A Beater of an Insight

[BumblingB]

I just noticed your driveway!! You LUCKY DOG!!! If you take a right to work even better - that seems AWESOME for an EOC first thing in the morning if traffic is light enough to get out and glide. Engine will be nice and warm on the way home so you won't be taking that big of a hit.

[GasSavers_bobski]

Originally Posted by Red

It pays to read the owners manual before one starts messing with a car. The drivers side door lock is fine. Apparently to lock that door you have to hold the handle open then hit the lock switch. Dumb IMO

CRXs are the same way. You can lock and unlock to your hearts content when the door is closed, but once open, you have to pull the door opener and then flip the toggle. It can be done one-handed once you get used to it.
I suspect it's to prevent you from accidently locking your keys in the car. How exactly this would help I'm not sure... Maybe it's possible to accidently hit the lock toggle when you pull the opener? I dunno.

[GasSavers_Red]

beats me bobski. Once it becomes 2nd nature one could easily lock their keys in the car.

Weird stuff happened today. Got a new battery, a Duralast Gold Group 51, slapped it in there, bolted it up and no go. It'll turn over and try to catch then it would die. As per the manual I tried it holding the gas pedal half way down, didn't start, then again floored. Zip. Hooked it up to the Wally World battery I had from the Jeep and it still didn't start. Going to try jumping it off the Jeeps Optima and see if that gets it to start up. Odd thing is that it started fine yesterday with a jump and the only idiot light I'm getting is the battery indicator when it doesn't catch.

I'm all missing all my belly panels. Which sucks.

[GasSavers_Red]

Originally Posted by Wazabi Owner

I just noticed your driveway!! You LUCKY DOG!!! If you take a right to work even better - that seems AWESOME for an EOC first thing in the morning if traffic is light enough to get out and glide. Engine will be nice and warm on the way home so you won't be taking that big of a hit.

:P Yep its perfect for clutch starts. Now if I could only get the Insight to start....

[GasSavers_Red]

Originally Posted by Wazabi Owner

#1 - the hood problem you mentioned. Common problem. Clean and grease the latch up good - the problem is the cable. I'm not sure if they stretch of what but I used to have to push the handle back in while the hood was in the up position then drop the hood shut. It would normally latch.

I think I had Hankook? tires on mine too when I got it, but they were a full set. I couldn't stand them as I knew how much they were killing my mileage even at insane psi's I still got shoddy mileage.

In the 2+ years of ownership I worked all the quirks out of the car before it got a mileage that was acceptable by me. Then I sold it.

As far as that dent goes, remember your little car is aluminum, even the body. A HUGE plus is you have the skirts. Practice, practice, practice on pulling and reattaching them. In the end you may just carry zip ties and attach it with those.

Tow eyelet. Are you definite they lost it when they impounded the car? Check under the rear tub where the spare tire is, it "should" be in tool pouch.

What's the# of the car? Is it a real early '00 or almost a '01? Mine was (I think) 2713.

Looking good though so far

The hood latches, it just doesn't suck the hood down to where it should be. If I push down on the hood it lines back up, but the hood latch itself doesn't hold it down.

About the body, I'd probably be screwed trying to get an estimate to pull that dent huh?

Haven't check the tool bag in the back. The rear hatch has been trying to take my head off. Need to find a pole or something I can jam in there.

It comes in at a 2290 lbs. It has AC and the auto climate control.

[BumblingB]

Bummer it's not starting - it'll probably come to me later what's up with it. May be something you did unknowingly. I fried my electrical system on my Corvette by accidentally putting the battery cables on reversed, they were the same blue color and they pulled a 180 on me from where I had bent them out of the way.

The hood problem as you describe it, still a common problem that they all seem to do.

Get a broomstick and prop that puppy up, you never know how many kilos you'll find hidden up under the back after you pull the tub. When I shipped mine to its new owner we weren't supposed to send anything in the car or if we did it was at our own risk. That's where I hid all the extra stuff I sent him.

I'm sorry, I meant VIN #, sorry I used the pound. DOH! I should of said it. Actually, you should be weighing in at something more like 1800 or less.

Maybe it'll come to me why it's not starting.....

[GasSavers_Red]

Originally Posted by Wazabi Owner

Bummer it's not starting - it'll probably come to me later what's up with it. May be something you did unknowingly. I fried my electrical system on my Corvette by accidentally putting the battery cables on reversed, they were the same blue color and they pulled a 180 on me from where I had bent them out of the way.

The hood problem as you describe it, still a common problem that they all seem to do.

Get a broomstick and prop that puppy up, you never know how many kilos you'll find hidden up under the back after you pull the tub. When I shipped mine to its new owner we weren't supposed to send anything in the car or if we did it was at our own risk. That's where I hid all the extra stuff I sent him.

I'm sorry, I meant VIN #, sorry I used the pound. DOH! I should of said it. Actually, you should be weighing in at something more like 1800 or less.

Maybe it'll come to me why it's not starting.....

That was I was initially thinking. That I had blown a fuse, slagged a relay or pulled a ground out or something. There was no apparent damage to the battery cables, none of the fuses were blown and I'm getting full ex/interior lights. I pulled the battery out, according to my charger its about half dead and doesn't have enough juice to start it. I'm thinking that when I was trying to start it, the voltage drop was enough that the ECU wasn't getting enough power so it couldn't fire the injectors or the fuel pump. I'll go back to Autozone get them to test it out and replace it.

np, I'm #3538 with a build date of 07/00. So a late 2000. GVWR is at 2290, payload is something like 375lbs or so, which puts me around ~1900 or so.

[BumblingB]

Duralast Gold is a real good battery. Did you put a multimeter to it and check the exact voltage?

One thing I ALWAYS did with mine was let the computer boot before starting it. I never hopped in and turned the key over and instantaneously turned to start. Still, that wouldn't stop it from starting right now.

If you've been lurking enough on IC, you may have run across some of the battery cable threads. One of the Insight's weak points is the ground cable. It's something you may want to read up on.

Remember, the car was essentially a prototype of Honda's hybrid technology that they sold to the public. They claimed they took a huge loss on every Insight sold. Think of it this way too, your car was built side-by-side with the Acura NSX. It IS a hand-built car, seems like hand-built cars have more problems here and there. Be patient, think it through and the solution will come----and then it'll start.

[GasSavers_Red]

Yeah I did lit it sit for a bit prior to starting. Didn't do anything different. I'll try again in the morning.

IC has got to be one of the most poorly organized website in existence. Its a pain in the neck to find anything there. Do a simple search and 500 pages of hits pop up.

Its a cool car

[BumblingB]

I've been waiting for you to say that. Then when you post a question, you get a barrage of flames telling you that you should of searched it first.

cut and past this EXACTLY, quotation included

"battery AND cable"

This will get you headed where you need to go even though it may not be your exact problem, it gives you a little "Insight" on how their special search engine works.