2006 Honda Insight MT Build Thread

[Ecky]

I considered doing the very same thing. My Mean Well was nearly silent with my dual 90mm fan setup but it was interesting to me that the turn signals alone could rev the fans up more than just about anything else in the car. Really puts in perspective how much energy they use.

Ultimately I didn't, because they're on for such little time.

[19bonestock88]

Lucky you, I’ve no way to correct my hyperflash from doing LED front signal bulbs, but the bulbs when used as the DRL would melt the bulb sockets when I had standard bulbs... the LEDs haven’t given me any trouble whatsoever since their installation (hyperflash aside)

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Originally Posted by Ecky

I considered doing the very same thing. My Mean Well was nearly silent with my dual 90mm fan setup but it was interesting to me that the turn signals alone could rev the fans up more than just about anything else in the car. Really puts in perspective how much energy they use.

Ultimately I didn't, because they're on for such little time.

If it was just a revving fan it would be no issue, but when I'm cruising at 800-900 RPM with the Meanwell just barely supporting base load, turning the turn signals on turns the meanwell off due to too much load for how low the input voltage is at those low RPMs. Then I have to be at 1200+ RPM for ~5 seconds for it to turn back on.

Originally Posted by 19bonestock88

Lucky you, I’ve no way to correct my hyperflash from doing LED front signal bulbs, but the bulbs when used as the DRL would melt the bulb sockets when I had standard bulbs... the LEDs haven’t given me any trouble whatsoever since their installation (hyperflash aside)

Doesn't your car just use a thermal flasher relay for the turn signals? You should be able to replace it to eliminate the hyperflash. Didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention from cops so I swapped mine.

What's the light setup on the front of the Ion? Thought it just had the headlights and turn signals, with the headlights functioning as optional DRLs.

[19bonestock88]

The flashers on my car are controlled by the BCM; no relay to swap out... in the front there is a 9007 for high/low beam and then a 3157 that’s turn signal and DRL...

[mpg_numbers_guy]

I'll post more progress pictures when I have a chance, but here's a brief tour of the mostly completed build. Still need to put in rear speakers to cover up those two areas in the video that didn't turn out as nice as I'd like, as well as install a handle for the spare tire compartment lid.

Transcript is below the video since I do talk fast and have practically zero experience with making professional looking videos, so if you find me hard to understand, you may want to have this page opened up twice with each window taking up half your screen with one being the video and the other being the transcript. Youtube's auto-captions aren't the best on the video, presumably because of how fast I was talking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl6LAOsmpdE

Transcript:

This is going to be a tour of the rear rebuild on my 2006 manual Honda Insight after deleting and bypassing the IMA battery. I apologize for my car being a little dirty at the moment; I haven't had time to detail it, and by the time I get it detailed I'll be on my way to college and would not have time to shoot the video. I know quite a few people have been asking me about this, and I'll post a build thread with pictures and more details on it, but thought a video would also be helpful as well.

First, unlock the vehicle from the back. Yes, that's a rear wiper plug back there. So this is what the back of the car currently looks like. So the carpet I used was Ozite Superflex carpet, similar to what Natalya used on her carpet that she redid up front. The color I went with was Medium Dark Pewter, which is nearly an identical match to the beige carpet that comes on the 2005 and 2006 Honda Insights.

So the way I designed this is I put a layer of underlayment/sound deadening on the bare metal, then I used foam board to build up the sides and build up the floor to make it level, then another layer of sound deadening on that to preven the foam board from rubbing against anything and squeaking. Then I used 3/8" thick plywood to build up the sides of the walls and the floors to make it sturdy, then underlayment and then carpet on this as well. My estimation is about 8 inches of depth down here by 37 inches width by 47 inches long, so nearly 8 additional cubic feet of storage, so about 50% more than stock.

So the two little boxes right there, that's for the fuel filler line right there, that I could not make flat without raising the floor up and losing more storage space. That right ere is where the high voltage leads come out for the meanwell PSU that I have as my alternator, which I'll show a little more on that here in a minute.

So the carpet here, I folded it around the back. One piece of carpet goes up here, then I screwed it into the boards behind here. These [OEM carpet] pieces aren't secured in here at all yet; I still need to find a way to secure them without making it too "non-OEM". It fits decently back there. The back carpet down here has these three little knobs, I considered cutting them off, but I kind of want to leave this reversible, if possible, for the most part, so I'm leaving them as stock.

Right here is the spare tire compartment area. I still need to get a handle for it, to pull it out easily. Right now I have to use a little screwdriver to pry it up. So I have it here, and I put underlayment here (sorry, it's a mess here at the moment until I finish cleaning it up). As you can kind of see, there's a little 2x4 frame right here on the outside, drilled into some of the stock holes from the IMA compartment here. It goes all the way around, and gives a lip so it's nice and sturdy for the spare tire box [cover] to go over, so it won't warp as much.

This is the underlayment I used. I used a lot of 3M spray adhesive to tie it down. As you can see there, there's the board there, then underlayment, then carpet. Now the board does not go all the way around [back]; there's foam board back here and whatnot, but I made sure to put a layer of underlayment on everything so it wouldn't squeak (the foam board) over bumps and stuff like that.

