2000 Insight - TLC and ecomodding build

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

I finished the smoothing circuit installation yesterday afternoon. The installation was really fairly easy (considering I was able to do it) and the two wires I needed to tap into were right where they were supposed to be. Took maybe an hour for the start-to-finish.

I drove it around for a while after finishing up, and the smoothing function is awesome, I can already see that this will be worth the effort!
Whereas previously the instant mpg meter would be all over the board with every tiny movement of my foot on the gas pedal, now the meter moves slower, and doesn't bottom out so far. It stays rock solid over 100 mpg when I'm cruising, and doesn't fall as far or as fast when I hit the gas. I was at the end of a tank, so after re-fueling I only got to drive it for a tiny bit yesterday, but I averaged 94.6 mpg on the way home. I'll keep you updated, hopefully I'll take it out today, but I'm on vacation this week, so I won't have my usual commute to test it with.

Can you give me a link to this smoother?

[Xist]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

I'm on vacation this week, so I won't have my usual commute to test it with.

Do push-ups, vacation!

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

Can you give me a link to this smoother?

Originally Posted by Ecky

Cowmeat, I read through a few articles and threads regarding the TPS-smoothing circuit, and I'm interested. I have a feeling it would do practically nothing for me as I'm highly aware of and careful of the throttle I use, but when my wife drives, she's very abrupt with her throttle changes even on the highway, and this might help with her averages. In my Del Sol, which had extremely responsive throttle, her foot movements would regularly launch us forward at +5mph.

Awaiting your results.

Originally Posted by Ecky

Decided to build my own throttle filter:

Click the links! Total cost to build was around $8, and I overpaid since it was radioshack. It's basically a capacitor, resistor (or variable resistor) and some wires to hook it up.

The idea behind the throttle-smoothing circuit is to build a low pass filter (like you'd put in a subwoofer) between the TPS and the ECU. The ECU then sees pedal motions as being more gradual, something like a running average position of the last half second, which is adjustable if you decide to make the a version with a variable resistor/pot like I did. It shouldn't affect AFR as that's calculated largely by the O2 sensor (what does the TPS do anyway?), but it *should* help keep the car in lean burn for those with a twitchy food, like my wife, as TPS is a large part of what is used in that calculations. Don't expect miracles.

I'm skeptical of higher cruising MPG's. That makes me leery that it might cause innacuracy in the gauge, but a lot of the great minds over on InsightCentral were talking about it a few years back and that never came up, so I suppose we'll see.

[cowmeat]

Do push-ups, vacation!

If by "push-ups" you mean "fishing", can do!

Can you give me a link to this smoother?

I'd get your brother to build it for you, Balto. I paid way more than 8 bucks for mine!

[j12piprius]

I'm interested to see how you hook this up, and the ecomodding results.

Many of the insight forum members removed the circuits due to sluggish performance.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by johnlvs2run

I'm interested to see how you hook this up, and the ecomodding results.

Many of the insight forum members removed the circuits due to sluggish performance.

I'd like to have a bypass switch in mine eventually so I can turn it on after I get out (for my wife) and turn it off when I'm driving.

Originally Posted by Mike Dabrowski 2000

Bottom line, use a pot instead of the fixed 4.7K resistor as the original circuit did, and you can tune the response.

There's a pot in mine so I may set it to a very low value.

[cowmeat]

Many of the insight forum members removed the circuits due to sluggish performance.

Lol! An Insight with sluggish performance???

It does tone down the highs and lows, but that's the point of the mod, and if it nets me a 5% mpg increase, it's well worth it.

[Xist]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

If by "push-ups" you mean "fishing", can do!

Ah, no, I tell inanimate objects to do push-ups regularly. I also tell people to do push-ups, not that I expect them to, or even intend it to be an offense. I like push-ups. I should do them more often.

[Ecky]

The Insight's ECU case:




The blue connector is the one we're interested in.




Added some connectors to the TPS signal line (red/black) and ground (green/black) so I can take the mod out easily. I don't believe everything I read on the internet, especially before cutting into essential wiring, so before making any cuts I checked the voltages with a multimeter, then pulled the TPS off and tested again.




Smoothing circuit installed:




Just enough extra wire to let it poke out from the box if I need to adjust it.




I took it around the block, and my first impression was... no, no no NO NO NO!! Horrible! I could not drive the car like this. Taking my foot off the pedal caused the RPM to shoot up ~500 and stay there for a moment, before dropping slowly back down. After taking my foot off the accelerator and pressing the brake or pressing my regen lever, regenerative braking would take a half second or more to engage.

I drove it around for a good 45 minutes, testing both extremes of settings and everything in between, and found that at around 20-25% I actually really like this mod. Dialed back enough, regenerative braking has no noticeable delay. Throttle hangs for just a moment and drops more slowly after releasing gas and clutch than without the mod, but doesn't overshoot, which should be good for my wife's generally-a-little-slower-than-mine shifting. Assist seems to be determined partly by the TPS (small changes) and partly by load, so even at the max setting, mashing the pedal would still apply full assist. However, with this mod in place, assist doesn't kick in quite so suddenly with small pedal changes, but rather, gradually ramps up, resulting in a much smoother transition.

It's far too early to have any MPG numbers, but the car seems to be more pleasant to drive without any obvious downsides or performance loss. I'm not sure what the exact resistance is at the setting I have it at, but if the pot I have is linear, I'd want something like a 2k resistor rather than the 5k recommended over on InsightCentral.

[Ecky]

New toys! The Insight keeps its 12v battery at around 12.5-12.8v. I ordered a waterproof battery tender for ~$30 on Amazon to install permanently under the hood, and will run it along with my block heater (on the way) when I remember, before short trips. The tender is only designed to bring batteries to ~80% charge, but it seems it will bring the 12v up to around 13.5v. This should have similar effects to an alternator delete.

Also, next time I do an oil change I'll be installing a fumoto valve, as the oil pans in these cars are notoriously easy to strip.






Inspired by Balto's recent grille block, and now that we're decidedly out of air-conditioning season, I installed my own 50% block:




^ Charging both the big and little battery.

I'm considering moving the air temperature sensor further into the engine bay, or at least behind the radiator, to keep autostop when temperatures are really low.