2000 Insight 5 speed repair & build thread

[NoD~]

Got any pics of vtec filter cleaning? I haven't touched it or my valve adjustment yet. Might be something for me to do, now that its sitting around 185K now.

[Daox]

Nope, not quite yet. I am hoping to get to it this week, but we'll see.

[Natalya]

You need a 12mm and 10mm socket and a 5mm hex key and needle nose pliers. You remove the metal bracket in front of the filter (the piece that supports the front bolt on the plastic engine cover) and then disconnect I think two wires that are in the way.

Needle nose pliers let you pinch the plastic clip on one of the wires so that you can detach it from its mounting point and fold it out of the way. Then there's 3 10mm bolts that hold the VTEC cover, take those off and you can see the filter. Mine fortunately was clean. While I had everything open I sprayed the inside with Seafoam. The whole job should take less than 30 minutes.

Use PB blaster to remove the bolt with the 5mm hex socket if it doesn't want to come loose right away. I personally recommend replacing it if it has any kind of corrosion because mine became seized after the first time I took it out then put it back in.

[Daox]

Thanks Natalya. I figured it was relatively simple. Your post confirms that. I'll hopefully do it tonight.

Any tips on how to test if the solenoid is good? I guess continuity through the coil. I suppose I should also test the pressure switch some how too.

[Daox]

I pulled the vtec solenoid off tonight. It was pretty straight forward except for dropping one of the bolts and it not hitting the ground... searched for a good half hour for it. NoD, don't drop any bolts!


This is the solenoid behind the 1/8" steel bracket.





The bolt on the left has a 12mm head. The one on the right requires a 5mm allen wrench. My socket allen wrench was really tight to squeeze in there.





Remove the 3 10mm head and the solenoid valve will come off. The bottom one is a pain because the harness is clipped right in front of it. I ended up cutting the clip off to get at the bolt.

You can then pull the solenoid off and you'll see something like this. Mine was fairly plugged up.





I cleaned it up and tested out the solenoid. It was working fine so I reassembled it all and we'll see how it works from now on.

[Daox]

It was very nice out tonight, so I decided to update my lower grill block. I had thrown this one in the car at the beginning of winter. It held up okay. It got a few holes in it and you can tell the cardboard was really starting to fall apart. So it was time for something a little better.







I went with a tried and true method of doing a grill block. I've used this method a few times on my Prius and it seems to work quite well. I use a block of wood as a spacer to push the coroplast out farther away from the grill slats. In this case, I drilled holes in the wood blocks and used zip ties to attach the blocks to the car.





After that, I cut up a piece of black coroplast, centered it and drilled holes for the screws to attach the grill block. Being coroplast, I used some fender washers under the screw heads to distribute the load.





It fits up pretty nice with a bit of gap at either end. I'm quite fine with that. It allows a bit of area if the fan does turn on from it to suck air from.

[Ecky]

Looks good! Next time I remake mine, I may use spacers too.

[BabyDiesel]

Looking good Tim!

Yeah, I'm definitely stealin.. er, borrowing this methodology

[Daox]

Thanks guys. I really like the look of it, and the whole process is really quite easy and quick.

Just in case you were wondering, its not done yet...

More info for those who don't know what that is.

[NoD~]

DANG dat rust... So glad I don't have to deal with that in my dry climate!

Anywho, I did the same thing with 2" thick XPS foam for the spacers. Works really well! Can't wait to see how you open it up. And close it. And open it... I'm jealous.