2006 Honda Insight MT Build Thread

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

On my few other drives the Insight is easily maintaining 80-125 MPG on the "flats", depending on whether they're slightly inclined or slightly declined. Apparently flat roads don't exist here.

If I was an extreme die-hard I'd buy a bike to go to and from church in, but considering I've barely used more than a dollar of gas in 5 weeks, I'll give myself the luxury of driving. Plus, it's pretty much just cold, rainy, and wet here, and who wants to bike in that when driving comes down to a meager $0.04/day?

This is pretty much where I'm at.

Still loving the car?

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Definitely. Never been in a car with over 200k miles that runs this well and has zero problems....or that returns such phenomenal mileage. I wonder how high I can get the mileage before I break the odometer.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

Definitely. Never been in a car with over 200k miles that runs this well and has zero problems....or that returns such phenomenal mileage. I wonder how high I can get the mileage before I break the odometer.

Not mine (obviously):



I've read that someone on IC (in Iceland I think) has somewhere north of 600,00 or 700,000, but I believe it's on its 2nd (maybe 3rd) manual transmission.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

^^ real picture of my odometer sometime down the road.

Same engine?

[Ecky]

I want to say yes, but I'm less than 100% certain.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Drove back home for spring break. First 100 miles were terrible through the mountains, plus we had a snow storm, plus it was dark and cold outside - was barely 60 MPG for those 100 miles. But then the Insight began cruising beautifully at 90-100 MPG at 55-60 MPH afterwards and I finished with this:



Thursday I drove to Richmond to visit another Insight owner and pick up one last spare tire so I have an actual spare to use. Got 88.8 MPG on that trip, and almost 80 on the return trip. All with the IMA disabled.

I bought a spare IMA wiring harness from a guy on IC to build the off road Arduino with. Also will be putting on the Ecomodder sticker and doing my first oil change on the car.



Still can't believe how good this car runs after now over 258k miles.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Took me a while to get around to installing them, but Dreamsight is now officially an Ecomodder car!




So far accomplished over spring break:

• Did my first oil change yesterday with full synthetic oil
• Fixed my lower grille block that wasn't sitting flush with the bumper
• Rerouted my warm air intake
• Added another underbody panel to connect Scott's belly pan to the two side mid-car stock panels. Pretty much all that's exposed now is the exhaust in the center and the sides of the rear by the tires that the rear pan doesn't cover.

Ordered some LED lights that were recommended by a couple members over in Insight Central. If these don't work decently enough I'll return them and ship my headlights over to a contact I have who will install HID projectors for cheap. The stock headlights are just garbage.

Arduino bypass will be a summer project. I've already spent enough for now.

The HX rims I used on my Civic are for sale with almost new 185/70R14 tires...PM if interested.

That's all I got for now.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Inspired by a post in Insight Central by mjspiess, I got a 6th gen Civic center console at the junkyard and retrofitted it to the Insight. The Insight had come with some tacky wooden armrest with a soft leather top from the PO, but I wanted something that looked a bit more OEM-ish.

Used a jigsaw and sanded the end to match the contours of the Insight's front center console area, and cut out notches in the back for the rear to sit.




Replaced the hard armrest lid with the leather armrest off of the wooden armrest contraption. Just used the clip-thing from the stock armrest lid and screwed it on, and then made a custom hinge, part from the lid and part from another hinge, for the leather armrest lid. Leather is cracked, so I'll refabric it this summer, but it's much more comfortable than the Civic armrest and extends further as well.

2 screws in the back into the stock housings, and 2 screws in the front, and we have this:



It's gray, not beige, but it looks decent, I'd say. Didn't want to risk making it look tacky by trying to paint match the color.

It is a little wider than the stock piece, but it fits okay, as seen from the top:



Also installed some LED headlights from ALLA Lighting. Quite impressed with the cutoff and beam pattern; they illuminate much better and project further than stock (stock were crap anyway..). Since I cleaned my headlights as well, they do not blind oncoming traffic in any way. Cutoff probably isn't as clean as projectors, but I'm pleased. Cost $59.99 from Amazon; link is in my garage entry. Feel a bit safer now going around those corners on that windy road on my way to college and back that usually has enough traffic where I can't use high beams, and headlight visibility wasn't great.

Thanks to my dad for helping me get this stuff done.

[Ecky]

Arm rest looks great! Tempted to do the same.

[19bonestock88]

Looking good! If I had an Insight I’d likely follow suit lol