Category: Car Talk

Discussions of cars. Usually ours.

Not exactly easy, but quite doable

I spent this morning at the winter Congregational Meeting at Shir Hadash. I probably didn’t pay as much attention to the meeting as I might have, because I kept looking at my watch and thinking, “I should be installing my XM radio while it’s still daylight”. Eventually, the meeting ended, and, after a fairly quick lunch, I was home and ready to begin.

A friend had volunteered to help me, but I decided not to wait for him to arrive; I started the project at about 1:30. By the time he arrived, I had gotten through the initial disassembly in the simpler procedure I’d found on PriusChat, but I still hadn’t had to use a tool other than my own hands. And I hadn’t done anything which felt dangerous.

That didn’t last long; the next step in the procedure called for unscrewing a junction box — one with a bunch of wires and connectors coming into it. But it wasn’t very difficult, and in just a few more minutes, I’d plugged the XM tuner into the radio and had the preview channel up and running. Unfortunately, the tuner and antenna were sitting on the driveway, which would have prevented me from taking the car anywhere, so I had to continue, this time from the Prius XM instructions and DVD.

The rest of the steps involved running a cable under doorsills to the back of the car, moving some carpets, and running the antenna cables through the hatch opening and mounting the antenna on the roof. None of the steps were really very difficult, though it was very good to have another set of eyes involved, and, at times, an extra hand (especially when fishing cables to the back of the car). And pulling weatherstripping out of the way bothered me a bit, but only a bit.

We finished before 4:30 and I called XM to activate the radio and, as long as I was at it, turn off the XM PCR I hadn’t used for a few months (time to list it on eBay!). By 4:45, the radio was activated, and I was finished. And there were still a few minutes of daylight left.

The DVD was invaluable — especially when there were spots where the printed instructions weren’t quite clear enough, or when things didn’t seem to fit together quite correctly or come apart easily, watching someone go through the steps was enormously reassuring. It is, however, startling to see how much of the car is held together by clips and friction!

Thanks, Sam, for helping; your turn next!

We’re a two-Prius family again

I picked up Diane’s Prius this afternoon; with luck, I won’t be back to the dealer until it’s time for regular service again. I hope.

They had to replace the torque sensors and the steering rack; the service advisor said it was the first time they’d seen such a problem at the dealership. Gosh, how lucky can we get?

On a lighter note, Jeff had his first fencing lesson tonight — he enjoyed it. I enjoyed watching it, and might consider giving it a try sometime in the future.