[florida_gators]

Last October I bought a used Insight with low mileage that had been previously driven by an older man in rural Ohio. Needless to say, for a 2000 it is in excellent condition.

I have to merge from the left onto an interstate right downtown in Indianapolis during rush hour to the 50 mph speed limit (where most people on the interstate I am merging onto are averaging 70 mph). Also, by my home there is another ramp that merges from the right onto a 55 mph zone. Both are somewhat sharply uphill. In order to take the load off the battery, I leave the car in 2nd until I reach around 40 mph (and sometimes 45), especially when merging from the left in order to be around the flow of traffic when I merge. After reaching 40-45 mph, I shift directly into 5th. I accelerate fairly rapidly in 2nd, not quite flooring it, but enough to where I am not causing cars to be waiting behind me. The rpm's go up between 4 and 5 K (most of the time closer to 4). I NEVER go over 5, and of course never reach the red zone over 6.

Am I being too hard on the engine, or is the car designed for this? By the time I hit 40 mph, the engine is working pretty hard, but it is still within the acceptable range in terms of rpm's. I like to accelerate as quickly as possible in order to stay with the flow of traffic. Thanks! I just don't want to lead my Insight to a premature death.

Rob

 

[Guest]

Hi Florida_Gators:

___I believe you are but most here will probably say it’s OK? I merge onto the Chicago tollway system and I most certainly am not running my little beauty at 4K through second and into fifth. Straight up 1-2-3-4-5 w/out assist and hit the roadway at ~ 50 – 55 mph for the merge. The right lane you are merging into is not doing 70 mph except for the few idiots that do that sort of thing. If so, merge in behind them, not in front of them.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:3gtvxl7s][email protected][/email:3gtvxl7s]

 

[rsalmon]

xcel
I think what Rob was talking about was merging from the left directly into the fast lane(from the left side). That's the way the road is made in several places in Indianapolis.

been there, done that.

Must be talking about the 65-70 split

Good oil, warm engine, IMO should be ok

 

[The Citrus Smoothie]

Ditto. No harm will be done to the engine by revving it, as long as it is warmed up.

 

[james]

I think the big problem here, if I understood you correctly, is merging at 50 into traffic going 70. You're runnning a far higher risk of serious collision damage than you are of harming the engine. Step on it a bit harder

 

[Guillermo]

Like those above mentioned, make sure the engine is warm already when you start screaming the engine. For you safety push the pedal to the floor and shift at 5500 RPM.
Remember that the Insight produces 73 HP only at 5700 RPM!

I have redlined between 6000 to 6200 RPM for 1 or 2 seconds at a time about 50 times by now during auto-x racing.
Our engines have a form of V-Tech that kicks in above 3500 RPM.

 

[Rick]

Shout, your nice to yours if anything. I will admit I accidentally grabbed 2nd at 75mph once before and it didn't seem to do anything (2nd hits the rev limiter at 72mph), of course I only ended up slowing down more for a brief moment. Just try and keep it under 4 grand until it's warmed up properly. You can feel the Vtec kick in at 4K if you play with it.

 

[figgy]

For short merges I usually stay in 2nd to go from what is often 10-20 mph on an on ramp to 55-60 on the freeway. Most everywhere I have to do a fast merge the right lane traffic is under 70, so I have never had a problem staying in 2nd.

If I can get up to faster speed on the on ramp, then I may be in 3rd already when I need to merge with the freeway traffic. It all depends upon traffic and the merge set-up.

If I have time and space, I upshift a lot sooner.

Anyway, I have never felt that staying in second until 60+ was causing any harm. I probably haven't ever been over 65 in 2nd, however.

My worst merge is 156 onto 101 North, where it is short just after a tight ramp turn where you can't see anything and there are a lot of trucks going fast and almost always a lot of traffic. Often there are enough cars in a line on the ramp that you start from almost a full stop. Pretty much everywhere else is reasonable compared to that (although some SLO merges onto 101 are the shortest things I have ever seen).

Of course, when the turbo is in I will just use warp speed and bypass all the congestion. :roll:

 

[Guest]

Hi All:

___I guess I am the lucky one living in Chicago and never having to surpass 2,500 RPM in the Insight while merging onto I94 off of route 132, the I94/294 merge southbound, I294/I55 merge, as well as getting into the left 3 lanes for three I-Pass tollbooths and back into the far right lanes as well as doing it all over on the flip side. Maybe all Chicago drivers are different then everywhere else? 5,500 RPM and full IMA assist? Not in my lifetime will the little beauty ever be pressed into that kind of service.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:27nxb9t2][email protected][/email:27nxb9t2]

 

[figgy]

Maybe it is the California style merges where they design them so that everyone getting on and everyone getting off all share the same single lane so that there are people exiting in the same 1 inch of roadway left for you to try to enter. Not to mention that some of these exits are for about 4 different roads, so people are criss crossing all over the place to jockey for the position for their end lane up ahead.

I would rather not die, or cause others to die, so if I have to hit the gas, that is life. It is always a bummer if you are having a good trip to spoil it this way, but safety always comes first for me. Oh well...

 

[Guest]

Hi Figgy:

___Not that I haven’t said this a hundred times, what does the loaded 18-wheeler merging on that same on-ramp do given he has a 0 - 60 time of somewhere around 45 seconds at best? I guess you must lose 10 to 20,000 drivers a day due to all the accidents that happen in California at those on-ramps because of those damn slow truck drivers … Where do the morgues keep all of the bodies? Better yet, since there are Insight’s, HCH’s, Prius I’s, and Prius II’s filling the junk yards because they were smashed at the merges, maybe we have a good source for relatively new battery packs! I guess the CHP just throws the hundreds of smashed Geo Metro’s off the nearest cliff to dispose of the carnage given how fast those things are?

