Project - Rescued '01 Insight
 

Hey guys, I've been lurking around here and the Insight Central forums for a couple weeks sucking down data before buying an Insight, which has always been one of my favorite cars. Well, it paid off 'cause I got one, and decided to join the ranks here as well! Hope I can contribute.

The car is a 2001 Insight, Manual w/AC. Has 135k miles and seems never to have been in an accident, paid $1450 plus $225 in back reg. I found it at a body shop in Redwood City, CA. Apparently it had been sitting there for years since its owner moved out and started paying them to store it. They never covered it, so it is covered in a thick layer of dust from the sanding :eek:. It has some common problems and a lot of missing stuff - I'd like to restore it to its former glory, then start modding it with stuff like MIMA, etc.

It's rather late here as I'm getting back with the car, so I'll post pics of it tomorrow before I wash it, along with a laundry list of stuff that I'm going to fix up.

Oh, I'm also using it to practice driving stick. I'll have to rebuild/replace the transmission at some point (it has the 2nd gear synchro issue, and even double-clutching results in grinds, unless I'm doing it wrong). As I titled myself, I'm New to Everything.

Cool, it's always good to have another Insight owner on board!

There are plenty of Insight drivers that can walk you through double clutching, it's a pretty common problem with them. If you have the second gear downshift grind, before you drop it into second gear, kind of push the stick toward first gear, then pull it back into second. That works on my son's Insight.

And before you pay out the nose for a for MIMA system, you might want to check out a couple of the guy's pages (myself included) that use a three button shift knob.

Good luck with the new car!

Welcome to the site and congrats on the Insight.

I believe there is a 2nd gear synchro mod where you can mod the synchro itself and you'll be set. Definitely cheaper than rebuilding.

You still have to pull apart the entire transmission to get to 2nd gear synchro. If you don't rebuild the transmission at that point, well...

Welcome, and subscribed for another Insight adventure.

Welcome.

When you shift, try this: Push in the clutch pedal, then give the engine a little spurt of gas, just enough to rev the engine a little bit, then shift. This should help. Also, if you have a floor mat that is under the clutch pedal; try removing it.

Thanks for the replies, guys. Well, on to business - instead of a laundry list, I'll go a few things at a time so as not to get overwhelmed.

1. Which image hosting site would you recommend? Got some pics to start.

2. Things I noticed while driving:

- IMA seemed to be working OK on the drive home yesterday: I started with the BAT gauge at 4 bars and the CHARGE/ASSIST gauges would bar up sometimes. However, about halfway home, the BAT gauge filled all the way. A quarter of the way home, the BAT gauge dropped to 1 bar and there isn't any CHARGE/ASSIST activity. I took it out twice today and the CHARGE gauge bars up a bit when starting, then nothing the whole time. The auto-stop function is also not working. What could be wrong?

- I thought there were supposed to be two trip meters and the lifetime meter. Pressing the FCD button switches between lifetime and one trip meter. Also, the lifetime mpg reading is stuck at 27.0 mpg - I'm a bit paranoid, it's probably that I haven't had enough time behind the wheel to change it, yeah?

3. Parts acquisition:

- I've got a date with a salvage yard up in Roseville on Monday to get the beautiful yellow compact spare, the FCD/windows/mirror switch panel, front struts, jack, and CHMSL. Majestic Honda came up a lot when I was a lurker; is that the dealer you guys would recommend for genuine parts?

4. My driving:

- Thanks for the tips, fellas. Learning stick is a bit of an adventure for me (small motor control problems. Fell over a lot as a baby trying to dance like MC Hammer). Still stalling it a bit.

- Is first gear limited to 4k rpm? The car bucks and power drops when I hit the limit.

- cowmeat, that worked better than going N-2. I pushed it a bit too far and it ground on first, but I got it now.

- MobilOne, that's rev matching, yeah? I'll put it on the list, I have to stop stalling the car first, haha.

This. The idea is to rev match so you don't really need a synchro. When you clutch in, wait to put it in the next gear until the engine runs through the rpm range where that gear would be at the speed you are going. If done right it should be smooth as butter and no grinding.

There's a Honda dealer in AZ that gives good prices on OEM parts. Don't know if it's Majestic or not.

Sometimes a local dealer will have an Internet parts page that is cheaper than their dealership. Check there first to avoid shipping costs.

A lot of members use photobucket. I'm the oddball and use postimage.org :)

Welcome, where in NorCal are you?

The forum provides image hosting, you just need 5 posts to be able to use it. You can post a few small posts to get up to 5, its just spammer protection for the forum.

Subscribed as a fellow NorCal'er. Great find!

Cool, I'll make a few more posts and try out the forum hosting. Thanks BabyDiesel, Daox.

"Insight for life," I'm in San Jose (updated profile).

Went up to AutoGator in Roseville and got some nice parts: nearly flawless compact spare, jack and tools, both front strut assemblies, passenger sill plate, and a fob remote. Will post pics as soon as I can. Didn't get the switch panel or CHMSL...somebody had already bought most of the dash. If any of you guys need the liftback (including the CHMSL), theirs is in great condition except for peeling clear coat on the spoiler.

OK, post #4 of 5!...back to the 4k RPM limit problem.

So I shifted into first and gave it about 33% throttle: the engine kept going straight to the redline. On another run, I found that if I lift off the throttle at 4-4.5k rpm (still in first gear), the car starts bucking, rpms flick between 3.9k and 4.2k in time with the bucking before dropping, and no amount of throttle gets the rpms past 4k again. It reminds me of a time when I tried shifting in a friend's SVT Contour with a botched clutch replacement: it bucked in nearly the same way.

Anybody got an explanation for this?

Post #5 of 5: pics coming, cell phone special!

Hm, having a bit of trouble uploading pics. While I wait for the webmaster to reply to me, here's an update:

I plugged in a code scanner before trundling off to the smog tester and came up with some problems.

- P1259: VTEC pressure switch circuit or VTEC solenoid valve circuit problems. I suspect that this is the reason for the bogging down/bucking when the engine gets to 4k rpm in first gear under moderate to heavy throttle input. The oil is like mud, so changing it's the first thing I'll do before following the service manual troubleshooting steps.

- P1542: Climate Control Signal Circuit High Voltage. Some googling suggests that this isn't anything to worry about and that I should just reset the codes to see if it goes away. As you'll see when I get pics up, the vehicle has no radio. Are the climate control unit and radio interconnected?

- The dreaded P1449 :eek:: IMA battery pack problems. This is obviously related to my lack of charge/assist. Any suggestions welcome. I'm going to read all the threads I can on fixing up the battery pack. Bumblebee Batteries gets props on here, so I'll give them a call, too, and see what advice they have.

Forgot to mention, no CEL or IMA light.