The back of the board is just regular board, and you can see here where there's the carpet here around the edges, so there isn't a [visible] seam when it's folded down. It folds down nicely, snug right in there. All my tools will go down there in that compartment.

So coming inside back here, the corners right here where the tom mix bar was--I decided to remove that, it can be controversial I'm sure--but there's no IMA box back here and I wanted to leave this storage place flat so I could remove the seat and carry longer items if I need to.

So I don't particularly like how the seams here came together, and I had to remove the rear speakers to do this, so I will probably be doing something similar to what Ecky did and build rear speaker boxes back here to put 6.5s back here as well to kind of cover up that area. I tried something a little different over here, but it doesn't look too great here as well either, so I'll add a rear speaker box here.

This right here is my arduino box/console, per se. What I have up front, which I'll show here in a few minutes, is a 6th gen Civic console, that I retrofitted to fit in the Insight. There's only a few slight, small modifications necessary if you remove the IMA box. The main thing I had to do was, if you go up here, this piece up here needs to be trimmed to fit alonside this plastic piece right here, and then I used a couple screws on either side to screw it into the plastic. This armrest is definitely not stock, but is a lot more comfortable than the stock one that came with the Civic armrest. I recarpeted it with the same Medium Dark Pewter carpet to match it back here.

So right here I used some board to to connect the back boards right here to the center console right here, and carpeted that. And this compartment right here is the arduino bypass for the hybrid system. It all nestles right in there. The lid closes down to keep it nice and compact, and the lid blends in quite well to match it with the rest of the carpet.

Underneath the driver's seat, which if you'll give me a second I'll move it, is a Rockville 8" subwoofer right there. It provides good bass respose, I would definitely recommend it. Controls are right back here and really easy to access. I wired up the remote through the plastic pieces right there and up into the coin cubby hole right there.

So the new carpet on the back boards right here I put down over the stock carpet right here with a few screws into it right here, here, and here, so if I need to access the wiring at all I can just unscrew those, peel back the new carpet, and access it right there. It looks pretty clean, and the passenger side is about the same way as well. You can see right here the side of the 6th gen Civic console. Plenty of storage space inside the console. There's some build threads on it on Insight Central for more information. These handles right here to adjust the seats are a little hard to access but not too bad. I used some 1 1/8" thick acetal rod to raise the seats one inch in the rear and half an inch in the front, so the sub would fit underneath just fine.

So now for probably the most crucial part of this rear rebuild here is going to be the 15V HRP-600-15 Meanwell PSU that I'm using for my alternator right now, which is all right behind here. So this is a compartment that I built with a removable [door] to access the Meanwell PSU when I want to access it, or need to access it. I'll put a little handle or something right here to take it out, because it's it's in quite tight so it doesn't fall out during cornering and whatnot. SO I just pull this little piece out right now to access it.

Right now the cooling fan setup I have in here--as you can see, the Meanwell doesn't have any lid at the moment, I'll explain that in a second--but for cooling fans I have two, I think the brand is Scythe? 120mm, 38dbA, 2000RPM, 90-something CFM fans. I have one right back there with a grille up front [as the intake fan] (I need to get some rubber trim to make it look a little nicer right here), and I have the exhaust fan coming out of the compartment [door] right here.

Because this compartment is basically sealed tight, the cooling fans offer plenty of airflow through the entire area, even inside the PSU, and so having the lid off allows for more cooling to get inside the Meanwell than just the stock fan would allow, and I've had no issues with it overheating at all even on days that are like 90 degrees [*F] plus. Having the whole thing tied up like this, when it's obviously put back in there, the meanwell fan (still using the stock fan) is definitely quite a bit quieter. I can't really give an [accurate] decibel reading for it, but if stock is like 45 dbA I think, and these auxilary cooling fans are 38dbA, it's probably 42 dbA that I'm hearing, maybe 43, definitely a bit quieter.

I did not reroute the intake air from the MDM just because it would've taken up more storage space, and I have ample cooling coming from these cooling fans right here. So I have these three high voltage leads that are connected directly to the three phase rectifier back here [with bolts and nuts], sealed with many, many layers of electrical tape for security. Those two 10-gauge wires go right here into the Meanwell PSU inputs, and then out here I have connected directly the 12V battery connections right here, positive and negative, directly to the ground and positive [outputs] on the Meanwell PSU. This blue wire is the power wire for the subwoofer, and these two - this red wire and this black ground wire right here are for the auxilary cooling fans, which I have wired up to a switch in the center console right there. I tried hooking them up using the same connector that the stock fan has in the Meanwell PSU, but there's some kind of wattage or current limiter there so the fans only ran at at maybe a quarter of full speed with all three fans hooked up, so cooling was very subpar. So this manual control allows me to have the fans running and cooling when I'm engine off coasting and all that to keep the Meanwell PSU cool at all times. So the ground wire runs up to the kill switch up there; power comes directly from the 12V output lead of the Meanwell PSU right here. So in addition to that, for cooling, if you remember, underneath the IMA compartment right by the spare tire [compartment] there is an aluminum bar there. I repurposed that as sort of an additional heat sink area for the Meanwell PSU. So the support bar goes all the way back here, curves around like it does a little, and then goes straight. You can kind of see it right here. Then I used thermal paste, which is sort of visible right there, to attach the Meanwell PSU to it. It does an excellent job; the Meanwell PSU definitely stays a lot cooler to the touch with it on there, and two bolts drilled into the PSU [box] right there keep everything nice and secure.