___Oh, I get it now. The 18-wheeler’s don’t actually merge onto California highways, they only merge in NM, NV, and OR on there way to CA. Once there, Scotty beams them onto the highway at 55 mph

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:1ymcekcp][email protected][/email:1ymcekcp]

 

[Yves M.]

Wayne-xcel, calm down. People are expressing their concerns and driving their Insights as any other car. The Insight was built to do it, no problem there.

 

[Guest]

Hi Yves:

___Yes, I should tone her down a bit. Sorry to the group …

___With that, care to bet how long an Insight or whatever you drive that has never seen south of 2,500 RPM (well I did see it once ) will last vs. those running on-ramps at 4 - 5.5K all the time? Think of the fuel burned in doing so! I merge at 50 - 55 mph here in Chicago when traffic is heavy every day no matter the car I am driving. With little to no traffic, I will merge at 40 - 45 mph. I know it can be done in the California’s as late as August of last year when I was driving the 101, 99, and the I5. I know it can also be done on the 17 and 10 in and around Phoenix. I cannot speak for that many other cities around the country as I have not driven in them recently but for the most part, people drive similarly around the country in my experience and running any automobile like you are late for your own funeral is a waste of resources no matter what car you drive. And yes, I am just as guilty as the next guy if not more so but at least I am trying …

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___[email:2ktcruue][email protected][/email:2ktcruue]

 

[figgy]

I think that a semi-truck that takes 45 seconds to get to 60 gains the right of way of pretty much everything else on the road and all he has to do is turn on his blinker and drive. He also has no option of going much faster, because of the laws of physics.

It only takes one bad merge for you to cause an accident for someone else or yourself.

In my mind a major part of being a RESPONSIBLE driver is to drive to reduce the number of dangerous situations not increase them. If you are not merging well, you are putting others in danger not just yourself.

Contact the CHP for stories about accidents caused by bad merges, and you will get a bellyful.

How much do you value your own fuel economy vs. the live's and health of others is your own choice.

Like it or not you share the roads, and you must always remember that.

 

[Dougie]

not blowing up clutch

One thing you should NOT do is donwshift into a gear at a speed higher than the speed that represents redline for that gear--if you see what I mean. The reason is that when you do this, the input shaft of the gearbox spins up to whatever speed the engine would need to be going, which can blow up the clutch. This applies to any manual transmission car.

AFIK, modern Japanese engines (probably American ones too) can be run up to the rev limiter without damage, although there is a bit more wear if you do this regularly.

 

[figgy]

That sounds like a good way wreck any car!

 

[james]

"In my mind a major part of being a RESPONSIBLE driver is to drive to reduce the number of dangerous situations not increase them."

Exactly what I was going to say. Sure, in the vast majority of cases where you do the slow merge (or cut in front of someone, jam on the brakes for no particular reason, or do whatever other dumb and/or inconsiderate thing you feel like doing) the other driver(s) manage to react and avoid you, and nothing happens beyond a little wasted gas & burned rubber, and a slight increase in the level of free-floating hostility. But that one time in 10,000 or so, you get crunched.

As to gas savings, think about it. You maybe saved a little, but does it outweigh what everyone else burned by having to brake for you, then accelerate again?

 

[Calpod]

Xcel, Figgy, James

I think every one should drive their vehicles not just to get to your destination, but to enjoy the drive.

Mileage is important but safety IS first, if Xcel can get away driving slow, and He feels is safe, well, you don't drive his route every day, he knows it a lot better than we do, on the other hand Xcel does not drive in California every day so he doesn't know what we have to deal here on a daily basis.

I for one, try to get up to speed as quick as I can, when I get on the freeway every morning it's about 2 miles and it's a steep hill, you cannot baby the car going uphill, I've tried it and almost get ran over by a semi once. so I just floor it until I merge, at that time I'm doing about 60.

My drive in the morning is about 10 miles on city streets, I reset my trip segment every morning, the highest mileage I ever got on the first 10 miles was in the high 90's, but when I get on the freeway it will drop me back to the 70's or even 60's, eventually I will recover and end up in the mid 80's.

My lifetime average is lower than I'd like to see but I have to say I do enjoy driving my car, I've driven it at over 100 MPH and I also have got over 100 MPG many times (not at the same time)

I can tell you, when your mileage is over 100 MPG you feel on top of the world, you know there is nothing out there that can even come close.

 

[b1shmu63]

The first thing they teach you when learning to be a pilot is that the most important task is to.........fly the plane.

Personally I seldom hit the red line. I drive for mileage most of the time.

That said;

If you never exceed 2500 RPM you may develop a ridge in the wall of the cylinder. Eventually this ridge will become a barrier limiting your maximum safe RPM. (That is why proper break in proceedure calls for varying the RPM.)

Most of the wear occurs when the engine is first started due to a lack of lubrication that allows metal to metal contact. Use synthetic oil to prevent this.

Based on hearsay, I have concluded that it is almost impossible to destroy a Honda engine. The one case I know of was from 25 years ago when I a fellow I knew blew a high mileage 70s Civic engine by driving it at the redline for hours at a time for many months. This fellow thought he owned an F1 car. :roll: I don't know if he ever changed the oil!

If you want enjoy your Insight for decades, treat it respectfully, do maintenance regularly, use synthetic oil, and take care of your self too. :wink:

 

[JoeMultihuller]

Regarding cold-start, I was appalled when I first purchased my Insight that the darn thing immediately revs up to 2Krpm when starting from cold - I realize it is probably emissions-related, but I cringe every time this happens! Any way of having my baby NOT rev up that much? JoeS.