So, a Toyota Prius turned up in the local salvage yard......

First one ever at my yard. Anything useful to get off of it and re-sell? Connectors, electrical stuff, flux capacitors etc. I know nothing about them. Just curious.

Depending on what is wrong with it, there is a story on a guy that was told by Toyota that he needed an all new battery pack. He refurbed it all himself and I think only had to replace 1 or 2 cells (google it).

Battery pack is worth some $$$$, but be careful, it could kill you!

I have seen a bunch now.

Of curiosity to me is the electric power steering; it is a motor on the steering column.

I would love to help my uncle retrofit it on one of his classics, but those stock electrical systems won't hold the load..

A guy in my club just put a Saturn electrical power steering system on his TR7.

Hmm, electric power steering sounds like a no-brainer aftermarket offering for kit cars.

I thought that there are already aftermarket electric power steering conversions available.

Last time I checked only the GM EPS column had been hacked for retrofit use

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saturn-Vue-Ion-Chevrolet-Equinox-Electric-power-steering-controller-box-EPAS-/171027023129?hash=item27d2014519&vxp=mtr

Hmm, based on the picture, it's clear that for $64 you are purchasing IP + a $1.99 potentiometer

Dr. Hess wrote: A guy in my club just put a Saturn electrical power steering system on his TR7.

Adding electric steering to a British car. A very brave move.

THREADJACK:

Yeah, he said there was a kit available, but it was like a thousand bucks or something. The Saturn parts were practically free at the pick-n-pull yard.

Battery cells are worth ~$20/piece or so on ebay arent they? Or do you have to claim to test them to get those dollars?

Around here you have to be licensed just to remove the battery packs from one of them

Coolant thermos. It's ridiculously expensive and in a commonly-hit area. IIRC the going rate for them is north of $2k new. Used they seem to be in the $200-300 range.

There's a three way valve inside that can get gunked up, I guess. Haven't had to deal with a Prius yet.

Ok. What's the coolant thermos and where can it be found?

See edited info I was doing a car-part search to see what the going rate was and couldn't find it, so I turned to eBay Motors, since it seems LKQ likes to sell on eBay. Seems to be semi-officially called the heat storage tank.

dropstep wrote: Around here you have to be licensed just to remove the battery packs from one of them

That's what I was wondering. The "typical" car battery is removed along with all of the other fluids before the cars even hit the yard so maybe they are already gone. Guess I will have to do a little research on where they are and how to access them. Pretty sure I don't want to be poking around in there with out knowing what I am doing. Don't fireman have to take special courses on how to deal with hybrids/electrics when they are involved in auto accidents? Especially when using the jaws of life?

Well yeah but there's a difference between sticking a metal hootus into areas of a wrecked hybrid you cant see into, and removing a battery pack from a non-wrecked prius.