Friday night it was around freezing, so I plugged in the block heater and battery tender. In the morning, before starting the car, I checked the coolant temperature with my bluetooth OBD scanner, -
58c! I was barely out of the parking lot before the heat came on.
I drove my wife to work Saturday morning, and often when it's this cold we'll average as low as 35mpg getting to the top of the first few hills (~3miles perhaps). I was around 50 at that point, so I know the block heater will help with short trips and the first few miles of her work commute. Unfortunately, it isn't economical to leave the heater on all the time, short trips are often not predictable, and she is generally only awake maybe 45 minutes before getting in the car before going to work. I'm undecided yet if I want to run it overnight on weekends (she's a weekend receptionist right now) or leave a note reminding her to flip the light switch it's on in the mornings right when she wakes up.
Got my power locks working. I was skeptical at first that the ALL of my power locks had quit working for individual reasons, but after finding a wiring problem going to the trunk lock, I ordered a pair of Dorman units from RockAuto for ~$23 each and replaced the front actuators, which fixed those. Apparently the actuators used in the Insight are all failure-prone.
To remove the door panel, you must remove the quarter panel covers (?) and six screws, marked below. There's also one bolt that holds the rail the window slides up and down on which will need to be removed to access the lock actuator, but it can be removed after you have the panel off.
Peel back the weather seal. Unlatch the rod leading to the lock actuator, and remove the white plastic guard.
Push the window rail you unbolted aside. Unplug the electrical connectors (2 on the driver's side, one on the passenger). Remove the black plastic guard, held in place with one screw. Remove the two screws holding in the lock actuator. Note that there is a white plastic arm (indicated with an arrow) that goes over a peg. You'll need to put this arm back over the peg when you install the new unit.
Reverse order to put it all back together.
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I found a
box of 20 194 wedge LEDs on Amazon for $17 (can get 10 for $10 or 4 for $7) to replace some more of my bulbs. These should be approximately 1 watt. I would've bought the 10 pack, but I plan to give half of them to my brother.
In the Insight, you can replace the front parking lights (two round lights to the center from the headlights) - 5 watts, front sidemarker lights (very outside lights, you need small hands to get to them) - 5 watts, MAP lights / dome light - 5 watts, and license plate light - 5 watts - with these bulbs, for a total savings of 25 watts when running and an additional 15 watts when the overhead lights are all on. They also fit in the sockets for the reverse lights - 18 watts - but are not as bright. Since those are so rarely used, I have no issues with leaving them be until they burn out.
The sidemarker lights are best replaced with amber LEDs but these still provide fair illumination. In my case, I had no idea my car even had sidemarker lights because both sides (as it seems with many other small issues I've had) were not working. The sockets are iffy, and I had to carefully position the bulb in them to get them to light up. They use the same socket as the parking lights, which work fine with these LEDs, so I know it's the sockets. I found replacements on G1parts for $6 each but will hold off on buying the sockets until these go out again for whatever reason.
Another possibility is buying LEDs that are all forward-facing. The dome, map, license plate and parking lights only need light thrown forward from the bulb. The sidemarker lights need light thrown from the side but should be amber. Be careful to buy bulbs that will fit through the hole in the headlight assembly.
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