2001 Insight

[Natalya]

But a true hypermiler would never use A/C!!

I guess you're in Florida, so that beats Georgia, but last summer here in Atlanta I had no A/C and well I just wore like shorts and a tank top every day. When I was on the highway I'd have the windows up. Sure was hot, but I got great MPG!! Windows always came down at low speed//coming to a stop lol.

But, going back to the IMA again, my record was without using the battery. I had the clutch switch on the whole time. When coming to a stop I'd disable it to get regen but I kept the battery at the top two bars almost the whole time. This means no background charging, which would normally be an MPG killer. But I still had use of auto-stop via my auto-stop switch. In any case, my thought was if I had to use the brakes then I must have done something wrong from a hypermiling perspective. But the IMA likewise sucks up momentum, so if you're charging the IMA you are probably doing something wrong, once again from a hypermiling perspective. Conservation of momentum is fuel economy. I don't think anything else matters more than that, and something like the IMA that gets in the way of that is not helping.

But.... having the IMA barely functional, as I did, where I was regening when in situations where I was forced to brake, is probably a good plan because then the IMA is still maintaining the 12V battery. So I guess if I regen down a hill or coming into a stop, then that means I got regen energy going into the 12V instead of burning fuel directly for that purpose. But you could of course say that every time I was in regen that means I screwed up somewhere earlier by allowing myself to enter a situation where I needed to slow down with regen. This is all probably starting to sound really convoluted, please forgive me. Clearly a better solution would be use solar power or grid power to top off the 12-v before driving and then avoid using any peripherals, but then we're going yet another level deeper into hypermiling.

[cowmeat]

Hey, I never said I wasn't a lazy hypermiler

The Insight was the first car I owned in decades that had air, heck yes I was gonna use it! I use the Eco AC setting most days on the Volt, too

Conservation of momentum is fuel economy. I don't think anything else matters more than that

Yup, there's a lot more to hypermiling than just driving slow (although that's a biggie).

In the Volt I spend my entire commute in EV mode, so I P&G at every chance, but I balance it out with a minimal loss of momentum. At this point I know every inch of my usual route, where to gain and lose momentum to my advantage, and where it makes more sense to slow quickly for regen versus coasting

[Ecky]

I'd really love to do a Volt or Accord Plug In swap into my Insight. I like the Accord's more efficient gasoline engine, but the Volt's systems will probably be more easily acquired and there's greatly increased electric range.

[Natalya]

Worked on this car again today‼

- Tires were really low (still the RE92s I put on last year)
- Both strakes were detaching a little... I ended up drilling holes and putting in screws
- Grid charged the IMA over night

I ordered valve feeler gauges online, when they show in the mail I'll do a timing adjustment.

[Daox]

I haven't done a valve adjustment on my Insight. Have any of you that have adjusted them that much? I kind of doubt they get far out of spec unless someone forgot to tighten the nut on the rocker.

[Ecky]

I checked mine around 200k and they were still dead-center of spec.

[Natalya]

This car now has 180k miles. Today I finished its clutch replacement! The car wasn't shifting when then engine was on. I had lots of help (via phone) from Scott over on Insight Central, much credit goes to him for guiding me through this process. I also have to shout out to the guide posted here on Ecomodder, I was constantly referring back to it.

The worst part was rusted bolts that held the struts to the knuckles. One of them got destroyed during removal and had to be replaced; we got a replacement from a local Honda dealership.

This is the biggest job I've done on a car before, unless you count like hybrid battery conditioning, or A/C system rebuild (also done on this car), but I would rate this job as having been at least that difficult. I feel pretty confident now that I can do just about anything except for body work!

Shifting is really quiet and easy now, I'm surprised how big a difference this made. I used the Exedy KHC11 kit for this job.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Did you encounter any pre-failure symptoms when driving it prior to replacement?

[Natalya]

Current owner indicated it had like a burning smell coming from the engine bay, but she didn't report anything else until like a few days later when it like totally went bad and the car couldn't shift anymore with the engine running.

[Natalya]

I just got my 3rd ever tank above 80 MPG.

Recently I removed the 12v batt and replaced it with two IMA battery sticks, saved me about 20 pounds. I need to re-wire it under the hood though, it's kinda crispy right now. I'll post pictures one day when I actually fix it.