A Beater of an Insight

[GasSavers_bobski]

Yeah, pulling the whole plug is overkill... That's like an inch and a half hole. I would just drill a 1/4" hole in the plug rather than in the floor. The plug can be easily popped out and replaced... Can't say that for the floor. Stick a piece of open cell foam or something in the drilled hole... You wouldn't want water splashing back up through the hole from under the car while you're driving.

[GasSavers_Red]

Alright its been awhile but some updates

New grounding wires fixed my idle and starting problem. Rommie fires up easily on her own and idles fine. Goes into Idle stop kinda rough, but otherwise seems fine. Now that I was able to get her consistently running I was able to recharge the pack. I think I have a Gen2 pack since my SOC wont ever fill the top two bars. Speaking of the SOC meter, when recharging the pack, the read out was kinda confusing. Initially as I was warming the car up the Charge gauge was about half full, and the battery pack slowly ticked up from 0 to 4 bars. As it almost reached operating temp, the charge gauge went to 0 and the battery gauge began filling up much faster, reaching about 3/4s in about a minute or two. Charge came back on for a sec, then went off and it filled the remaining bit on the gauge. During this time I was revving up to around 3k

Still getting the check engine for the O2 sensor. Since there is still some dead plant material in the area I'm hoping cleaning it up or something might revive it.

New quarter panel window and belly panels should be in this week.

When I was doing an oil change, found out some moron round the head off the drain plug. Some vice grips and $1 got me setup with a new one. Peering through the fill hole, the top of the engine looks pretty clean, no apparently sludge or major varnish. Fresh oil seemed to have gotten rid of the ticking, sounds nice and quiet now

Washed it, looks pretty nice clean. Still need to clean up the inside.

TB could do with a cleaning, along with some fuel injector cleaner. Still need to do plugs, replace the serp belt, coolant flush and tranny fluid change. Rear drums need to be checked out since the e-brake wasnt holding worth a damn on my driveway. It kept rolling when I was testing out the tranny.

[BumblingB]

What you described is what a "recal" sounds a lot like. If it continues as you drive it more then its a warning your pack is ready to die - no worries as you still got a deal and a half for the car.

BEWARE - At least they stripped the oil plug and not the pan. You have to be extremely careful not to strip the pan and also go buy a ten pack of crush washers for your drain plug (think they were like .68 cents each at the dealer)

I had a feeling it may be the ground from the what you had said earlier. You're going to love this car once you start driving it regularly. I miss mine so much but until they pave my road I can't have something like that. Read up on the coolant flush before you tackle it!

[GasSavers_Red]

Blah, been hoping I had a good pack........

Yeah, read up about the oil pan. Was lucky on that.

Perhaps coolant flush was a bad choice of words, what I had in mind was more of a drain and refill. It already has the dark green Type II fluid in it. I don't know how old it is so I wanted to replace it and the thermostat. I wish Honda weren't as sensitive to coolant types as say the Jeep.

[101mpg]

Very interested in your progress on this vehicle. I've often wondered what would happen if one were to put a D15Z1 into an Insight and remove the battery pack. I know - have to redo the suspension some as it would be many hundred pounds lighter - but then again it would be several hundred pounds lighter and with the increased aero - and a regeared 6-speed from a wagovan....

After having driven the CRX for several years and the Insight (a 2004 or 2005 IIRC) I much preferred the ride in the CRX, and the Insight seemed noisy to me. Let us know how this one does for you, and keep up the commentary!

The pics are great - and I'm for sure pulling for you to come out on top. I hope that Honda will work with you on a new pack, or at least help fix problem spots with the old one.

Just in case you care, if you have problems with your Honda dealer and exhaust all other possibilities, they might trade you free advertising (they paint their info on your doors) for fixing some expensive thing or things like the pack. Just a thought.

[BumblingB]

Actually, the pack and it's components are surprisingly light - no where near several hundred pounds. Also the 3cyl is EXTREMELY light. I want to say the pack is 90 pounds and the engine/w electric motor is like 148 pounds. I know I'm wrong, but I think I am in the ball park. Been a while since I researched it and little by little I've been omitting Insight info from my head.

[GasSavers_Red]

Answering both of you guys

101, The thought has crossed my mind that if I have to fork 2-3k for a new pack and associated hardware, pursue an alternative drivetrain instead. I would want to do an EV but that could be too big of a project to tackle with my current lack of fab equipment.

After riding in a Jeep everything is quiet. The car as a whole feels buzzy though. Could just be stuff thats loose.

My only worry is that Honda will stonewall me because this will have a salvage title as soon as its registered. The wording of the warranty book isn't clear whether every warranty on the car if void thereafter or just all encompassing ones e.g. body, powertrain that kind of thing.

eh never been a fan of making my rigs advertisment magnets but hey if they give me a free pack, warranty it and are good about the whole deal, I'd be game.

A granny low in this thing would make take offs much easier; been used to the jeep, all i have to do is bring up the clutch and its rolling no need to gas it. With Rommie, unless I'm finessing the clutch she'll stall out at idle.

From my reading I don't think the pack tops 100lbs? Its about as heavy as a really big SLA battery. Tranny is supposed to be dead light, and it sure is small enough to be so, and the engine is made out of light weight metals.

If I could shoe horn in a little 3 cylinder diesel that would be sick.......A ton of work but cool

Question for you wazabi, on the stick its normal for the throws to get shorter the higher you go? 1st is the longest while 5th is the shortest. Feels kinda weird.

[BumblingB]

1- Don't worry if the pack flies the coupe, rebuilts can be found for a reasonable price (under $1k)

2- Wait until you finally get a set of Potenzas filled up to an ungodly psi if you think it feels buzzy. Either way, its not a Jeep. I'm surprised you don't mind driving it without the window, it stills lets in less water in the rain than the Jeep - right?

3- I actually have a Yanmar 3cyl tractor but I could imagine acceleration times being measured with a calender.

4- I can't honestly answer that correctly as my memory of how it shifted is fading. I had a Husco armrest so I may have sat a little more relaxed in the car than you do. Granny gear? You can start out fine from 2nd on it if you want to.........it seems a lot like a granny rear the way it is.

[GasSavers_Red]

2) For sure, every time it rains my so called trunk floods, rear passenger wheel well gets soaked, passenger side floods and water has a way of appearing in the most strangest of places, but such is the way of a Jeep Rommie is dead dry even with the window gone.

Been meaning to order a set too, the fronts on this thing are ungodly big and the rear Potenzas are nearing slicks. Every place I've called says they are still on back order though.

4) Probably still don't know how to drive it yet. Even though the Jeep has a hydraulic clutch you can still feel its weight. To me the Insight just feels numb.

[GasSavers_bobski]

Originally Posted by Wazabi Owner

I want to say [...] the engine/w electric motor is like 148 pounds.

I've got a spec sheet in front of me that says the engine weighs 124 lbs, but I don't know if that includes the motor. For comparison, D-series motors are in the 190-230 lb. range.