A Remote Starter......

[rethenut]

Has anyone installed a remote starter on their insight? I live in New England and it's already starting to get into the 20's! Burrrrrr! I would love it if I didn't have to run out in to the cold New England Morning in my bathorbe and bunny slippers (yes my neighbors are all still asleep, I'm a chemistry teacher) and start my car.

Can you help?!?

[Guillermo]

Idling the car to warm it up is the worst thing you can do to your engine. The engine takes a very long time to warm up while idling and most engine wear occurs during cold starts and until it is up to operating temperature. It is highly recommended that the car be driven within 20 seconds of starting in the coldest of temperatures.
Gently driving the car will bring the engine up to temperature much more quickly then idling that is why most owners manuals recommend this.
Not only does cold idling cause the most excessive engine wear condition but the car will produce excessive pollution and waste fuel.

The best way to prewarm a car is to use a 120V AC engine block heater with a timer so it prewarms the engine block for about 2 hours.

[b1shmu63]

The block heater will also improve your mileage.

[Yves M.]

To add to this "Has anyone installed a remote starter on their insight" maybe just for a minute before going into the car:

Are there other alternatives to electric block heaters (diesel,kerosene,...)? for when you are not near an electric outlet. Just in case someone had something else.

[Foxpaw]

In this thread:
http://www.insightcentral.net/forum/vie ... 62&start=0
Armin mentioned gasoline powered block heaters are popular in Europe. I've also heard that aircooled volkswagens used to have a gas-burning heater for winter use.

[Sparky5501]

I've also heard that aircooled volkswagens used to have a gas-burning heater for winter use.

You really don't want a Bendex heater in your Insight. They suck up the gas really fast. They are super nice, but so is warming your hands with a torchdown propane torch untill you get burned.

There are new versions of the old Bendex heaters available for Freightline trucks but they all run off of diesel and 24-48 volt systems.

If you want to warm the inside of the Insight best get an electric heater and then an electric block heater for the engine.

[Kevin Dougherty]

I installed a remote starter in my 5 speed a few years ago. It worked fine. Here's a link for further research

http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hon ... sage/10677

[rethenut]

Thanks for all your help folks! (and for also making me feel like a deviant school child :twisted: !) I will look into block heaters and such or just invest in a really heavy coat.