2000 Insight - TLC and ecomodding build

[Xist]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Sadly my battery is strong and my engine runs well, so it might be a few years before I can justify it.

First-world problems that I do not share.

I love how people are continuing to improve this awesome car. I wish Honda would have chosen a different name for the second and third generations, if not improve upon their original design like the community.

[samwichse]

Originally Posted by Natalya

Battery management... I'm still waiting for Linsight to come out hahahaha

You may be waiting a while...

He made rapid progress with prototypes and everything, then got to the actual code and sort of lost interest, as far as I can tell

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by samwichse

He made rapid progress with prototypes and everything, then got to the actual code and sort of lost interest, as far as I can tell

I don't think he 'lost interest' .. I think there are just other things going on in his life right now .. it happens.

[Ecky]

Second Blackstone analysis, this time with a longer OCI and using Honda Green Oil:




For the last ~2500 miles I've been driving with the hybrid battery turned off (more on that later) so I've been wringing the engine out regularly - my shift points are often 3-4k RPM, not because I need the power, but because the transmission is so tall that shifting at 2K as I was with the hybrid system enabled results in 1000rpm/no power after an upshift. Many of the miles have also been short trip cold start in sub-freezing or even sub-zero weather, so it's not too surprising to me that I'm seeing not so great wear.

That said, I filled it back up with Mobile One 0w20 this time. At the end of the change, the Green Oil's viscosity numbers weren't any different.

I've read there is a 0w16 hitting Walmart soon, so next change I may try that.

[Ecky]

In other news, I've read a lot about LED headlights lately. I already have HIDs, but I was curious what they'd look like in projectors, so I bought a pair of H1 LEDs.

Turns out they don't look like anything, because they don't fit. They're too wide. So, I sent them back to Amazon.

[Ecky]

Got my hybrid system working again!

After pulling the car completely apart, I found this under the dash:






Looks like the white wire in this connector changes colors a few times and is responsible for connecting the fusebox under the hood to the "ignition hold relay". The fuse blew, but not before the wire melted in half and damaged the plug it passes through under the dash. I'm not sure if water got into it, or if it was just a random failure. It could have been that my grid charge harness was responsible for a loose connection on the bypass resistor at the IMA battery, that the fuse was faulty for not failing first, and that this connection was the weak point in the circuit. Really not sure.

Anyway, I bypassed the burnt wire with some extra length and a spade connector.

Some other pictures while I had the car apart:

[MetroMPG]

Good sleuthing.

[Ecky]

A few days ago, put my car up on jack stands and spun all of the wheels. From passenger wheel had some rubbing noise, turned out to be the rotor rusting to pieces. So, I replaced the front rotors with aluminum/zinc plated Wagner Thermoquiet rotors. Rear driver brake also had a lot of friction, which turned out to be a seized caliper piston. Greased that.

While I was at it, I finally got around to replacing the cracked fender from my ex's accident several years ago.












Yesterday's (uphill) commute to work: 63.3mpg
Today's (uphill) commute to work: 71.3mpg

P.S. hoping to put my cameras back on tomorrow, they were removed while teaching someone to drive stick.

[Daox]

Nice work!

[California98Civic]

Thanks for the aluminum/zinc plated Wagner Thermoquiet rotor reference. I was unaware of these aftermarket options. They look cool. Did some research on them. But did not find weight data. Do you have that? My stock rotors are iron, I am sure. The Insight and 6th Gen Civic have swappable rotors I think. I might be able to replace mine with this set you have. I have had a slight warp vibration in the rotors for years that I feel during extended braking, which is rare.