Wait you painted this with a marker or did you wrap?

 

Also does anyone know any way to possibly turn off that obnoxious reverse sound when it’s in hybrid mode?

 

You missed the {sarcasm}{/sarcasm} tags in my post...

Here's a hint...



{sarcasm}Next time, if I can get away with sneaking a bottle or two of my gf's black nail polish, without getting caught, I'll get the roof rails done{/sarcasm}...

As to the whirling sound in the hybrid mode, there are ways to hack in to the cpu system and delete the sound file or replace it with another. I haven't done it on my UX, but I did change the sound file on my Prius a few years back. Depending on your comfort level with cpu programing, this can be a very simple task, or a very expensive experiment.

 

Having attempted to splatter every bug in the Central Valley on the front of my UX, a couple of nights ago. Then another attempt to splatter every bug on the Central CA Coast last night, it was time to visit the car spa once again...

 

That black grill surround looks great, wish the UX had come from the factory that way!

 

I finally got the wheel center caps installed I've had on my workbench the last few months. Been too lazy, to break out the floor jack, to remove the Konig caps myself. I waited for the Lexus service dept to do a tire rotation and asked them to knock out the caps yesterday. Today, after another Herculean feat of redneck engineering/fabrication, I got the center caps installed. The tabs on the new center caps were thicker than the Konig caps, and needed a small adjustment by my handy, dandy rotary tool. These caps have a slight bit more clearance inside, to leave room for the axles(front specifically) to stick through the Konig wheels, I have mounted on my UX.


As an added bonus, this change takes another "shiny" item off my UX, and replaces the chrome/plastic Konig crown logo with the Lexus "L" logo printed in white... Next item to get the "shiny" deletion treatment, the brushed stainless steel roof rack rails...



No need to point it out, the wheels are filthy. I know this already. If I get it washed, the slight chance of rain on Sunday/Monday will surely happen... Good thing warmer, dryer weather is in the forecast next week.

 

if by reverse sound you mean the pedestrian warning system? or the reverse beep? If the former, people have installed a resistor on the loop for the harness which gets rid of the sound. For the ES anyway. i know on earlier prius/CT hybrids you can simply unplug it which did the trick but the newer cars throw an error message. Of course do your own research on it, including local, state, and federal laws before attempting.

 

Been a while, but I got another unique mod to add to the my list. Custom Morimoto fog lights mounted and working. To make a long story short, I've been searching the interwebs for a fog light kit for the UX250h for the better part of a year, without any luck. The only fog lights I could find was the Lexus factory set, ones I have never been impressed with. I finally decided on the Morimoto 4 Banger NCS wide yellow universal pods. With some custom fabrication, these could be custom mounted. NOTE: If you want the bracket included in the image below, make sure you select them in the dropdown menu before ordering the pods.


I originally wanted the fog lights mounted in the Lexus factory location, but once the fog lights delivered, the pods were slightly too large to fit into the Lexus factory location without major amounts of redneck engineering.



Seeing as to how much I would need to fabricate the mounts and fitting, I enlisted my friends at Extreme Soundz and Lightz, in San Jose, to help with the project. They have done several lighting projects on my Prius, in the past(HID low beam, LED fog lights and high beams).


The Lexus plastic grill, with the plastic mounting clips does not provide enough support for a solid mount. The guys at Extreme Soundz and Lightz fabricated a pair of custom mounting brackets, extending from the radiator mounts. A wee bit of rotary tool work, on the Lexus plastic grill, and VIOLA, a one of a kind fog light kit on my UX250h.




The fog lights are wired to turn on with the low beams, so I didn't lose the functionality of the Lexus automatic lights. Pretty much set and forget.

 

You know at first, I wasn't to keen on the lights, when you showed them prior to install. The after, actually doesn't look too bad, they did a great job installing it into the grill. Hopefully (I would assume) aimed correctly.

Could you do a night or low light shot from the rear quarter panel to see the beam/spread pattern of the fogs?

 

All I had was this one that is really hard to discern the cutoff...


...until an evening run to the store just now...

Approximately 15'(6 steps) onto a brown cinder block wall.

 

I finally got the chance to give the new fog lights a real test last night. They are definitely noticeable with the yellow tint. They do a great job filling in any and all dark spots from the factory Lexus bi-LED's. Much easier to see any fallen rocks, tree branches, etc on the mountain roads around here. As an added bonus, no oncoming traffic flashed me. So I have to assume the fog lights aren't too bright or the aim is correct. Of course, it could also be the lack of traffic around here. I may have seen 5-6 other vehicles in 30+ miles of driving.

 

After seeing the window visors on tofuprod's UX, my OCD began to kick into high gear. There was always a tiny strip of the shiny brushed stainless window trim poking through, just enough to see. So I began a new mod, the in channel window visors. And continued with my chrome, stainless, shiny stuff deletion. Once my tape on window visors were removed, and all remnants of the double sided tape gone, I blacked out the side window trim.



Window trim blacked out and the new visors installed... The blacked out roof rail shows in the top and bottom images. I did the roof rail black out a few months ago.


One last piece of plastic chrome on the side mirrors and ALL the shiny stuff will be gone... My all white/black theme UX250h will be done.






Well maybe...

 

Looks great, how do you like the visors?

Glad I was able to point you to them.

 

So far so good... The sight lines are slightly different than the last ones I had mounted. Also a slightly different wind noise at freeway speeds. Not really louder or quieter, just different. Other than that, they didn't blow off while I was on the freeway last night. That's always a good thing...

 

Random comment from my gf while driving on the freeway last night...

GF: "Do the road signs look yellow?"
Me: "When was the last time you cleaned your glasses."

The Morimoto fog lights I had installed definitely throw plenty of light down the road. More than enough to see the difference on the reflective freeway signs, with several other vehicles nearby.