So, I think that's about it right there, if you have any more questions, definitely let me know. Defintiely pleased with how it turned out. These seams right here I might sew those up eventually. Definitely the rear speakers right here and right there, probably some Polk DB652s like the other ones [up front]. So yeah, let me know if you guys have any more questions. I'll put some more pictures and information in a build thread on Insight Central and Ecomodder. So yeah, let me know what you guys think.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Not quite 100 MPG on the highway, but got 97.0 MPG for a 134.9 mile highway trip with about 500 foot increase in elevation, target speed 55-60 MPH, ambient temperature around 70*F. Return trip was 128 miles with about 500 foot decrease in elevation, target speed 50-55 MPH, 98.4 MPG, ambient temperature 60*F.

Gearing up to leave tomorrow to return to Virginia. Hoping for 90 MPG for the trip (previous best is 85.7 MPG) with warmer weather, but the Insight will be loaded down more and the WV and VA mountains are always killer..

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Was able to meet my year long goal of beating 90 MPG on a commute to or from college. 704.6 miles at 92.3 MPG, and the 3 gallons remaining should be more than enough to last me for the whole semester. 96.8 MPG indicated for the first half, and about 89.6 MPG calculated for the last half which included mountain passes in WV and VA. Target speed 55 MPH on the highway and 50 MPH through the mountains. Car was loaded full with probably a couple hundred pounds of belongings, so it accelerated slower and climbed hills a little harder, but coasted a bit better due to the extra weight.



Also restored my hot air intake in preparation for winter driving down here. Previously I just had the U-shaped intake piece pointed toward the back of the car that kept temps about 15-20 * F above ambient; this one utilizes in addition the hose piece from the intake resonator that I deleted, and reaches to about 3-4 inches away from the catalytic.





Intake temps are now about 25-35 * F above ambient depending on conditions. Intake temps fluctuated between 89 and 118 * F, but there were brief moments on some long hill climbs where temps rose to close to 140 * F. On one long grade I did have to exhaust hot air into the cabin (with the windows down, of course) due to the coolant reaching 220 * F. This is with the full lower grille block / no upper grille block that I have been running on the Insight since I bought it.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Looks like I'll be doing more driving this semester. Last semester pretty much all of my driving outside of 2 highway trips was short trips to church and back on Sundays, which barely affected my fuel log at all. I recently joined my university's FSAE team, so will be having a 11 mile each way (22 miles round trip) drive every Saturday morning. It's pretty much 99% highway, with constant rolling hills - not terrible for MPG.

First trip there this morning was about 84 mpg on the way there, and the FCD finished at 93.7 mpg by the time I got back. This was without any extreme hypermiling - only 5 mph below the 65mph speed limit, minimizing brake use, and EOC down steeper hills. I downshifted often (even when not necessary) to maintain speed, and wasn't as focused on keeping my mpg up, so getting close to 100 mpg is probably possible if I pay attention to my hypermiling. But then again, 90+ is good enough at this point.

On my return trip I can coast from my parking spot all the way to the highway without turning the engine on (1/4 - 1/2 mile) - there's just a gentle enough slope that allows that while still letting me get 70-95 mpg going up. Got a couple stares when I got in my car and it just silently started rolling away.

Car ran well, first time driving it in 2 weeks since the trip down here. Had the battery unplugged to prevent any parasitic drain from the Meanwell unit. It's parked in the sun, and it is very sunny down here most of the time, so I may get a cheap 25w solar charger/maintainer and throw that on.

It makes no sense why quite a few people have trucks and SUVs on campus. They're just so unwieldy to drive and park. My little Insight can zip around park without having to think twice.

[Natalya]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

It makes no sense why quite a few people have trucks and SUVs on campus. They're just so unwieldy to drive and park. My little Insight can zip around park without having to think twice.

This is one of the saddest, most unfortunate trends in the USA and Canada these days. Small cars have less environmental impact, are easier to park, and cost less to operate than SUV's and land yachts, but consumers keep wanting bigger vehicles for, usually, no good reason. (Exception obviously given to people driving utility vans or pickups or whatever for their work.)

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Looks like I'm going to be driving a scarred Insight around for the next couple months until I return home for Thanksgiving break. Someone either hit me or backed out alongside the rear of my Insight in the parking lot last week, dented the lower plastic piece, and scratched the paint pretty bad on the rear bumper and side skirt. Looks to be around $100-$150 to refinish and repaint them both at the dealership my dad works at. I don't trust myself to do that kind of bodywork. A couple of the scratches are fairly deep, so they won't buff out, and a bit too wide to even consider touch up paint. And of course there's no security cameras, and of course whoever did it didn't leave any contact information.

Car's still getting 90+ mpg but she's scarred right now, and her rear corner doesn't look pretty anymore