With my continued gas savings I bought this! (2001 Insight)

[Ecky]

The new Civic is tempting. When my battery dies and the engine starts getting tired (which I don't expect will be any time soon), I'm leaning toward putting one of those 1.5 turbos into my Insight, though.

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by Ecky

The new Civic is tempting. When my battery dies and the engine starts getting tired (which I don't expect will be any time soon), I'm leaning toward putting one of those 1.5 turbos into my Insight, though.

Problem is, the 1.5l turbos are only CVT right now. Talk about a wiring nightmare.

Anyway, a little more OT: Cowmeat, how fast do you drive go achieve the constant 70+mpg tanks?

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

Problem is, the 1.5l turbos are only CVT right now. Talk about a wiring nightmare.

Anyway, a little more OT: Cowmeat, how fast do you drive go achieve the constant 70+mpg tanks?

I know it's not directed at me, but my experience lately:

It was up to just above freezing a few days ago, and dry and clear, and I did quite a bit of point to point traveling throughout the day, so the car was basically warm for every segment past the first. Traveling at 50mph, I averaged 105mpg for close to 20 miles on my way home, which is around what I get during the summer on a clear day, over areas without a lot of hills. Going to work is brutal though, when it's 20 below zero outside, leaving me with a lot of ~50mpg 15 mile trips, which is the main reason why my tanks have been horrible lately. Yesterday morning the clutch pedal and gear lever felt like I was pushing through jello, and when it's that cold, the LCDs get reaaaally "slow".

In the summer I can normally drive at 50mph and get 100mpg, or 65mph and get 75-85mpg, when conditions are good. If the roads are muddy, that's not the case, of course.

[cowmeat]

Anyway, a little more OT: Cowmeat, how fast do you drive go achieve the constant 70+mpg tanks?

Balto,

I do between 65 and 75 mph on the highway part of my commute, and stay up with the (slow lane) traffic. I try to find a loaded semi going a reasonable speed and I stay behind it, since I get about a 10 mpg aero benefit and they tend to drive a steady speed. I get between 75 and 100 mpg while on the highway.
I do the speed limit everywhere else, and I don't drive slow enough to irritate other drivers. The part of Florida I drive in is basically flat, so I average about 100 mpg the whole time. It's only the stops and starts that kill my mpg.

There are 6 stop signs and 9 traffic signals on my commute, for a maximum of 15 stops. I try to time all of the lights, and after driving this route for a while I have them timed pretty well.

[cowmeat]

My son brought Turtle (now known as Dr. Horrible) over and we changed the oil and buffed out the headlights.

I was surprised how well the belly pan has held up after a year! First pic is from 2-1-15 when I installed it, second pic is from yesterday. The one-piece front pan came off in about a minute, versus the crazy amount of stuff I had to take off when I recently changed the oil in Ron Burgundy. I'm thinking about putting one on Ron Burgundy.

The headlights took about five minutes total time for both. We used Blue Magic restorer with my cone buffer on a cordless drill, and followed up with Blue Magic sealer.

One other thing I noticed when we had the car up in the air was that the Michelin Energy Savers don't look a bit different from the day I bought the car in July of 2014. They still have deep tread, and are pretty amazing tires!

[baileyatx]

what is the yellow material under the car?

[cowmeat]

Those are pallet liners. They are made from a thin, heavy duty coroplast, and are the size of a pallet, very lightweight and strong.

I get them for 2 bucks each, so they are way cheaper and stronger than what you would buy at Home Depot, and they made a perfect material for the belly pan!

[nasphere]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

Yea I can't get over 65 anymore now that my IMA is dead and I don't have lean burn. I have been getting 60-65 though at 70 on the freeway, which is pretty damn good IMO. I do think ill be getting rid of my insight this coming year when smog is due. I would rather put a 2,000$ down payment on a 2016 1.5l turbo civic than buying a new battery.

You can fake that the battery is not dead by sending a 2khz (50% duty) signal to the ECM to allow lean burn even with a flat battery. The signal line is called QBATT, wire is pink.




EDIT:
If anyone here has a question about the inner workings of the electronics, feel free to ask. I've been in and out of the electronics many times. Built my own MIMA type system as well (don't have it in the car anymore though).

[cowmeat]

My son was over last night and I got a pic of Ron Burgundy and Turtle side by side, it shows what the moon discs look like next to the stock rims.

I like the look of the moon discs even though it's kind of a pain to air them up!

[Ecky]

Ron is a gorgeous car.