Starting to REALLY dislike my Insight

3478 Views 16 Replies 9 Participants Last post by gorhamgreg, Jun 22, 2006

kookmyers

Discussion Starter · Jul 7, 2005

Hi all. 2000 Manual, less than 60k miles. not the original owner. LMPG about 54 but i have been getting about 62 for my ownership.

The car is running very bad these days. i am not sure if herky jerky really encompases the whole picture. the battery seems to be OK as far as charging goes.
I will be driving along say 30 in 3rd. light pressure on gas. the car will then start to really jerk...enough to physically move myself and my wife back and forth in our seats. the rpm gauge is sitting there fluctuating up and down a couple of bars.
it will go away if i floor it (assist) or put the clutch in.
also, the car seems to be having a lot of difficulty with power. it seems to need the assist to go ANYWHERE. keeping the car at 65 on the freeway is a challenge, unless i want to be getting less than 50mpg.
tires are approx at 43-44psi (all 4) and are about 1 year old. the car has AC but we never use it.

i would hate to take it to the dealer and tell them to fix it when i have no clue what is wrong with it.

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devin1955

· #5 · Jul 9, 2005

What's the cost for the EGR valve, and how difficult a job is it to replace yourself?

I tried to find it on Majestic Honda's site, but couldn't.

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devin1955

· #8 · Jul 10, 2005

Re: EGR Valve

rsalmon said:
egr valve part # 3 is listed with the spool valve

Thank you! Never would have found it there. 200 bucks huh? Mine's starting
to buck a bit when I search for that "sweet spot" where you get the best
mileage, and I thought if the part was cheap enough I'd get one and do the
work myself, getting more familiar with the Insight engine compartment at
the same time. For that price though, I guess I'll take it back to the dealer as
I'm still under warranty.

Still, out of curiousity, how difficult a job is replacing the EGR valve?
Sometimes the simple jobs are made more difficult because there's a dozen
steps you have to accomplish before you get to the part you need to replace.

I need to get myself a maintanence manual.

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devin1955

· #11 · Jul 10, 2005

Re: EGR Valve

Insightful Trekker said:
2 nuts, easily accessible, 12 or 14 mm hex (sorry don't remember). But if your still learning the old mechanic's rhyme, "Righty tighty, lefty loosey" then you probably shouldn't try.

Well, I went off and read the 2 threads you quoted and at least one more I ran across. Looks like an easy job. I consider myself somewhat above average in the mechanical department, but still like to know what I'm getting myself into before I jump in if possible.

I saw reference to the new valve being about $125 delivered at hparts.com (which gives me a generic site) and at hondaparts.com (which doesn't exist). Majestic Honda is almost $200. Anybody know more about where the best price can be had?

Something else interesting. My jerkyness as only appeared recently. Doing some web searches I came across a Yahoo group where they're discussing this, and a couple people have noticed that the problem happened right about the time they started using Shell gasoline. *I* am on my 3rd tank of Shell premium gas. Interesting coincidence? I think I'll try filling up at a Chevron station next time just to see if that makes any difference at all...

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devin1955

· #12 · Jul 10, 2005

meow77 said:
why buy when you can just clean the thing and reuse it? I
cleaned mine eg.. with carb cleaner several times then let it soak in wd40 for
the night... good as new and I mean good as new.... do that instead saved
me 400 as they will charge you about 1.5hrs labour even though its really a
15 min job for them...

Yeah, I probably will try that. I was kinda hoping (never works out) that the
valve was pretty inexpensive. Also, there appears to be a theory that the
valves sold now are somehow different and don't suffer the same problem.
That would be nice, but since I don't even know for sure that my problem IS
the EGR valve, a cleaning first would probably be wise. If that fixes it for a
while, then the problem comes back, a new replacement might be justified.

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devin1955

· #14 · Sep 6, 2005

Re: EGR Valve

devin1955 said:
Something else interesting. My jerkyness as only appeared recently. Doing some web searches I came across a Yahoo group where they're discussing this, and a couple people have noticed that the problem happened right about the time they started using Shell gasoline. *I* am on my 3rd tank of Shell premium gas. Interesting coincidence? I think I'll try filling up at a Chevron station next time just to see if that makes any difference at all...

Update: I never did buy any Chevron gas, but I stopped using Shell. Now after 3 tanks worth of Arco, the bucking has all but stopped and old smoothness of my car is back again. No change in driving style. The bucking continued through the first couple tanks and within the last couple weeks it rapidly diminished.

Interesting huh?

I'm glad I didn't replace the valve!

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