My 2nd Honda Insight

[Ecky]

^ Some people live in environments where they do actually have to use brakes as part of their normal driving. For them, deleting the IMA does not have benefits that outweigh the cons.

Otherwise though, I agree. Driving with load was always far more successful for me than pulse and glide.

[Gasoline Fumes]

I was getting around 80 MPG in a borrowed 2001 Insight a few years ago. That was on 165/65-14 snow tires in the winter! No mods other than tire pressure and a temporary clutch switch. I really need to add a clutch switch to mine, the nearly constant assist seems so unnecessary and inefficient. And I need a kill switch.

My wrong tires are 175/65-14. Special-ordered for the previous owner and still the wrong size! I have them at 50 PSI. The large cracks in them keep me from going higher!

I don't brake enough to get a useful amount of regen.

I'm getting tempted to sell the IMA battery. It seems to be working flawlessly, which might be the ideal time to remove it! Plus it would more than pay for the car.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

If you don't brake enough to get regen, and you aren't stopping the assist through a clutch mod or disabling/removing the battery, your car will almost always be in forced regen mode, which can cost you anywhere from 10-25 MPG in my experience. Forced charging isn't as subtle in the Insight as it is in the Prius.

Have you been able to detect lean burn yet? The IMA will almost always be assisting when not in lean burn, and doesn't assist when in lean burn.

If you switch off the battery and unplug the two connectors on the BCM, you can drive it without the battery functions and see if removing the forced regen improves your mileage to test without removing the battery. You'll have to key off to EOC since autostop will be gone, and acceleration will be slow until you remove the battery, which helps some.

I'm also trying to sell my hybrid battery as well, but haven't had any great luck yet. Probably because I've listed it a bit too high for now.

[Gasoline Fumes]

I need to pay more attention to when it's in lean burn. I'd like a light for that!

[Gasoline Fumes]

81.7 MPG with the IMA off.

[mpg_numbers_guy]

Originally Posted by Gasoline Fumes

I need to pay more attention to when it's in lean burn. I'd like a light for that!

If you have a Scangauge or the Torque app, watching the O2 sensor voltages will indicate lean burn. One of the sensors reads 0v when in lean burn, and >0v when not in lean burn.

You can also tell by engine load vs mpg, which is what I do. If you drive the car enough, you can tell just by the instrumentation.

Note that in order to get lean burn with the battery disabled your hybrid battery must be at least 20% charged if a 2000, and at least 50% charged if a 2006. Otherwise the car doesn't get lean burn. I learned the hard way once and got "poor" (if it can even be called poor) mpg on a highway trip. I wondered for the whole day why I wasn't getting lean burn. It was because I had reset the 12V, so the car thought the battery was empty on my IMA disable, so I didn't get lean burn until I let the car recalibrate and display the battery's correct charge level.

Originally Posted by Gasoline Fumes

81.7 MPG with the IMA off.

Sounds like that might be your issue then. Even a healthy battery has some slight background charge, and with limited brake use, forced charge is the only way the battery can charge.

IMA battery = faster acceleration = more power, and with limited braking for regen, = forced recharge = power robbing = lower fuel economy.

[euromodder]

Looks like the previous owner had another one stashed there ... behind all the others in the first pic

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Looks like the previous owner had another one stashed there ... behind all the others in the first pic

No, that's my other Insight! I have too many cars!

[Gasoline Fumes]

Clutch switch helps a lot!
Also on old RE92s now. I think I filled them to 55 PSI.
No other mods yet.
Missing all front under panels, mystery oil from 3+ years ago, mystery spark plugs, EGR probably plugged.
I had to giddyup for a bit when a State Trooper was behind me!

[mpg_numbers_guy]

There ya go! Great mileage and still tons of low hanging fruit to go. With a few mods I see myself having to play second to you in the Insight fuel logs here on Ecomodder very shortly!