[Arsenic1250]

I have a blue insight, but I am observe astronomy, and am going to college to prepare to be a professional Astro-Physicist, and I go out on dirt roads a lot with my insight, and off roads a little bit, it has been handling really really good off road. I have a couple questions...

1) Does anyone know of any mods/add-ons I could do to make it a little more off-road friendly?

2) Does anyone know of a site/store(i live in orlando) that could make a custom plastic mat for the back/top of the trunk area?

3) I am in the pure dark all night, and my eyes adjsut to it, so when i get into my car, or go into for something, the interior lights always kill my eyes, I was able to replace the front interior lights to red ones, does anyone know where I could purchase a red bulb for the rear light, or know of a paint to make it red?

Thank You

 

[Guillermo]

For question #1, I suggest getting larger tires like:
185/60R14

 

[b1shmu63]

Adding spacers to the back suspension will raise the car up and make it less likely to bottom out the suspension. I presume you are trying to get away from the city lights?

 

[MikeF]

Sounds like you're a candidate for the long-promised Ford Escape Hybrid SUV. Car-based, so it's smaller, less tippy. I have no idea what the mpg would be, but it has to be an improvement over the ICE existing model (22/26 in base 4wd trim).

Won't match our Insights, but it has to be better off-road...

MF

 

[zenartist]

rear matt

I got a rubber universal rear suv matt from JC Whitney and then just cut it to fit with scissors works and looks great zen

 

[Arsenic1250]

yeah, lol light pollution here sucks, orlando lights up the whole sky. it actually drives great offroad, and has not bottomed out yet, and i went of a good 6-8in solid drop. handled great in the dirt. But yeah the suv gets about 30 mpg and is a v6, but unfort. between buying equipment for astronomy, and being a full-time student i can't afford the Ford SUV.


I will def. look at the Universal matt(do/can you get a pick I would really like to see it.), and a quick question...

How much MPG suffering do you think the spacers, and bigger tires are going to cause?

 

[Yves M.]

Hi Arsenic,

I did the spacer thing and it had no effect on mpg, handling curves, braking or any other issue.

I did notice 3 things:
1) The added inch is used at the highest spring compression so it does a Big difference in bottoming out the rear. Once I put the spacers, i realized that most of the rear harchness I felt was simple bottomming out. Cause it did not seemed as rough anymore after.
2) I had to adjust the front lights. A 'x' screw driver and a wall is needed to realign the lights cause they where a little low after the mod. 2 minutes.
3) Looking back through the rear hatch was 1 inch higher so the view had changed a little

Replacing the OEM tires with any other brand/make will increase the fuel consumption.

A few weeks after I bought the car, I got the rear mat from Honda ($$) and it is heavy/rubberish. It did reduce the rear wheel noise from driving in the rain (water hitting the wheel well)

 

[Arsenic1250]

how do i install them?

 

[Yves M.]

Hi,

See the messages related to, I suppose that you are in the Yahoo Hybrid group:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hon ... sage/13343

And the image is at:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hon ... arlift.jpg

Tell me if you need more

 

[Arsenic1250]

i am looking on ebay, and there are a lot of spacer kits. Which one should I be looking at.

 

[Yves M.]

HI,

Looking at what I found (Jeep,Dodge,..) there is a good chance that the spacers are too big and are pricy ($55 to 120$). at:
http://search.ebaymotors.com/search/sea ... sicSearch=
The insight is about 3 inch in diameter.

There is also a good chance that if the spacer fits the coil, it will be loose on the body's stub. So some fitting will be required.

It is almost necessary of making them custom to the car.

One thing is sure to me: Spacers that go between coils are bad (break, move,
useless as the coils do not move that much in relation to the spring
compression) and the spacers that work are the ones on top of the spring as
the give the exact lift.