Reviving a 2000 Honda Insight "beater"

[Red]

Thanks all

cbergeron, I'm actually figuring that the Insight might end up being a collectors car in a few years. Low production, one of the first hybrids, hand made, unusual body construction, over all odd looks, its got a lot going for me. One part of me wants to mod the crap out of it and do odd ball things to it, another wants to keep it "original"

TheDon, doesn't look too bad, would be good if the dude was parting it out, but its seen as much abuse or more as mine. Dudes asking way to much, especially with it having that cut up rear quarter panel. Odd place to pull sheet metal too since that is just one big piece.

[Red]

So stuff that I've done or happened.

Was driving it the other day and the check engine light lit up. Was worried something major had failed on me, but the car drove fine all the way home and I averaged 55.9 MPG Sickness! Turned out the ECU thinks the primary cat is dead, got a P0420. It could be dead or the secondary O2 is gone. I know there is a TSB out that will replace the ECU, but so long as the code doesn't put the car into a limp mode, I'm not going to worry too much about it.

My suspension is totally gone. Felt like I was piloting a boat when I got it up on the highway. The Insight doesn't have any kind of aftermarket and nor do the shocks and struts match up with anything else. The struts off a Cavalier are pretty close, with the exception of the lower spring bucket and the valving. Cost difference wasn't really worth it. On the back shocks nothing matches cause its so small. Closest thing was the steering stabilizer used on the Heep but the eyelet sizes were wrong.

Saw Icelanders post about fabbing up some coilovers, might give that a shot some time down the line; I really really just want to be up and running now.

So net result was that ordered up new struts and shocks from Majestic and I'm going to keep an eye on the O2 and the cat. I want to mist some water through the intake this weekend to decoke the engine out. I get some slight dieseling when I shut it off.

[Compaq888]

even though the car is a little buggy 56mpg is still an impressive number. id like to see what numbers you pull off when the car is back to stock...

[Red]

Yeah, I hate waiting for parts. If only the local dealership was as cheap......
Parts have a tentative date of mid next week.

[Bob64]

Out of curiosity... How much have you spent so far repairing it?

[Red]

erm I kinda don't want to know........

All these numbers are ball park for some, exact for the more recent ones, I'll do a real tally one of these days

$2000 for the car
$350 for the windshield
$450 for a bunch of missing parts (window, aero panels, odds and ends)
$450 for the stupid shocks
$110 LAF
$10 grounding wires
$255 clutch
$120 clutch hydraulics
$100 brakes
$390 tires
$151 vehicle registration
$20 serp belt
$50 spark plugs
$70 12v battery
$2 parking light

So the guesstimate comes out to be........$4582

The real total is probably closer to $4700-$4800

Shockingly enough that isn't bad. Well its bad, cause I've just spent $4500 bucks over the past six months but its not bad since I had set aside around $5k last summer to buy a gas sipper anyway. I had wanted a sub 100k HX.

So I'm still on budget and I'm not screwed yet.

[Insightful]

Hi Folks, interesting thread this as we have also just acquired a Honda Insight that I'm currently trying to get running! (pictures to follow when I figure out how to host them)

Originally Posted by AXMonster

On the subject of 'burping' coolant systems, on the Supra I use the front-in-the-air technique with the addition of an additional header tank pushed in the rad filler neck. Its made from a Powerade soft drink bottle (that screws into the rad filler neck hole) with its bottom cut off, sort of a funnel.
It can be filled to near the top and add a further 8" of height to the cooling system encouraging air to come out.



Either that or vacuum the cooling system when empty, then stick a hose from a modified rad cap into the coolant to suck it in

That's a good tip and I could have used that last weekend!

I love Supra's, do you have any photo's of yours?

[Red]

Hope it helps

[ttoyoda]

Hey Red,
Have you seen this mod to add a capacitor to the throttle position to make the insight stay in lean burn longer? (If that is what they are doing )
Or maybe you have already done it and I didn't notice.
site is pretty slow
Browser Warning
what is going on?
what in the cripes is a browser warning.. link leads to autospeed.com

[Red]

erm some weird security thingy? No idea why it says browser warning? Mr.Ben any ideas?

Nope, haven't done it yet but I do want to do it