Y2K Honda Insight Repair and Mods

[arcosine]

Hi,

I bought a first generation insight on impulse yesterday, over the phone, and now I need to tow it home. I plan to remove the front fascia and attach the tow bar to the aluminum bumper. Does anyone have an insight that could measure the width height and length of the bumper member? It would be nice to know if the brackets fit before I get 2 states away and try to fit it up..

Thanks,


Tony

[MetroMPG]

Wow - interesting!

I wish I could help, but I'm on the other side of the country from the U.F.O. at the moment.

[jamesqf]

The bar's 3 1/4 high x 2 3/4 wide, 44" long with the attachments to frame 39" apart. Here's a picture of the one I replaced after a deer strike - note the damage on the left side.

The metal it's made from does not appear terribly sturdy, so I would plan to mount the tow bar as close to the frame attachments as possible.

[HyperMileQC]

Nice buy!

Is it manual or CVT?

[arcosine]

Thanks,

It turns out that the clutch is not bad, just the clutch slave cylinder, so I was able to drive it home. I had to turn it off at stops and restart in gear..

One thing I did notice is driving back it wouldn't hold highway speed at times without the assist going on. Yes, it was a 20 mph head wind, but going up an overpass it wouldn't go over 65 mph sometimes 60.. Is this typical or does it have a weak engine? or maybe I am use to lugging the big 1.9L saturn engine.

It was OK when I was drafting an SUV, seems like it's not as aero as the Saturn.

The battery pack was replace free by honda in 2008.

Nice tail on the upright commuter bike.

[MetroMPG]

The car doesn't have a lot of ICE-only power: 67 hp @ 5700 RPM. Also it's geared much, much taller than your Saturn, so you probably needed to downshift to keep from engaging the hybrid assist.

One of the first mods you'll want to do is install the IMA-inhibit switch so you can take manual control over when you use assist. (That's the "Calpod" clutch switch mod, if you search at insightcentral.)

[HyperMileQC]

Originally Posted by arcosine

Nice tail on the upright commuter bike.

Thanks, I plan to totally enclose it soon.

happy to know that the Insight is manual!

[arcosine]

No, the Saturn is geared taller than the insight and has 100 hp at 5000 rpm, doesn't have variable cam timing, is 500 lbs heavier, not including wife, two tool boxes, 2 cats, a welder, a tow bar, and other stuff that was as additional 400 lbs on this trip. It is at 2042 rpm at 65 mph.

Yes, it should have a switch to tun off the electric motor and a turbo for boost up hills.

I'll put some injector cleaner in it to see if it helps. How do you know when it is in lean burn mode?

[arcosine]

Originally Posted by HyperMileQC

Thanks, I plan to totally enclose it soon.

You might was to look at Upright Mike's and Upright Dave's bikes at recumbents.com. Mike ran a sock for a long time but has now been converted.
to low racers.

I want to put a front fairing on my upright bike for cold weather, to help keep the fingers and toes from getting to cold, but I am still riding the recumbent to work since it has been snow and ice free so far.

[MetroMPG]

Hmm. I didn't know that about that gearing. Bad guess on my part based on my experience of gearing in 3-cylinder cars.

---

Lean burn: you can tell you're in lean burn a couple of ways:

1) If you have a ScanGauge with X-Gauge, you can set up a custom gauge and monitor it that way (again, search insightcentral for the X gauge setup).

2) You can tell by watching for a significant jump in "instant" fuel economy on the MPG bar graph. EG: in 5th gear at ~50 mph on level ground in warm weather, you'll see ~75 mpg when not in lean burn, and then a jump to ~100 mpg when lean burn engages.

3) After a while, you won't need to watch the gauge(s) to know when you've transitioned into L.B. - you may just be able to feel it: (A) The engine may "stumble" ever so slightly in the transition; (B) Engine responsiveness to the accelerator changes (it becomes less responsive); (C) When the accelerator in my car is held perfectly still through the L.B. transition, the car will actually start to bleed speed very slowly after L.B. engages. (I have to press the pedal down very slightly to maintain speed after the transition.)

I don't know if A, B & C are normal for all Insights. I've driven one other that had a lot fewer miles on it, and I had the impression it was harder to use the butt-o-meter to tell when L.B. engaged on that car.

Lastly, when cruising, the car will automatically cycle out of L.B. to do a "NOX purge" (clear stored NOX out of the 2nd catalytic converter by briefly running rich). Cycles roughly once every minute or two at 50 mph in warm weather, and the purge lasts 5 seconds or so.