Hi,
I live in North Devon, in the UK, and I'm an active 70 years old. I joined a little before buying, and have enjoyed browsing the forum over the last few years, having long since known I wanted an Insight, but seen prices steadily rise as I became steadily poorer!
But yesterday I arrived home with my new-to-me 2001 manual Insight!
It was reasonably priced, at £2,000, with a mixture of strengths and weaknesses - and bright greenish yellow, which delights my friends and neighbours, but appals my two sisters who live somewhat further away.
It had been owned by the same person since she bought it as a demonstrator at 9,000 miles. It had done barely 75,000 miles. It has its original battery. There was a worry of its clutch slave cylinder being faulty (but apparently it could just about be driven. I grew up with pre-synchro gearboxes, and am fairly cheerful about doing without the clutch if need be).
Its 12V battery was flat and needed charging.
A little later I learned that the windows were not working, and one of the rear wheel spats was not very well secured.
When I arrived it was running, but had apparently recently stalled, and then been reluctant to restart (a bit of a worry if you've 100 miles to go with no clutch!). And the clutch was no longer pumping up...
When I opened the clutch reservoir cap it was clear that the fluid had gone below the level needed. So I got some fluid and topped it up, and bade the owner pump away and see what happened. The fluid level went down only a little, and it was quite a while before a bit of clutch appeared with the pedal near the floor. Still, it was enough to move the car around, and she took me for a short spin in first and second gear. Everything sounded ok, and the car felt quite solid, so I agreed to pay the £2,000 asking price, and we went to take lunch and to pass over the money. A very enjoyable lunch!
Before too long I was on my way, with an ex-wife in convoy.
The clutch was still jolly tricky, and the unfamiliar car accentuated this. My usual full throttle in high gear technique didn't work well, and I was sometimes trailing, then suddenly catching up.
Compounding the difficulty with the clutch was the incredible silence of the engine. In fact road noise was almost all I heard. The driver's window worked immediately - I guessed that it had simply been the lack of charge in the battery which prevented it earlier - but it was not until today that I discovered about the master switch for the passenger door window (after looking it up on the forum!) It moved a bit sluggishly, suggesting that it had not been working for a while.
As we got near home the road crosses an old WW2 aerodrome, and with plenty of room I decided to overtake - partly so that my colleague could have a look to see that the car was running true etc. I zoomed past in second gear, and then just as I went to change into third the engine cut.
At first I thought it must have been a cut-out - I'd exceeded whatever the rev limit was. But as the engine caught again the instrument panel had a lot of new information. A yellow engine icon, a red battery icon, an IMA warning, a suddenly vanished main battery, and no recharging going on on over-run.
The battery, although original, seemed to have been showing all the signs of robust health up to then. Not long after setting off it was showing 19 bars, and a prolonged accelerate would only pull it down a bar or two. And it had stayed up, mostly on 18 bars, occasionally on 19 or on 17. But now, nothing.
It was raining, so I had headlights on and was intermittently using the wipers. I turned the lights down to side only, but I still thought the wipers were going slow. So I minimised their use as well as I could, and hurried on, hoping to make it home before it all went dark. I'd no idea what the yellow engine icon meant, but there were no horrible noises coming from the engine, the temperature was still normal and nothing seemed to suggest oil pressure trouble, so I thought on balance it was a fair gamble to try and make it.
Well, I made it. Some friends were there, and as I stepped out and admired my new car the general feeling seemed to be that this was a thoroughly suitable car for me!
It was by then evening, so time to eat, but not much good for doing anything - and I needed to think first, anyway...
The clutch had lost no more fluid, so I reckoned that bleeding it would probably get it going to the point where I could take it for an MoT, though probably a new cylinder, at £50 or so was going to be needed soon.
As to the electrical problems, I guessed that there must have been some kind of short, which cut the engine by dropping the voltage to the ignition before blowing a fuse, and stopping the battery from charging.
So first thing this morning I detached the negative terminal from the battery (for fear that connecting a charger might otherwise do something dangerous) and set it to charge. Then, after a spell of cleaning and rubbish-collecting, and hunting in vain for the promised handbook, and eventually finding the (unused) tools and jack, I had a look at the fuses. The 50 amp fuse looked as though it might have blown, so I took it out and put a meter across it. Nothing wrong with it, so it went back in.
By now the battery was up and I thought I might as well start the engine. In with the key, but nothing. So I reconnected the battery negative lead!
