2006 Honda Insight MT Build Thread

[19bonestock88]

That looks really good! Almost like it could have come from the factory that way... I guess since the gen8 civic started in 2006 and your car is a 2006 it almost could have come that way?

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Lol I think it should have! Even though it's a 2006 it's pretty obvious in some areas that it's still a Honda design that debuted back in 2000. The new shift knob is a little larger and slightly heavier, and doesn't have that 90s vinyl feel that the OEM one has.

Just found a thread on Insight Central on someone installing an 8th gen Civic steering wheel into their Insight a while ago....and my local junkyard has some 8th gen Civics with steering wheels for less than $20....hmmmm...

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Just about ready to start rebuilding the floor in the rear! Have underlay and foam board; need to order carpet and pick up plywood tomorrow. Already have some half inch plywood I'll be using for the floor (#free!!). Still need 2 4'x4' 3/8"-thick sheets for the other panels.

Relocated the DC-DC to the left a couple of inches and towards the driver's seat a couple of inches. The DC-DC is held in with 4 bolts. I reused two mounting holes and built a support bracket for the other two and bolted that onto two existing holes. No drilling and the DC-DC is much more compactly located. I also removed the ducting to and from the DC-DC as well as the DC-DC fan, and will be replacing them with more compact fans, such as this one. Estimating that my total storage lost from keeping the stock DC-DC versus a meanwell unit is less than 2 cubic feet.

Was reconnecting the 12V output leads back into the DC-DC after moving it, and the positive lead broke off inside the DC-DC. Tried tapping and drilling it out....and the tapping bolt broke off inside as well and I'm completely lost on how to get the thread out. Don't have anything to weld on a hex head onto it. Going to jb-weld a new connector on for now....a bit of an annoyance.

Pics to come, the ones I took today are a bit incomplete so I'll post more when I get more done.

Ordered the S2000 e-brake assembly tonight. Should be a direct swap when I take mine apart to adjust the parking brake, but we'll see. Cost less than $20 and came from a 87k mile car.

Need to make a trip to the junkyard to pick up a Civic steering wheel. Inventory lists steering wheels there for only $15.99.

I have too much stuff going on.

[Ecky]

Can't wait to see your ebrake.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Other cars are undriveable because of bad engines or transmissions...
...the Insight is undrivable because of one broken bolt.

Have not been able to establish a solid 12V output connection from the stock DC-DC converter. So I'm going to ditch it and go the meanwell route. Posted a thread over on IC offering to pay a small sum for someone to bypass the rectifier for me, since I have no know-how on how to do it.

So until I get the meanwell installed, my car is undrivable due to no 12V charging. Wa la.

Carpet is ordered, have all the other stuff I need to rebuild the rear, but that's all on hold until I get the meanwell installed.

Found a used Meanwell HRP-600-15 for sale for under $50 total. Should be able to drive the Insight in a week.

All because of a broken bolt.

[NoD~]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

Other cars are undriveable because of bad engines or transmissions...
...the Insight is undrivable because of one broken bolt.

Have not been able to establish a solid 12V output connection from the stock DC-DC converter. So I'm going to ditch it and go the meanwell route. Posted a thread over on IC offering to pay a small sum for someone to bypass the rectifier for me, since I have no know-how on how to do it.

So until I get the meanwell installed, my car is undrivable due to no 12V charging. Wa la.

Carpet is ordered, have all the other stuff I need to rebuild the rear, but that's all on hold until I get the meanwell installed.

Found a used Meanwell HRP-600-15 for sale for under $50 total. Should be able to drive the Insight in a week.

All because of a broken bolt.

Bummer! I hope the meanwell works for ya. It took a bit of work to set it up for me, but was worth it. Any 80mm fan and some time modifying the lid is well worth it, as you'll find out yourself when that meanwell stock fan fires up.

I went with the 15v route myself. I think all the way down was 13.x volts if I recall. Maybe 13.8? Anywho, I set it and forget it at 14v and it's been solid for many miles now.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Originally Posted by NoD~

Bummer! I hope the meanwell works for ya. It took a bit of work to set it up for me, but was worth it. Any 80mm fan and some time modifying the lid is well worth it, as you'll find out yourself when that meanwell stock fan fires up.

I went with the 15v route myself. I think all the way down was 13.x volts if I recall. Maybe 13.8? Anywho, I set it and forget it at 14v and it's been solid for many miles now.

The schematic over on IC doesn't seem too terribly complicated, and definitely much simpler than the stock DC-DC.

Did you completely remove the meanwell fan? Does your current fan setup blow air in or pull air out?

Hoping I get a response over on the IC thread relatively soon. Unless maybe you would be willing to bypass the rectifier for me if I shipped the meanwell over to you?

I wonder about mounting it to an external heat sink. I'm still a little worried about cooling for it.

I plan on wiring it to an external kill switch rather than to 12V ignition on, so I can manually turn it off every now and then on hot days under light load. Plus it'll simplify the wiring a little.

[NoD~]

Originally Posted by mpg_numbers_guy

The schematic over on IC doesn't seem too terribly complicated, and definitely much simpler than the stock DC-DC.

Did you completely remove the meanwell fan? Does your current fan setup blow air in or pull air out?

Hoping I get a response over on the IC thread relatively soon. Unless maybe you would be willing to bypass the rectifier for me if I shipped the meanwell over to you?

I wonder about mounting it to an external heat sink. I'm still a little worried about cooling for it.

I plan on wiring it to an external kill switch rather than to 12V ignition on, so I can manually turn it off every now and then on hot days under light load. Plus it'll simplify the wiring a little.

I have my fan blowing in. I did a "strategic" pattern on my lid to offer the best heat sinking for the rec diode, but still get plenty of airflow. If I recall, this fan blows something like 2x the amount of air that the small one did. That was was completely removed.

The bypass isn't too bad and you really can't screw it up, though you have to have a soldering iron that can get hot enough to melt the oem solder that the meanwell comes with.

I originally planned putting on more heat sinking. Thus far, I've had zero problems... but we'll see in the next 2 very hot months. Oh, I also replaced the thermal paste when I pulled the board with a liberal amount of higher quality stuff. (computer overclockers will have this on hand! I used Arctic Silver Ceramique since I had a giant tube of it and it seems to last a long time)

[Ecky]

You don't actually need to melt the original solder, just melt solder on top of it.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Well I've ordered a used HRP-600-15 off of ebay for $42.99 as well as the 3-phase rectifier, so we'll see how this goes. I'll look into bypassing the psu's internal rectifier if the voltage isn't enough as is at low rpm driving. I'll order a fan once I get it installed and get the car back on the road.

Thinking of going with a manual kill switch rather than using a relay. That way maybe I can dinker with doing a little bit of "alternator-less" driving, and more importantly turn off the PSU at strategic times if it starts to get hot. A basic 12v battery kill switch like this should work, hooked up to the ground lead coming out of the meanwell.

This should make rebuilding and recarpeting the rear a bit easier with not having to work around the stock DC-DC converter, but I wish it had happened on my timing, not as a result of one little broken bolt.