Well, after hearing the engine knock last year I pretty much gave up on this 2000 Insight. The one that keeps blowing head gaskets, the one I replaced most parts on, only to have the deep sounds of a bottom end bearing pop up.
I was so disgusted that I pulled the tags, returned them, and parked it for the winter, planning on having it junked in the spring. Still, for whatever reason I would go out every 2 months and plug in the traction battery charger to get the cells up from the 140's to the mid 160's.
So now it's spring and I figured it was time to go. Last week I started by charging up the 12v battery, then the traction pack to 171 volts this morning, then got in to fire it up and see if I could move it. Still noisy, sad, etc. Took it up the driveway and around the block for a last drive and noticed something odd.
The sound changed with RPM, but not engine load. Lugging the engine should have made the bearings work harder and rattle more, yet it was about the same. Odd.
Pulled it in and decided to dump the oil to find the bearing chunks. Odd, oil looked clean and dropping a strong magnet in it didn't pull up shards or shavings. Hm. On a lark I put in 2 quarts of new oil, fired it up, same rattling noises. As a last ditch thing I pulled the accessory belt off the water pump and AC compressor, then fired it up for a moment.
No sound. Sounds like a little sewing machine. I could only run it for a minute, but odd.
Bearing on the idler pulley looks fine, checked the pulley sheaves on the AC compressor, no freeplay. The water pump is a bit loose, but I replaced it with an OEM model 3 years ago.
I wonder if it's bad.
So in the "why not throw good money after bad" category, are the OEM pumps for $30-$40 junk and if so is it worth the $200 bucks or so for a genuine Honda part?
CZ
I was so disgusted that I pulled the tags, returned them, and parked it for the winter, planning on having it junked in the spring. Still, for whatever reason I would go out every 2 months and plug in the traction battery charger to get the cells up from the 140's to the mid 160's.
So now it's spring and I figured it was time to go. Last week I started by charging up the 12v battery, then the traction pack to 171 volts this morning, then got in to fire it up and see if I could move it. Still noisy, sad, etc. Took it up the driveway and around the block for a last drive and noticed something odd.
The sound changed with RPM, but not engine load. Lugging the engine should have made the bearings work harder and rattle more, yet it was about the same. Odd.
Pulled it in and decided to dump the oil to find the bearing chunks. Odd, oil looked clean and dropping a strong magnet in it didn't pull up shards or shavings. Hm. On a lark I put in 2 quarts of new oil, fired it up, same rattling noises. As a last ditch thing I pulled the accessory belt off the water pump and AC compressor, then fired it up for a moment.
No sound. Sounds like a little sewing machine. I could only run it for a minute, but odd.
Bearing on the idler pulley looks fine, checked the pulley sheaves on the AC compressor, no freeplay. The water pump is a bit loose, but I replaced it with an OEM model 3 years ago.
I wonder if it's bad.
So in the "why not throw good money after bad" category, are the OEM pumps for $30-$40 junk and if so is it worth the $200 bucks or so for a genuine Honda part?
CZ
