2000 Honda Insight. Whatever.

This afternoon Vigo dropped off a very interesting project, a running, kind of rough, 200O Honda Insight. It needs wheels and tires and a battery pack and a bunch of cleaning and probably other stuff. The end game is a reliable efficient car for Deucekid#1 to learn to drive. It's one of the few cars she's actually interested in, and that makes me happy. She's already decided on a name for her "race team" for the required year of autocross that is part of her learning to drive.
Teen Angst Racing. Whatever.......
So far all I've done is look the car over, lock the key inside, figure out how to slim jim it, and put the 12v battery on the trickle charger. Lots more to come.

Im so over it.

mazdeuce wrote: battery pack

I highly recommend trying a grid charger / bulb discharger (both can be purchased or done DIY) on the existing pack before you get into replacing it. Those are useful to have anyhow.

I cant even.

In reply to MCarp22:

I'll be putting together a grid charger for the complete pack as well and buying an analyzer charger discharger thingy that can deal with the individual sticks. It seems like there is a high success rate bringing individual sticks back if you do it carefully and take your time. This is all new territory for me. It's neat.

The guys on ecomodder seem to love these much more than the Prius. I wouldn't mind getting my grubby little paws on one.

That seems to be about the perfect car for a teenager. New enough to be relatively safe, only two seats, so they can't haul all their friends around. Is it a stick shift, so her friends are less likely to ask to drive it, too?

Also, I think they look kind of cool. One of these with a K-series is on my list of potential future projects.

Are those Miata daisies on the front?

Cool purchase. An interesting contrast to the "big cars" in the driveway.

eastsidemav wrote: That seems to be about the perfect car for a teenager. New enough to be relatively safe, only two seats, so they can't haul all their friends around. Is it a stick shift, so her friends are less likely to ask to drive it, too? Also, I think they look kind of cool. One of these with a K-series is on my list of potential future projects.

It is a 5 speed, which was the major selling point for me. Modern-ish, no room for friends, manual so almost nobody she knows can drive it, and interesting to her.
Also, it's old and semi-crappy enough for her to get used to driving and caring for a beater car. Whether that lets her know that she doesn't NEED to spend a pile of money on a nice car right out of college or it motivates her to get a good enough job that she can, I think it should provide good perspective.

What's wrong with the wheels that they need replacing??

In reply to jfryjfry:

Wrong center bore on the fronts, they're just sitting there but the smaller bore is keeping them off the hub face. The rear has one Insight wheel and on space saver spare. I'm probably just going to order up a set of 15x6 Civic wheels and all seasons. The car will see some rallycross so we need a set of wheels for that anyway. I'll sort out proper wheels later.

A couple of pictures.
Yes, this is the odometer. And this is probably the best warning sticker I've ever seen on a car. Of course I promptly removed the cover and checked voltage. 2.7V. Should be 144V. Might need to work on that.

Subscribed for more deuce family awesomeness.

A Honda Insight on a rallycross course? That's all kinds of absurdly awesome! I want video.

hhaase wrote: A Honda Insight on a rallycross course? That's all kinds of absurdly awesome! I want video.

I have a friend who ran a CVT one in HS and rallycross for years. He upgraded to a CR-Z. Either we're all crazy or we're all sane.

mazdeuce wrote: I have a friend who ran a CVT one in HS and rallycross for years. He upgraded to a CR-Z. Either we're all crazy or we're all sane.

A little bit of column A .....

A little bit of column B ....

I spent the better part of the day playing with the car. A bunch of the gross interior plastics are drying on the porch. I still need to clean a TON, but at least I don't feel like I'm going to get a skin disease by sitting in the car any more. All of the lights work, power windows and mirrors work, though the passenger side is slow, the AC is bitter cold after finding one chewed wire under the hood. I properly unplugged the big battery and everything with the conventional powertrain checks out. All of the fluids are there, no codes, I think the motor mounts are on their last legs, so it idles a little rough and I'm still not used to the valve train noise in these Hondas. It sounds exactly like my Civic which I suppose is exactly what it's supposed to sound like.

These are really interesting cars to me, especially when they come with a stick-shift.

A guy near where I live used to have one that he drove around with Bible verses preaching the apocalypse on the hatch glass. Must've taken him a really long time to put all those stickers on.

Other than a Tesla which I don't want to afford. These little guy's are the only Hybrid I'd even think to buy. All the new ones are way overpriced for what you get. Even if you do get a rebate on your taxes big whoop you only see about 10% of that back in cash.

Is the bolt pattern 4x100?

In reply to mazdeuce:

IIRC that engine is closely related to the one in the Fit, and I know our Fit requires periodic valve adjustment...which it's due for, and sounds much noisier now.

In reply to petegossett:

Interesting. I did not know that. I guess I'll order service manual tonight!

brad131a4 wrote: Is the bolt pattern 4x100?

It has Miata daisies on it so yes. Ditto, I would be interested in reviving one of these things but not any other hybrid.

Managing the IMA battery charge is a big deal in an autocross. The CR-Z can go from full to nearly flat in a single run. When the battery is flat, the car is gutless. When the engine is in auto-stop mode, it will also run down the battery, so I try to keep the engine idling between runs. I can charge the battery up if I hold the engine at around 4000 rpm, but only to a 3/4 charge. Also, low rolling resistance tires suck at autocross. They manage to grip poorly and wear quickly.

Mike wrote: Managing the IMA battery charge is a big deal in an autocross. The CR-Z can go from full to nearly flat in a single run. When the battery is flat, the car is gutless. When the engine is in auto-stop mode, it will also run down the battery, so I try to keep the engine idling between runs. I can charge the battery up if I hold the engine at around 4000 rpm, but only to a 3/4 charge. Also, low rolling resistance tires suck at autocross. They manage to grip poorly and wear quickly.

This is pretty much how the guy I know operates his car. One run and then 4k or so between runs to make it work. That's a big reason I want to get the battery pack as rejuvenated as I can.

Where can I find the permission slip to become a deucekid?

Every time I read one of your threads my jealousy for your kids grows. I can only wish I had a dad who was as car crazy as I am. I'm the only one in my family who is a car-guy, my obsession is a huge drag for them. I'll see something interesting on the road and proceed to yak about it for five minutes; "that's nice sweetie".