2000 Insight - TLC and ecomodding build

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

Same thing happened when I bought Turtle!
It idled rough when I bought it, enough that I thought a motor mount was bad, but when I went to pull the first plug to see what condition they were in, it was loose.Then I found out they were all loose, and that the only thing holding them in were the coil boots!

This is apparently a common occurrence in Insights, so I would recommend that everybody with a G1 Insight periodically check them.

Honestly I think it happens when they get installed and the installer doesn't use anti-seize and they don't torque them properly.

[Ecky]

On May 1st, my wife and I packed our 50lbs Border Collie, 15lb Sheltie, and everything we owned into the car and trailer. We pulled out the carpet and secret compartment box, and stuffed the spare tire area and other unused space completely full, with items like blenders, books, and clothing to fill in the gaps. The cargo area was packed to the roof, aside from approximately 2' x 3' for our Border Collie, and the Sheltie sat in my wife's lap. She had items around her feet, and we packed full the spaces beneath and behind our seats. We packed the trailer full too, with not enough space left to fit a book. I left my tools in an easy-to-access spot in the hatch, in case we had any major disasters.

I can only guess what the total weight was, but I would be surprised if the trailer had a pound less than half a ton, and there was at least 500lbs of stuff in the car too. With my wife and I, and a full tank of gas, we were probably at least 3500lbs total.




Our route:




Even under full assist, the car accelerated at a snail's pace. However, braking distance was still reasonable, and at no point did I experience any instability. I loaded the trailer so that the tongue weight was only around 50lbs, and handling was excellent.

We stopped the first night to camp at the edge of Great Smokey Mountains National Park.




Getting up to the top of Clingman's Dome required 2nd gear WoT almost the entire way. I kept an eye on coolant temperature, but it never exceeded 197F. The brakes held up great during the rapid 4000ft+ descent, and despite some serious potholes which scared the living hell out of me, the 2x2 and corrugated plastic trailer survived without any damage.

Even cruising at ~65mph when the speed limit allowed it, and frequently in 3rd gear at WoT to get up one mountain or another (I-81), I still averaged around 57mpg for the full trip pulling double the car's normal weight.

I consider the trailer experiment a success, but would consider upgrading the brakes if I frequently pulled close to a ton of cargo.

[Ecky]

Now that I'm in Vermont, gas mileage has skyrocketed. 35-50mph rural roads with gentle hills are nearly ideal for hypermiling, and this first tank is looking to be around 80mpg despite cool weather. I've been close to setting my 220% EPA trip record.




The dirt road leading up to the house is generally what kills it though. My best trip (with zero elevation change) was 109.9mpg by the car's readout. Perhaps once I reinstall my grille block, I can make it.

[cowmeat]

Congrats on the move, man! That's a long trip packed down like that, makes me feel a lot better about overloading mine by a couple hundred pounds sometimes!

Might have been a little flatter of a trip taking 95, I can't believe it made it through those hills loaded down like that, I wouldn't have had the guts to try it. Glad you guys made it without any trouble.

That's some fantastic mpgs you're pulling up there, you're instantly making me jealous!

[Daox]

Haha, wow thats quite the trip. 57 mpg too, incredible.

[Ecky]

Before leaving, I had to bleed my clutch, because the reservoir ran empty. After a bleed and fill, the level didn't drop noticeably over the drive, but I still felt it would be a good idea to replace the master and slave.

In order to access the master cylinder you have to take the wheel off. It's hidden above the wheel in the well, behind the plastic fender guard. Removal is done by removing the reservoir hose (and catching the fluid), removing the hydraulic line, unclipping a pin where it attaches to the pedal, and removal of two nuts (14mm?) that hold it in place.

I went with Honda parts, because RockAuto wasn't significantly cheaper. Total cost was around $150.








The slave cylinder is next to the the throttle body, and needs the plastic cover removed that obscures the throttle pulley. Since I had installed cruise control, this was already off and the slave was accessible from above with a long extension, with only the breather tube removed.

The slave cylinder has a piston with a ball at the end which pushes on a lever with a depression on it for the ball, that in turn disengages the clutch. When installing, make sure the ball is in the depression on the lever, then bolt it in place.






Bleeding is not a two man job if you have a small plastic tube that fits on the end of the bleeder bolt. I went ahead and bleed the brake lines too, while I was at it.


Total time needed: 30-60 minutes

[Ecky]

I decided to modify my solar powered cabin exhaust fan to be a bit more practical, now that the weather is warming up.

Previously I had the panel laying in the hatch, but it slid around somewhat when driving and required that I move it after parking. As the sun moves across the sky, different parts of the hatch are in shadow, and the panel voltage drops dramatically unless nearly the entire panel is receiving light. It runs the fan on a cloudy day even behind tinted glass, but shadowing even 10-20% of the panel with my hand on a bright day shuts off the fan.

So, velcro:

[pgfpro]

Thanks for directing me to your thread. Very much appreciated.!!!!!!

[Ecky]

Earlier today I nearly broke my trip record. The weather was in the low 80's, rather humid, and clear. Driving home from work I averaged almost 130mpg with approximately zero net elevation change, up until I turned into the dirt road going up the hill I live on. I was able to maintain around 120mpg on level terrain between 38 and 48mph, and broke 130 average after EoC up to the foot of the hill. Sadly, when I pulled into the garage, I was 2.8mpg short of my 220% EPA goal.

I can't think of anything that might have made today different than yesterday. Most days I'm at about 95-105mpg at 48-55mph.

My tanks aren't really reflecting these high trips due to occasional lending of the car to my father-in-law. Apparently a 100 mile trip at 50mpg can "ruin" the rest of the tank. :P






You might notice a very conspicuous CEL on my dash. Funny story, that.

Before I left Florida, I loaned Gaptooth to my father-in-law. He put nearly 500 miles on it, and when he brought it back, he said the car had been "running a little rough". A quick glance at the FCD revealed he had averaged about 33mpg, and it was vibrating like a jackhammer. Apparently one of the spark plug wires had come loose shortly after he left, and he had been running on two cylinders and dumping 1/3 of the fuel out through the exhaust pipe. The code read something along the lines of, "Catalytic converter performing below threshold". I was hoping driving it would clean up the cat, and at first thought it worked (went nearly a thousand miles before the light came on again), but the CEL has been coming on more and more frequently. It doesn't affect MPG or performance and I can slip past inspection by clearing codes before going in, but the yellow light bothers me so I'm probably going to get a replacement soon.

[cowmeat]

Piece of electric tape = all gone!