New owner saying hello!

[RedJellyBean]

Hi, I just bought a 2002 Insight 5-speed and I wanted to say hello.
I don't know a lot about Hondas, so this site has been a tremendous help to me.
I bought the car with 260,000 miles with the IMA light on (and no hybrid assist) and the check engine light on for $2800 cash.
The first thing I noticed was how painfully underpowered and slow this car is. Coming from a Vortech-supercharged Lexus LS400 with 8 times the horsepower and torque, the transition to a fuel sipper has been jarring!
So far, I've just driven it to work and back. My MPG since purchasing - 150 miles total - is at a pathetically low 60.7mpg but I'm working on my driving techniques and the vehicle's condition to get that figure up to the 70s and 80s.
The first thing I did when I got the car was disconnect the 12v battery to let the IMA recalibrate itself. When I did this, I got IMA assist and regen back online. Next, I pressed up the tires (Bridgestone RE92s) to 51lbs, front and back. The front tires are in excellent shape with 70-80 percent tread remaining, but the rears were bald on the shoulders. The next day, I found that one of the tires had shorn off the tread on the left side of the tire, leaving me running on polyester cords. This caused me to panic, as everywhere I looked had the Bridgestone RE92s on triple secret backorder with NO ETA on when they'd be available again.. or if they'd be available again. I tracked down a Firestone dealer that had ONE RE92 in stock that fit the car, and immediately drove the car down there to get that tire installed to replace the broken one. I'll go back tomorrow morning to see if they can find me one to replace the other bald rear tire; then I'll be a little more comfortable on that end.
Overall, I'm very happy with the car. I've connected my Scangauge to it and use that judiciously to help monitor the water temperature, TPS reading and instantaneous MPG. I've noticed that the Scangauge's MPG reading is a good 5 to 20mpg lower than the bar readout on the Insight's gauge cluster. I'm sure that the Insight's gauge cluster is probably more accurate, but I'll go by the Scangauge's readings for now.
I've got a lot of things to learn about the car and a lot of questions to ask, but I'm a veteran forum-er and know the power of the mighty Search button, so I won't be posting any questions that I know can be answered by creative searching and my knowledge of auto mechanics from the past.

Overall I'm thrilled to be a new Insight owner and love driving the car. It's like I'm playing a video game when I drive this car! It's like the car was made just for me. Tight steering, auto-FAS (although I wish it did the FAS at lower engine temps), regenerative braking, a great support community, eco-minded design, and superlative hand-build Japanese quality at its best.

My immediate plans for the car are:
1) Replace the one remaining bald tire with a genuine Bridgestone RE92 tire, after reading the stories of losing 10MPG with a non-factory tire, I'm dead-set against anything other than the RE92.
2) Clean the EGR plate to help the car get to a base level of engine performance;
3) Remove the fuel injectors and have them professionally cleaned, blueprinted and balanced;
4) A grille or radiator block-off to speed the warm-up and keep the motor warm - I will use the Scangauge to monitor temperatures constantly;
5) Replace the incredibly bad stock head unit with some sort of aftermarket stereo HU
6) Replace the foam steering wheel with a leather unit from an S2000, which, as I understand, is a complete bolt-in replacement that allows me to reuse the OE airbag
7) MT fluid exchange with fresh... something? BG Synchro II, auto trans fluid, Redline lightweight, Honda MTF.... still not sure what to try, I've got synchros that grind when downshifting into 2nd and first.


Later on, I'm going to want to learn about the MIMA system, the BetterBattery or other battery tech including Prius sub-packs or even some sort of Li-Ion solution in the future, some sound deadening, and.. well, the list can go on forever, right?

