12 mm and 10 mm. The car can live very well without those 2 nuts and black piece that you remove. You do not have to move anything else but just save those pieces somewhere at home.
Image

Megan Racing tower bar comes with its own nuts that you have to use because the oem nuts would not fit in that hole on their bar. The nuts they provide are pretty solid enough.
Image

Image

I tightened everything slowly. I realized that the bar touches the ac line. They touch enough to be snug on each other. I do not know how bad this is but I can live with it. It does not seem to cause any harm nor is it rattling against each other. The bar definitely presses on it enough for them to be always touching each other and not hitting each other as you go over bumps.
Image

Image

Image

Image
 
Discussion starter · #25 ·
wscan said:
If the AC line cannot be moved away from the bar, I would put a piece of softer material like a piece of rubber or weatherstripping in between. The two pieces will rub and eventually the AC pipe will wear through necessitating replacement.
Click to expand...
Thanks a lot for that suggestion. I will definitely look into that.
 
Discussion starter · #26 ·
Has anybody painted their sway bar or any other car part with a can spray from Walmart? I wonder if it will hold for atleast 2 years or more without peeling.

I went and got this rustoleum from Walmart because I want my new Hardrace rear sway bar to be red before I install it. I thought of paying to powercoat it, but I decided to maybe paint it myself.

Does anybody have any idea if it will hold? I plan to just spray the bar without any prep work on the bar at all. I wonder if it will hold for atleast 2 to 5 years without peeling under my car.

Any ideas?

Image

Image

Image
 
Discussion starter · #28 ·
I decided to start spraying my Hardrace rear sway bar red to match my car and match the front oem red shocks. It will look like a TRD rear sway bar by the time I am done. I will use the whole spray can on this bar. But I will be putting a coat of paint every day or every other day until this can is empty.
Image

Image
 
Discussion starter · #30 · (Edited)
I did not do a good job painting my rear sway bar so I took it to some professionals to get it powder coated. They did a great job. I should have done this in the first place.

I picked it and made time to install it. It took me 1.5 hours because I really took my time. It was not too difficult after watching a very detailed YouTube video of a guy who installed a Cusco rear sway bar. I got my car on all of of my rhino ramps. It made it really easy to change the bar.

I installed the Hardrace Rear Sway Bar.

OEM Rear Sway bar is 23.5 mm and weighs 5.88 lbs.
Hardrace Rear sway bar is 25.4 mm and weighs 5.80 lbs.

I have ordered the Tanabe Front Strut Bar and I look forward to installing so these 2 bars can work together for an improvement in handling.
Image

Image

Image

Image

OEM Rear sway bar diameter = 23.5 mm
Image

Hardrace rear sway bar diameter = 25.4 mm
Image

OEM Rear Sway bar weighs 5.88 lbs
Image

Hardrace Rear Sway bar weighs 5.80 lbs
Image

Finally installed!
Image

Image
 
#31 ·
PetitFrereRav4 said:
I have ordered the Tanabe Front Strut Bar and I look forward to installing so these 2 bars can work together for an improvement in handling.
Click to expand...
You're so hardcore, I love it. I can't wait to see your write-up of your front sway installation, it was a bear for me. I think you (and I) might be one of the very few people on this forum that will have the front sway installed. If you have access to a lift, this would be the time to use that favor, and be ready to lower the subframe.

Since you seem to like modding rigidity, try checking out the TRD door stabilizers, P/N MS304-00001, discussed here:
www.rav4world.com

Door Stabilizers installed

I didn't find much in terms of anyone using door stabilizers on the Rav, but plenty of the IS folks have. I ordered some cheap knock-offs from ebay to test on my IS before buying the TRD versions and decided to see if they fit the Rav first. Well they do, so the IS will have to wait for the TRD...
www.rav4world.com www.rav4world.com

There's also the front performance damper, P/N MS303-42001, discussed here:
 
Discussion starter · #32 ·
TheSilverStreak said:
“… JDM Landcruiser Premium Horn 08522-B1010…”

Oh YES! I must explore this for our ’24 hybrid.

Congratulations on your new vehicle!
Click to expand...
The horn is amazing. It is very bold and has an "adult" voice. The horn is meant for the Land Cruiser in Japan. If you heard the horn and turned around and saw the Land Cruiser, the sound fits the car. Now that I have it in the Rav4, it makes the Rav4 sound bold when honking at someone. It is like giving the Rav4 an adult voice compared to the teenager voice of the oem Rav4 horn. You will like it if you get it. Though there are cheaper options out there that sound about the same. I just prefer to always go with oem if I can afford it.
 
Discussion starter · #33 ·
I received my black out piece for the rear trim silver piece. My car is dirty now so I have not installed it yet. I just placed it on my car to have a look and it looks good. This piece comes with 3m tape and seems it will hold up very well. I am still trying to decide whether I should install it or not after I wash my car.
Image
 
Discussion starter · #34 ·
Today is the first time that my car is showing a range of 53 EV miles after a full charge. I am happy to see this. I wonder if I will see something above 55 someday or I wonder if anybody has ever seen 60 or more. Please share a picture of your "guessometer" EV range showing 55 or more. Especially if you have ever had 60 or more. Please share. I would love to see it.
Image

I currently run my tires at 43 psi. The least I would run the tires on this Rav4 Plug-in will be 40 psi, but I am currently running them at 43 psi.
Image
 
#36 ·
There is a thread where people have seen 60 miles. It also appears that 60 miles is the maximum that the EV range will show. In order to get to 60 miles, you have to drive in EV at under 40 mph or so and not too many starts and stops. EV range should increase this time of year since AC needs are light and AC uses less energy than heat from the heat pump.
 
Discussion starter · #37 ·
FedEx delivered my Tanabe Front Strut tower bar from Japan today. The thing looked so good tgat I could not resist and so I went to work and installed it. It looks so good and feels very solid. I have not even driven the car yet. I will drive it tomorrow.

This is the perfect front strut tower bar for the Rav4 Plug-in! People should spread the word to others that this is the best front strut tower bar for the Rav4 Plug-in because you do not have to remove any parts from your engine and this bar does not touch the ac line. I will definitely recommend it to others who are interested.
Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
 
Discussion starter · #38 · (Edited)
Today I placed an order for this little OEM door reflector that is standard on Toyota cars in Japan but not in the US. It is a cheap and good safety mod. These are pictures I got off the internet and this is a link to the thread about it. For those who may be interested in doing the same mod. It is cheap and an OEM part for all Toyota cars.


Image

Image

Image
 
Discussion starter · #39 ·
I bought this black piece to put on my car. I put it to look at it and I liked it. Then I went to actually install it and something just hit me that it will alter the DNA of my Prime or say Plug-in. So I decided against installing it. Now I wish to sell it locally since I cannot ship it. I would gladly sell it for $50 if someone was local and wanted it.
Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
 
#40 ·
I think the black trim piece actually fits the look of the rest of your car better than the silver. All the other accents like the wheel flares, door handles, etc are gloss black, so the trim piece you got actually matches the overall color scheme of your car better.
 
21 - 40 of 149 Posts
About this Discussion
148 Replies
22 Participants
Last post:
PetitFrereRav4
Toyota RAV4 Forums
posts
1.1M
members
174K
Since
2004
Rav 4 World is the internet's largest Toyota Rav4 SUV and EV online forum community. Discuss towing, modifications, and more.
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
4.3 General 4.3 Mechanical 4.5 RAV4 Hybrid (except Prime) 4.5 RAV4 Prime 4.3 Exterior