Started up cheerfully enough. No yellow engine icon, no red battery icon, no IMA light. But no main battery, either. But after a minute or two charge appeared. This progressed up to four bars, but then the charging stopped. I've a bit of an idea that it wasn't until I was out on the road that the main battery got fully charged yesterday, but I'm not sure. Whatever, nothing I did got me green charging bars or any extra charge displayed.
So, off around the car to look at some other things which might be a concern for the MoT. Pretty soon noticed a subtle bulge in one of the front tyre sidewalls. Not a welcome sight, but then I found that what looked like the best-value tyres at the moment, the Goodyears, could be had for £45 or so. The rears are Pirelli 3000's, and they look ok. The Goodyears were rated same as the Pirellis for rolling resistance, but the Pirellis were a little noisier, and somewhat costlier.
Also the flaky attachment of the wheel spat proved to be that both spats were secured by cable ties, but the bad one sat a bit low, so its tongues weren't all secure in their slots. Further, the spat had come off at some point recently, and it had become a good deal disimproved. Part of the black section at the bottom had broken off, and the top edge looked as though it had been dragged along the road, so it was rounded, and a bit short of full size at one end.
I gather these are not available new, so I may have to figure a way to repair it..?
I checked out the unused spare, and marvelled at the dry and pristine boot - I hadn't realised there was an invisible luggage compartment! The aluminium floor and sides have seam sealer over the lines where they meet, but the sealer has no paint over it. I suddenly realised that the metal had been treated as aircraft parts are in preparation for epoxy-bonding. Is this how the Insight was assembled?
Also, the inner wing on one side looked to be a bit shortened, as though it had been struck from behind, but the seam-sealer and the greeny-grey coating was intact, so I guess this was just a sign of hand-made assembly.
Very useful to be able to download a handbook, although not as handy on the screen as in book form.
As to the workshop manual, this is helpful, of course, but hard to use, being made up of lots of small files, with no indexing and no page numbers for me to know how to assemble it together as a single file (as I have, under a different hat, for all the classic Citroën manuals, Parts lists etc.)
But a good start, I think!
Any suggestions as to what I should be looking for in the light of events?
Best regards, Tony J.
I live in North Devon, in the UK, and I'm an active 70 years old. I joined a little before buying, and have enjoyed browsing the forum over the last few years, having long since known I wanted an Insight, but seen prices steadily rise as I became steadily poorer!
But yesterday I arrived home with my new-to-me 2001 manual Insight!
It was reasonably priced, at £2,000, with a mixture of strengths and weaknesses - and bright greenish yellow, which delights my friends and neighbours, but appals my two sisters who live somewhat further away.
It had been owned by the same person since she bought it as a demonstrator at 9,000 miles. It had done barely 75,000 miles. It has its original battery. There was a worry of its clutch slave cylinder being faulty (but apparently it could just about be driven. I grew up with pre-synchro gearboxes, and am fairly cheerful about doing without the clutch if need be).
Its 12V battery was flat and needed charging.
A little later I learned that the windows were not working, and one of the rear wheel spats was not very well secured.
When I arrived it was running, but had apparently recently stalled, and then been reluctant to restart (a bit of a worry if you've 100 miles to go with no clutch!). And the clutch was no longer pumping up...
When I opened the clutch reservoir cap it was clear that the fluid had gone below the level needed. So I got some fluid and topped it up, and bade the owner pump away and see what happened. The fluid level went down only a little, and it was quite a while before a bit of clutch appeared with the pedal near the floor. Still, it was enough to move the car around, and she took me for a short spin in first and second gear. Everything sounded ok, and the car felt quite solid, so I agreed to pay the £2,000 asking price, and we went to take lunch and to pass over the money. A very enjoyable lunch!
Before too long I was on my way, with an ex-wife in convoy.
The clutch was still jolly tricky, and the unfamiliar car accentuated this. My usual full throttle in high gear technique didn't work well, and I was sometimes trailing, then suddenly catching up.
Compounding the difficulty with the clutch was the incredible silence of the engine. In fact road noise was almost all I heard. The driver's window worked immediately - I guessed that it had simply been the lack of charge in the battery which prevented it earlier - but it was not until today that I discovered about the master switch for the passenger door window (after looking it up on the forum!) It moved a bit sluggishly, suggesting that it had not been working for a while.