[Willie Williford]

Welcome to the forum. Glad to see that you did your "homework" before purchasing.
If I remember right, you have to make sure the scangauge is set on "hybrid" before the mpg is accurate. (Because of the idle stop.)
Something about tank capacity or engine size will also vary the amount also comes into my memory bank.
HTH
Willie

[RedJellyBean]

Originally Posted by Willie Williford

Welcome to the forum. Glad to see that you did your "homework" before purchasing.
If I remember right, you have to make sure the scangauge is set on "hybrid" before the mpg is accurate. (Because of the idle stop.)
Something about tank capacity or engine size will also vary the amount also comes into my memory bank.
HTH
Willie

Thanks Willie. The Scangauge is set on Hybrid, the tank size is set at 11 gallons and the engine size is set at 1.0 liters. I figured that beyond these initial parameters, I would need to simply calibrate a little bit through each fill-up, although it'll take a long time for me to actually need to fill up the tank

[Need4Speed]

The "search" pulldown in the upper right sucks, use the google searce in the upper left corner, works a lot better for finding stuff.

[racer26]

Tank size on the I1 is 10.6 gal. That may be the source of your error right there.

[Eli]

Welcome to the club!

IMO it's silly to try and use the Scangauge to track things like fuel economy. It will never be as accurate as the FCD since it's unaware of lean burn. I use it to tell me more about the car - TPS, IAT, ECT, etc.

If you're a Scangauge type person, look into the OBDIIC&C Gauge, designed and built here by forum members. It's Insight-specific, and a work in progress, but I can't stress how empowering knowing IMA specific parameters is, especially if you're a numbers person.

You will enjoy the car much, much more with IMA assist working. It makes a profound difference in the way the car feels.

Please post questions. I mean, there is certainly nothing wrong with searching, but I've found that a lot of the old posts here are cringe worthy. The knowledge base regarding these cars is ever evolving.. To get the most current information, you need to post.

[jerrydelrey]

Welcome to the Forum. Yeah this is a Fun Fun car in it's own way...

[RedJellyBean]

Originally Posted by racer26

Tank size on the I1 is 10.6 gal. That may be the source of your error right there.

The ScanGauge does gallon increments, I think.

Originally Posted by Eli

Welcome to the club!

IMO it's silly to try and use the Scangauge to track things like fuel economy. It will never be as accurate as the FCD since it's unaware of lean burn. I use it to tell me more about the car - TPS, IAT, ECT, etc.

If you're a Scangauge type person, look into the OBDIIC&C Gauge, designed and built here by forum members. It's Insight-specific, and a work in progress, but I can't stress how empowering knowing IMA specific parameters is, especially if you're a numbers person.

You will enjoy the car much, much more with IMA assist working. It makes a profound difference in the way the car feels.

Please post questions. I mean, there is certainly nothing wrong with searching, but I've found that a lot of the old posts here are cringe worthy. The knowledge base regarding these cars is ever evolving.. To get the most current information, you need to post.

Thanks Eli. I'm interested in the OBDII C&C gauge, but I'm kind of put off by having to solder the microchips onto a PCB, and source a screen, and solder that on... Can't the community come up with an Android program instead, linked to OBD via BlueTooth?
The IMA is functional, it came online once I reset the battery. The code was P1449, maybe brought on by a previous driver's poor storage habits, leaving the car alone for a long time (ex-Navy previous owner), driving it like a conventional car, etc. I drive the car very, very gingerly. I would have taken it to the dealer and started yelling about in-service dates and such, but with 260,000 miles, there's no chance in heaven that there is any warranty for my car whatsoever!

[Eli]

I'm offering a plug and play kit, so there's no need to solder anything unless you want to.

Something like that may be available at some point. I agree that would be spectacular. I'm a big fan of wireless stuff, myself..

That's good. Not to be pessimistic, but don't expect the IMA light to stay away indefinitely. Driving the car the way you do will go a long way towards extending the usable life of the battery, but without grid charging or other external intervention, the battery will continue to deteriorate and it's only a matter of time before the light comes back. Just being honest so you don't have any surprises.

[Balboa]

60mpg is good. too many factors that determine mpg so you cant really compare it to what other people get. i found out on long distances i can get high 60s but my normal stop and go commutes are 55mpg.