Well, no maintenance stuff, but I drove to work with no inner passenger-side door panel. I had to take it out so I can do a speaker install, but I didn't get it finished up today. Who knows, might stay like that until the weekend!

 

I got gas.

10.040g @ $3.219/gal

531.0mi
53.3mpg(FCD)
52.9mpg(calculated)
245,044mi

 

Had my water pump, tensioner pulley, and serpentine belt replaced at 171,000 miles. No more wretched shrieking noise that made it sound like it was powered by an abused chimpanzee.

$531 was the bill. That's almost half the cost of the new head unit I want to upgrade to!

 

You could have replace those items yourself for less than $150 in parts. I'd look for a new mechanic as that job could be done in an hour.

 

Which part created the noise?
531...............Did you call the cops, you got robbed.

Willie

 

It was probably the tensioner pulley, but I don't positively know. Yes, that bill hurt. Oh well... I only paid $5400 for the car and haven't had it a year yet. I'm doing 10 hours of interstate driving this weekend and did not need to be concerned about anything more than which albums to play.

 

I made a chart using the required / recommended maintenance from the OM, and IC experts' suggestions, listing by mileage (155k, 160k, etc) what I need to have done. Helpful reminder for a forgetful old guy.

btw: was wondering about wheel bearings, finding out in other threads they're sealed and require no maintenance

..Bob

 

I made a chart using the required / recommended maintenance from the OM, and IC experts' suggestions, listing by mileage (155k, 160k, etc) what I need to have done.
..Bob

That may something nice to share with the rest of us forgetful people.

 

I stalled my engine while making a left turn, and another car hit me. He had 200 feet to respond, but instead he decided to hit me at full speed..... never braking.

No just kidding.

That's ALMOST what happened but I had enough time to restart the car. And yes the guy really did come at me full speed w/o ever braking or slowing. I don't understand why he would Not slow down when he saw my car stall right in front of him. (Maybe he's one of those aggresive/angry drivers and wanted to "punch" me... with his car.)

 

That's ALMOST what happened but I had enough time to restart the car. And yes the guy really did come at me full speed w/o ever braking or slowing. I don't understand why he would Not slow down when he saw my car stall right in front of him. (Maybe he's one of those aggresive/angry drivers and wanted to "punch" me... with his car.)

More likely texting while driving No one would hit an Insight deliberately - would they?

I waxed my Pearl blue beauty.

 

I bought 570,000 miles worth of air filters (because ACdelco is discontinuing them) and 600,000 miles worth of oil filters (because $8 for Mobil1 filters is cheap). Also found some cheap 0w-20 synthetic oil at $5.50

My last 2-3 pages of all my car manuals have written records like so, with the listed interval for the maintenance, and the actual mileage when I did the action. I refer to the back of the manual every time I visit a dealer so I can remember what needs to be done. Why? Because I used to have a 90 Dodge Shadow and I didn't realize it needed new plugs periodically. It drove just fine until suddenly the plugs stopped firing at about 40,000 miles past due. Ooops.

air filter (30,000) transmission fluid (60,000) spark plugs (100,000)
---------------- ------------------------- ------------------
31000.......................60000.......................101000
60000
89000
121000
et cetera, et cetera

 

Been futzing, getting the car ready for a drive to NY and back for the holidays, planning on leaving tomorrow or Sunday.

Installed new front speakers (Infiniti Reference 6032si) fortunately dropped right in without having to mod the stock speaker covers or cut out the door panels, will prolly do the rears today or tomorrow. Only complication was that they use 4 screws to mount vs. the stocker's three. Was easy enough on the door, re-used the top mounting point and self-tappped the screws on either side into the plastic and left off the bottom screw as there was no there there, rears will probably require drilling out of the rings and the rear bulkhead to provide correctly-located mounting points.

Even with just the front speakers replaced, there's definitely a significant improvement in sound quality.

Polished my headlights which were slightly hazy from UV damage two days ago, they look nearly perfect now (from about 4 feet away at any rate) and I was surprised how much of a difference it made driving in the dark as they really weren't "that bad".

Trickle-charged the 12V battery just to be safe, figured it couldn't hurt particularly if i'm going to experience starts that use the conventional starter. Checked fluids, put proper freeze-protected washer fluid in.

Going to me local Honda dealer today for an oil change and I'm having them install the Fumoto valve I've had sitting on my dresser for the past three months.

Looking forward to the adventure of piloting my dinky car back east. I've done this trip lots of times, just usually in a big GM luxury car. Curious to experience how the car behaves in actual cold weather.

 

Polished my headlights which were slightly hazy from UV damage two days ago

What product? My lights are so dirty you can't see the bulbs. Figure it's only a matter of time til they fail annual PA inspection.

I just drove 3000 miles from L.A. to Salt Lake City, to Philadelphia. Car held-up just fine though fast driving only gave me 58mpg.

 

I put gas.

 

Did you already use up that factory tankful?

 

Doesn't surprise me. Most things in the Insight (and also the Leaf I testdrove) are subpar. Quiet speakers. Wimpy windshield wipers. Slow-spinning vent fan. Weak window motors. Both these cars were designed with lightweight accessories, which means less powerful accessories.

