Last week I picked up a 2001 Honda Insight. It was apparently an Indiana car until a brake line failed. The seller had bought it as a parts car and had it shipped to Texas, but fixed his own car before he needed any of the parts. He sold his "good" car and this one sat under a tree until he posted it up for sale.
I called him about it and he offered it to me for a price I simply couldn't refuse. I got some cash, picked up a tow dolly and headed down to Crockett, TX. The tow back to Dallas was uncannily easy. One more reminder the car weighs under 1900lbs from the factory.
The bright sunshine hides the true filth of the exterior a bit. Step 1 with this project is to perform a mazdeuce style cleaning of the interior and exterior. So far, the exterior has cleaned up fairly well with soap and water, but I'm going to try hitting it with a clay bar today and see where that gets me. In the meantime, this was the starting point.
In my cleaning I've discovered that the car was almost certainly in front-end accident at some point. The upper radiator support is broken and was repaired at some point, the lower part of the support is also not straight. I'll be looking for a stock replacement, but if I can't find one I'll just fabricate something. I feel like this little car is too special to be off the road for much longer.
I would also like to mention that I love this forum. While marque-specific forums are valuable to a point, the community here is just better. Or at least a better fit for me. There's no mine's bigger or better than yours, no closed-minded gospel of the right way. But there is a sense of humor, a desire to learn, and a willingness to roll up one's sleeves and share our hobby with like-minded folks.
Thank you all.
The two Insights that have been posted here are probably the two most relevant to my interests in all the internet, namely proawemike's K24 swap, and mazdeuce's project. I haven't quite figured out what I want to do with the car, but it's likely to end up somewhere between those two projects. Or maybe not? At this point I'm going to have fun learning about the car.
Cool to see an Insight- as put-around "I need good mileage but I don't trust EVs enough" kind of vehicle they really are second to none. Will you be replacing the NiCad batteries? I know they are easily 1/4th to a 1/3rd the weight of the car itself.
In reply to GIRTHQUAKE :
I believe the formula is remove batteries and stock drivetrain and replace with k24 + lsd.
The battery, like virtually everything else about the car, is surprisingly light. Less than 100lbs including its associated controllers. Converting to lithium interests me, but is far from a straightforward swap. At this point, I'm inclined to get it running perfectly as a stock car and then start taking it all over the country.
The battery is light enough for one person to pick up comfortably. The big issue is whether or not white_fly is in an emissions county in Texas. The car will always throw a CEL with the IMA light and it won't pass emissions in a county in Texas that requires it. Fixing the battery pack isn't hard, should take a couple weeks with a charger to cycle and identify bad sticks, replace the bad ones, and off you go. Very interested to hear what you think of driving in traffic with it. Mine was supposed to be for my kids, but after driving it there was no way I was going to send them out on an 80mph freeway. They're incredibly interesting from an engineering and build standpoint.
I am in an emissions testing county and will be taking a page out of your book with the 30 day tag. At this point, I've already mentally budgeted for a complete new battery as I plan on holding onto this little car.
One of my other vehicles is a '66 Chevy truck. It has a difficult time staying out of the way of normal traffic, but I adore it as an experience. You have to drive it the way it wants to be driven, and it doesn't give a E36 M3 if you're in a hurry. But it's special goddammit. As long as you know what to expect, it is, in its own way, perfect.
The Insight is a special little car. It didn't end up being the blueprint for all hybrids that came after it, but after poking around the car, it's already clear that this is not just another transportation appliance. Honda was proud of this car and put an incredible amount of effort into making it light and efficient. Hopefully I can do that specialness some justice.
nice find! Always thought those were neat. Never liked that they turned the insight into a prius replica
I still think it's worth the time trying to revive the current battery. Vigo recently asked to borry my charger analyzer thingy but maybe we can convince him to hold off until you're done? Mail it to you and then to him? I fixed my dead battery with $60 in ebay battery sticks.
Screw it. Full EV swap fam.
mazdeuce - Seth said:
I still think it's worth the time trying to revive the current battery. Vigo recently asked to borry my charger analyzer thingy but maybe we can convince him to hold off until you're done? Mail it to you and then to him? I fixed my dead battery with $60 in ebay battery sticks.
I recently became a member of the Dallas Makerspace. Among other cool tools, they have a BK Precision 8610 programmable electronic load. I still need to figure out how to use it, but it should provide all the testing capability I could ask for and a much better way to discharge than the light bulb that came with the car. For charging, the car came with a Prolong Charger so I should be good to go there. I really do appreciate the offer and meant to get back to you sooner.
You still need to disassemble the pack and test each stick, you can't do it as a whole. Well, you can try it as a whole, but if you still get the IMA light it means that you have one or more bad sticks and you need to identify and replace them. The Prolong pack should be the bees knees for keeping things going once you get it back up. If you were closer I'd be at your house yanking the pack with you. Once you get started it's not a huge deal, but you have to put in the time to run the cycles on the sticks.
GIRTHQUAKE said:
Screw it. Full EV swap fam.
Of all cars to convert to full EV, this isn't it. It was primarily designed to be an efficient gas powered car, with secondary hybrid assist. I would have to scrap the whole powertrain and the leftover frame, while light, doesn't lend itself to big batteries or convenient mounts for motors.
mazdeuce - Seth said:
You still need to disassemble the pack and test each stick, you can't do it as a whole. Well, you can try it as a whole, but if you still get the IMA light it means that you have one or more bad sticks and you need to identify and replace them. The Prolong pack should be the bees knees for keeping things going once you get it back up. If you were closer I'd be at your house yanking the pack with you. Once you get started it's not a huge deal, but you have to put in the time to run the cycles on the sticks.
Be careful what you wish for! I actually need to take a trip to Houston for business.
For now, my first step is going to be charging and discharging the pack a few times per Hybrid Automotive recommendations. If I'm still having trouble, it'll get pulled out of the car and I'll get to work on the cells.
