2001 Insight

[cowmeat]

I don't know how to do a lower block w/o damaging the bumper

Check out the lower grill blocks I put on my Insights - pretty sure I did a DIY on it somewhere on here. Over a year and they're still going strong, and without tearing up the bumper

[Natalya]

Originally Posted by cowmeat

Check out the lower grill blocks I put on my Insights - pretty sure I did a DIY on it somewhere on here. Over a year and they're still going strong, and without tearing up the bumper

IIRC yours make use of the black plastic louver looking trim thing that is attached down there. My car didn't have that piece when I bought it.

But that's okay because I made another underbody aero panel today!



Front is on the left. This pic was taken before putting some thin aluminum sheet metal (that's being generous, the stuff is glorified aluminum foil it's so junky) to protect it from the exhaust pipe. The tab thing on the front goes on top of a thin metal bracket up front, just slides on top, and 4 small screws in the back go into the stock midbody aero panels. Don't hit the orange IMA wires.

[Natalya]

Minor modifications to this panel. I did a 900 mile drive, at the end it was a little wonky so I made some changes.

You can see at the front of the panel (bottom) I put a notch where a bolt is sticking up. There's also a hole drilled to the right where another such bolt is, I just couldn't cut that part because the reverse has the sheet metal right there. Also, I chopped a new notch on the left and right out of the diagonal corner areas. That's to avoid it getting pinched on the lower control arm bracket.

You can also see at the back (top) the holes where I put the screws. Keep in mind this is lying upside down, the passenger side is on the right and the driver side is on the left. The other dots in two lines are rivets for the sheet metal.




It fits pretty well now. You can also see I used some metal wire to tie it to the exhaust pipe just before the lower cat. This is to make sure it won't sag, similar to what I did in the back.

[Natalya]

New ground straps.

I ordered the same LED brake lights NoD~ has, waiting for them to come in. I also got oil and a filter to do an oil change, will probably do it this weekend or Friday.

[Natalya]

My LEDs came in. The driving lights are here:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...-car/206/6774/

I also got the reverse lights, not illuminated in these pics, but I used these:
https://www.superbrightleds.com/more...car/1127/2673/

And then yeah the brake ones are from Amazon. They are really bright, great find NoD~

[Ecky]

How are the LED reverse lights compared to the stock ones?

[Natalya]

I should have checked, but didn't. I just verified that they worked and hoped no one would ask about them lol. I mean, they seemed pretty bright I guess.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by Natalya

I should have checked, but didn't. I just verified that they worked and hoped no one would ask about them lol. I mean, they seemed pretty bright I guess.

I was happy with my LED backup lights at first, but over time I wished I had had the sense to go with the brighter LED option. The energy savings between my two LED options was miniscule. And eventually I realized I would like not just to signal other drivers that I am backing up, but a little more illumination of what I was backing towards. And now, after 4 years, one of the lightbulbs has failed. Lessons learned.

[Natalya]

http://www.lady-natalya.info/insight/aero-06.png

Modified that panel again. It looks like the length of the tab on the left side of the picture (front of panel) should be 2.5" instead of 2", so the entire panel should be 20.5" long.

What happened was I did an oil change and noticed my aluminum belly panel (immediately in front of this one) was fitting very tightly. Turns out it had warped the brackets it affixes to on the bottom of the radiator. I had those installed backwards, which was biasing the aluminum panel backward on the car, which meant I made this coroplast panel about half an inch too short.

After fixing the rad brackets and putting back the aluminum panel, the coroplast one was wont to pop out when driving because it was a little too loose. I fixed mine with extra wire and two zip ties and putting two more screws in the back, but I think that leaving it a little longer should do the trick for anyone else who makes one.

[Natalya]

So at the recommendation of the people on IC I got a ScanGauge to measure my engine temperature. Check out the clean install I was able to do.

The wire is run through the cigarette lighter plug. I never use it for anything so I popped out the metal part which lets the CAT5 cable the SG uses fit through the opening. I used velcro to affix the gauge to the panel.

I think I'll use the thermometer thing I have to measure air temps at the intake now that the ScanGauge is giving me the water temperature.

Also, I removed my DRL fuse (Canadian car) so I don't have those running anymore. I did want some exterior illumination though (for safety) so now I drive with my lights set to the first position where the headlights are off, but the tail lights are illuminated and the little driving lights up front are going. I have LEDs for both of those so power consumption is probably still pretty low.