 

So what is the SES light?
I assume you mean CEL.

On your trip to San Diego, how did you like the "grade" from Ocitillo to Jacumba?

On your next SD trip, PM me for my cell # and I'll buy you some coffee at the Golden Acorn Casino.
I'm about 10 miles south/west.

 

Only thing that hurt me on my long trip was my feet. So I took my shoes off and drove with just socks. (Oh and my hands when I had to scrape ice off the window in Salt Lake..... remember to buy an ice scraper before leaving.) Lean the seat back to remove some of the stress off your back/spine. It's like sitting in a recliner.

 

Oh! I get it, like a 3M PMS Board!!! Nice!

Check Oil: W1; Oil Change: Q1; etc

Go Navy!

 

Gotta be a USN vet to know 3m and pms deals with scheduling.

..Bob

 

I installed the wiring harness for Jeff's simple grid charger today! The charger works, but now I just need to find enough time to let it charge.

 

Awesome!

I haven't done anything for four days, let alone car stuff. Been really sick with the flu :-(

 

Drove 335 miles across I-40 from Little Rock to OKC... averaged 77mpg. In a 60mph construction zone where it was single-lane ops, I had a guy pass me on the shoulder. Driving at the speed limit was just not fast enough I guess. I've been that guy when I was much younger and in a bigger hurry, so before I start sounding like a hypocrite....

Hope all you Insight'rs had a great weekend.

 

Revitalized the headlights.

Bought the 3M Headlight Restoration Kit with the 500, 800, 1200 grit sanding disks and other buffers. They attach to the drill. Then you go to town!...Until your rechargeable battery on the drill dies. Then you wait an hour for it to charge. And you sand and buff again. Then you recharge the battery again. Then you buff some more.

Finally, after the rubbing compound...Your headlights look brand new!

The kits cost about $20 and there is a $5 rebate on them right now. Also on sale at PepBoys Auto Parts.

 

Dinosaur me likes plug in corded drills. :biggrin:

..Bob

 

Rolled into Long Island, NY last night around 7PM, left Phoenix Metro around 10AM on Saturday.

2,696.3 miles, 72.1MPG. (+/- $112.00 in gas)

Spent more on three Motel 6 nights than gas.

I'd post a pic of the FCD readout, but apparently the trip odometer rolls over at 2,000 miles though the MPG appears to reflect the cumulative total accurately.

Pretty damn pleased with the performance, though my *** is plenty sore.

 

I put silicone on/in the rubber window tracks and sprayed the latches...and added a nice silver license plate frame front and back.

 

I put in synthetic 0W-20 and a fumoto today.

..Bob

 

Swapped the head unit from the Blue Insight into the Black Insight, installed my hard wired phone charger.

 

So, I just cracked 100K, so I did the spark plugs. Finally removed the coil packs and was able to see the letter "B" cast into each spot. By the way, a quick spritz of water or Windex makes the letter easier to see! The original plugs were correct B indexed and looked great once pulled. I got the replacements from Majestic, along with new bolts for the coils (the originals were rusted at their heads and were crumbling!) I painted the bolt heads with a little Rustoleum to ward off the elements. I also noted that the coils themselves were showing some rust on the stacked plates. I hit them with some rust converter. That could be something for people to check, especially I you live in the rust belts!
As an aside, I noted that the old and new plugs all had their grounding straps nominally toward the passenger side of the vehicle (open toward drivers side). I'm away from home at the moment, but I will go back and look for the "black dot" that I've been reading about, just to be sure.
Of course, I've been running the grill block for the last month!

 

On 12 November and 67,323 km (41,833 mi), I prepared my 2000 Insight for its long winter hibernation until late May when we will return to Uppsala, Sweden:

• washed it
• jacked it up on four jack stands in its carport parking stall for the winter
• performed the first rotation of its new RE-92 tires after 8,870 km (5,512 mi)
• inspected the brakes, brake lines, shocks, and suspension bushings
• replaced the engine oil (Mobil 1 0W-20) and filter
• took the 12 v. battery into our apartment for the winter
• covered it with its car cover

On Thursday, I will say "hej då" ("bye") as we depart for Honolulu and the purchase of my new Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car on 29 December! It will be nice to finally eliminate the ICE from our driving on Oʻahu.

 

That's a neat-looking little car. I still think the Insight looks cooler.

Yesterday I installed the Calpod (assist/regen disable) switch. It's a (on)-off-on switch. I'm going to make it so using the momentary side locks a relay on that gets switched off when you press the brakes.
So, essentially, push the switch away from you to disable assist/regen, or momentarily pull it towards you to disable it until you press the brakes again. Maybe I'll add a button to disable it manually, too.

 

Today I started on the battery switch. Swapping the low mileage Better Battery from the old Blue Insight (125000miles) to the newer Black one (23000 miles) and vice versa.

Got the pack out of the Blue car before rain stopped play.

So I replaced the cabin pollen filter and shampoed the boot carpet on the Black car.

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