I was already working on a
2000 Insight in rough shape when another one popped up on Craigslist in April of 2019. The seller was asking $700. The Insight sat unused for a few years, part of that time in a barn on a dirt floor, resulting in extra rust of the steel parts. Before being parked, it had gotten a new IMA battery and catalytic converter from the dealer, along with new O2 sensors. When I looked at the Insight, it was pretty sad looking. Someone had keyed it, the driver's door had a scrape/wrinkle, the wheel skirts were barely hanging on, headlight lenses were hazy, and it had been smoked in. I offered $300 and my offer was eventually accepted. It probably helped that the owner was moving in a few days.
The keys were missing, so I had to disconnect the locked steering column and tow it home with a tow bar. I made a custom wiring harness to use the Insight's taillights instead of taping magnetic towing lights to the aluminum car!
I got the cheap $5 keys from the dealer, which required removing the immobilizer from the ECM to get the engine started. And I was pleased to discover that it ran very well. It does, of course, have the Insight's infamous 2nd gear crunch.
The brake lines looked pretty bad, so I replaced pretty much all of them. And I spliced the fuel lines in a couple of spots where they were leaking.
I talked to Ron Hansen of Hybrid Battery Repair at the Green Grand Prix and he told me not to even try the IMA battery without charging it first. I built a simple grid charger using a couple of LED power supplies that were recommended on Insight Central. 350mA for a little over 24 hours (battery fan running the whole time) brought the voltage up to 172 from a starting point of 94 volts. It's a 144v pack. So far the battery seems to be working great.
So with the IMA light now off, there was just one DTC caused by the missing immobilizer making the check engine light glow. Not good enough to pass New York State inspection, so an immobilizer bypass bought on eBay was added to the ECM.