Hi,
Copied and added to, from the hybrid group message:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hon ... sage/13343
and a picture at:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/hon ... arlift.jpg
You will see that there is No paint, even the grey primer was wearen down where the rubber cone from the axel hits the car body stub. It was crushing it all the time.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The mod took me 4 hours total, cost $13, 4 bolts to remove. I had to figure out what to do once things where removed and it is why such time. Else it would have taken me about 2 hours. You really need two jacks for an easy installation.
Donut material: I used plastic plank used to build deck or porch floor. It is a replacement to wood. 1 inch thick, 6 inches wide and usually 8 foot long but I bought a 4 foot long($13). The plastic is entirely from recycle and is filled (no special core).
I used that a while back to jack my 1920 wood made house(center on posts), 3 inch square and 24000 pounds of pressure per post
For each spacer I drilled a hole with a 2 inch hole saw. The type to make a hole to install a handle to a door. With a Dremel tool, I made the hole conic to fit the Insight body tube (2 3/8 one side and 2 3/4 the other side if I remember). Then cut the outside circle with a jigsaw to make the donut spacer. Sanded to look nice. Do two of those. Then clean all the plastic particules in the room (lots)
Once fitted to the body tube, the existing rubber centering ring on top of the spring was a little loose because of the lower position. I cut a strip of plastic from a RubberMaid box to put between the body tube and the rubber ring. This keeps it and the spring in the center. The strip is an arc to fit nicely (use paper to figure out the shape). It was about a foot long and 1 inch wide with the arc around 6 inch.
All pieces (spacer and strip) only have compression forces, nothing moves.
Insight work (See Service manual page 18-26):
- Jack the body of the car. Remove the rear wheels
- Put a jack under each side of the rear suspension beam
- Remove the lower bolt holding the shock.
Remove the bolt from the clip holding the
brake line in the middle of the suspension beam.
- Lower the axels so that the spring is free and you remove it from
the car
- Put the newly made spacers, plastic strips, original rubber centering rings, springs and jack both side of the axel. Put the 4 bolts back. And wheels. Voila.
It was easy and wish I had thought about it before. My wife does not drive and is usually never aware of car issues but she did feel a big difference in comfort. That to me is the best indicatorthat is was necessary.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The spacer only needs to not be loose on the stub. If I had to do it again, I would make the spacer about 1/4 inch larger than the original rubber centering ring.
2) The tires I found where at Costco, they asked for $109 per tires, was your price lower than that?
EDIT ADDED
Tell me if you need more, I could email directly to you if needed.