Finally Getting Around to Fixing Up The Spaceship. (2000 Insight)

[orange4boy]

It's been a while. Missed you folks. Shop and house is almost finished. Time for some Insight fixin'.



Recently done:
Valve lash adjustment.
Replaced the rad.
Cleaned out the EGR plate.
Set up the kill switch. (Ignition for now)
Oil change.
Grill block.
Headlight polish:





To do:
Transmission oil change.
Passenger auto lock.
Hatch auto lock.
Seat cover refurb/replace.
Set up injector kill switch.
Refurb/replace/remove battery
Purchase/install front wheel strakes
Aero mods... This will be the fun part. I have shiny new sheet of aluminum just waiting to be formed into aero bits.

I'm open to advice on the best bang for the buck in insight specific mechanical mods.

I have a good excuse as to why I have been behind on fixing the 'sight:

[Daox]

Welcome back! Good to see you posting again.

[cowmeat]

Yeah, I'll be watching it with much interest!

I have a couple of parts ordered myself (below), and I'll document the steps installing them.
Depending on how bad the wheel covers are, I may re-furb them as best as I can, sell them and get the brand new ones I originally wanted. I'll document the steps to the re-furbing of those as well. I figured two of the covers look unmarked, and the other two that are a little beat up will be behind the wheel skirts anyway, so maybe it'll work out on the cheap!

[Daox]

Poke poke. Updates?

[Ecky]

In my case, the hatch auto-lock problem was actually due to a small leak in the roof causing corrosion on a connector behind the plastic panel behind the passenger seat. Once I knew where it was, it was 10 minutes and zero-cost to fix.

[cowmeat]

Poke poke. Updates?

As far as Turtle's updates, I have installed everything except for the moon discs, which are going to Ecky. I 'm re-furbing them, so far the one beolw is the only one finished.

The Brake Regen button is awesome (pic of the button is on Turtle's page, right now it's just taped to the shifter, but will be shrink wrapped when I add the kill switch beside it). It keeps my battery fully charged, and is proving really useful for tailgaters. I hit the gas and that button at the same time and it's like a reverse brake check! The brake lights go on but I'm actually speeding up.

The clutch interrupt switch is proving kind of pointless since the Brake regen button kind of overrides the need for that mod, but it does its job well. The only complaint is that the driver (me) forgets to turn it back off at lights occasionally and realizes the car didn't auto-stop grrrrrr!

The one I'm on the fence over is the throttle smoothing circuit. It's definitely working, but I can't tell yet if it's going to give me any increase in mpg, which is the sole reason I bought it. If it proves pointless after a couple of tanks, it's getting tossed.

[orange4boy]

Just driving around in her at the moment. Seem to be getting better mileage. Have till dec. 15 to finish the renos on the house. Stupid busy. Thanks for the pointer on the release latch. I'll look into it ASAP.

[orange4boy]

Back at it again. Big gaps between posts but that's my life these days.

Decided it was time to replace the transmission fluid. I'm not sure what was in there. I was having trouble shifting down into first. No grinding just a lot of push to get it in to gear. I did a lot of research and ended up choosing Redline D6-ATF:

This is Canada so I'm not too worried about it's viscosity. It's never very hot here and I don't drive the car in the summer anyway.

So far it's good. No grinding of gears and shifting into first is easy even when cold. We'll see how it does long term. I'm also putting this in the 2003 Prius as it's a replacement for Toyota WS which I have been running since I did the transaxle swap.

Synthetic D6 ATF is a lower viscosity version of the D4ATF and is designed for better fuel efficiency in CAFE testing. Dexron VI requires a different approach to a conventional ATF formulation. Rather than beginning with a 7.5 cSt fluid and allowing a viscosity loss in use to drop to 5.5 cSt, the Dexron VI fluid requires a starting viscosity of less than 6.4 and a final drop to no less than 5.5 cSt. Red Line D6 will drop to no less than 6.1 cSt. Since the final viscosity after use of these fluids are similar, Dexron VI fluids can be used where Dexron III fluids
were previously recommended

Appropriate coefficient of friction for most manual transmission synchronizers (other's synthetic gear oils are often too slippery for proper synchro engagement)
Excellent gear and synchro protection, balanced slipperiness for easier shifting in cold climates

Vis @ 100°C, cSt 6.4
Vis @ 40°C, cSt 30.7
Viscosity Index 166
Pour Point, °C -60
Pour Point, °F -76
Brookfield Viscosity @ -40°C, Poise 45

[orange4boy]

The Brake Regen button is awesome (pic of the button is on Turtle's page, right now it's just taped to the shifter, but will be shrink wrapped when I add the kill switch beside it). It keeps my battery fully charged, and is proving really useful for tailgaters. I hit the gas and that button at the same time and it's like a reverse brake check! The brake lights go on but I'm actually speeding up.

Where did you find these components?