As we got near home the road crosses an old WW2 aerodrome, and with plenty of room I decided to overtake - partly so that my colleague could have a look to see that the car was running true etc. I zoomed past in second gear, and then just as I went to change into third the engine cut.
At first I thought it must have been a cut-out - I'd exceeded whatever the rev limit was. But as the engine caught again the instrument panel had a lot of new information. A yellow engine icon, a red battery icon, an IMA warning, a suddenly vanished main battery, and no recharging going on on over-run.
The battery, although original, seemed to have been showing all the signs of robust health up to then. Not long after setting off it was showing 19 bars, and a prolonged accelerate would only pull it down a bar or two. And it had stayed up, mostly on 18 bars, occasionally on 19 or on 17. But now, nothing.
It was raining, so I had headlights on and was intermittently using the wipers. I turned the lights down to side only, but I still thought the wipers were going slow. So I minimised their use as well as I could, and hurried on, hoping to make it home before it all went dark. I'd no idea what the yellow engine icon meant, but there were no horrible noises coming from the engine, the temperature was still normal and nothing seemed to suggest oil pressure trouble, so I thought on balance it was a fair gamble to try and make it.
Well, I made it. Some friends were there, and as I stepped out and admired my new car the general feeling seemed to be that this was a thoroughly suitable car for me!
It was by then evening, so time to eat, but not much good for doing anything - and I needed to think first, anyway...
The clutch had lost no more fluid, so I reckoned that bleeding it would probably get it going to the point where I could take it for an MoT, though probably a new cylinder, at £50 or so was going to be needed soon.
As to the electrical problems, I guessed that there must have been some kind of short, which cut the engine by dropping the voltage to the ignition before blowing a fuse, and stopping the battery from charging.
So first thing this morning I detached the negative terminal from the battery (for fear that connecting a charger might otherwise do something dangerous) and set it to charge. Then, after a spell of cleaning and rubbish-collecting, and hunting in vain for the promised handbook, and eventually finding the (unused) tools and jack, I had a look at the fuses. The 50 amp fuse looked as though it might have blown, so I took it out and put a meter across it. Nothing wrong with it, so it went back in.
By now the battery was up and I thought I might as well start the engine. In with the key, but nothing. So I reconnected the battery negative lead!
Started up cheerfully enough. No yellow engine icon, no red battery icon, no IMA light. But no main battery, either. But after a minute or two charge appeared. This progressed up to four bars, but then the charging stopped. I've a bit of an idea that it wasn't until I was out on the road that the main battery got fully charged yesterday, but I'm not sure. Whatever, nothing I did got me green charging bars or any extra charge displayed.
So, off around the car to look at some other things which might be a concern for the MoT. Pretty soon noticed a subtle bulge in one of the front tyre sidewalls. Not a welcome sight, but then I found that what looked like the best-value tyres at the moment, the Goodyears, could be had for £45 or so. The rears are Pirelli 3000's, and they look ok. The Goodyears were rated same as the Pirellis for rolling resistance, but the Pirellis were a little noisier, and somewhat costlier.
Also the flaky attachment of the wheel spat proved to be that both spats were secured by cable ties, but the bad one sat a bit low, so its tongues weren't all secure in their slots. Further, the spat had come off at some point recently, and it had become a good deal disimproved. Part of the black section at the bottom had broken off, and the top edge looked as though it had been dragged along the road, so it was rounded, and a bit short of full size at one end.
I gather these are not available new, so I may have to figure a way to repair it..?
I checked out the unused spare, and marvelled at the dry and pristine boot - I hadn't realised there was an invisible luggage compartment! The aluminium floor and sides have seam sealer over the lines where they meet, but the sealer has no paint over it. I suddenly realised that the metal had been treated as aircraft parts are in preparation for epoxy-bonding. Is this how the Insight was assembled?
Also, the inner wing on one side looked to be a bit shortened, as though it had been struck from behind, but the seam-sealer and the greeny-grey coating was intact, so I guess this was just a sign of hand-made assembly.
Very useful to be able to download a handbook, although not as handy on the screen as in book form.
As to the workshop manual, this is helpful, of course, but hard to use, being made up of lots of small files, with no indexing and no page numbers for me to know how to assemble it together as a single file (as I have, under a different hat, for all the classic Citroën manuals, Parts lists etc.)
But a good start, I think!
Any suggestions as to what I should be looking for in the light of events?
Best regards, Tony J.