[BruceinLA]

I installed a new cranking 12v battery (group 51 Interstate from Costco) reversing My Odyssey conversion.

If I only knew where I put the plastic tray and crossbar.....

 

[M.Liston]

Just go to Menards or HomeDepot and buy a 2" by 8" piece of steel bar, bend it up, drill 2 holes, and use a piece of rubebr as the squish-guard to keep the battery from getting damaged.

 

[HondaInsighter06]

I installed a Rostra cruise control! Oh my gosh!! Cruise control!! AMAZING!!!!

The "instructions" provided by Rostra......man......is there a word 100x worse than awful? Then, is there a word worse than that?

Nevertheless, cruise control is working!!!!!!!!

 

[Dougie]

I took one of my first (out of state) trips in my (new then) '03 Insight to Boulder Colorado to meet family, and have been planning to make that trip again next year in my current acquisition (2000 g1 with 300k miles). Had my oldest on the first trip (who was 7 at the time), and will be taking my 13 year old with me on this one. My first Insight really struggled in the mountains, can't wait to see how well my Lithium LTO does.

Third gear is for mountains.

 

[Arbus]

I installed a Rostra cruise control! Oh my gosh!! Cruise control!! AMAZING!!!!

The "instructions" provided by Rostra......man......is there a word 100x worse than awful? Then, is there a word worse than that?

Nevertheless, cruise control is working!!!!!!!!

The guy that put my cruise in had 5 years' experience - 8 hours a day, 5 days a week - and told me he'd never do a G1, ever again. When I asked him why, he just huffed, threw up his hands, and left the room.

Was it that difficult to do? Now... He was BIG - lots of muscles and belly. Dunno if that made it harder, or not.

 

[HondaInsighter06]

The guy that put my cruise in had 5 years' experience - 8 hours a day, 5 days a week - and told me he'd never do a G1, ever again. When I asked him why, he just huffed, threw up his hands, and left the room.

Was it that difficult to do? Now... He was BIG - lots of muscles and belly. Dunno if that made it harder, or not.

I feel his pain, and he's right!!! The Rostra Cruise Control installation is actually incredibly easy. If I had to do it a second time, it would probably take me only 45 minutes. No joke!

But, why does it take people 8-10 hours? The instructions....yikes!!

Rostra doesn't give you clear directions specific to an Insight. You literally have to read about 40 pages of universal installation instructions, and then decide what method fits your Honda. In other words...hours and hours of reading and studying.

To make matters worse, they also include parts, connectors, clips, and wires that aren't used...you have to decide what's used and what isn't on an Insight. They don't tell you. Are you getting stressed reading this yet? Oh....it gets better

Here's where you'll lose your mind...the installation pictures lol If you can make out images like this, GOOD LUCK!

But, I can't bash Rostra too much. They make a cruise control model that fits a very rare car, of which I am VERY GRATEFUL!!! I have working cruise control, and it's AMAZING! I literally had an ear-to-ear smile when it worked! The accelerate button doesn't work, but I don't care. If it holds the speed, the multi-hour drives will be a breeze!

 

[Arbus]

Makes the car far more enjoyable, that's for sure.

Are you in a MT? How did you set the latency?

Opinions vary, but mine was like a very lazy foot on the gas. Doggone thing actually held the car in lean-burn against the wind far better than I could ever manage!

 

[M.Liston]

Belly pan and hardware came in today! Thanks again, Scott. Quick turnaround between ordering, sending paypal, and getting it here.

 

[mudder]

Today TN officially revoked my "LITHIUM" license plate. We've been going back and forth on them for a while now. TN believes my plate is 'inappropriate' because it promotes drug use ** . Short of suing the state ***, I've exhausted the appeals process. Their decision is final, so today I switched back to my old TX "LITHIUM" plates, which are considerably more expensive (~$200/year), but I prefer them because they're on the "Oil and Gas" plate:

**In my final appeal, I stated the following:

Even if my motivation behind the "LITHIUM" plate was medical (it's not), Lithium carbonate as a drug isn't likely to be abused, as it's neither addictive nor habit forming, isn't a controlled substance, and doesn't provide any illicit 'high' when taken... in fact, it does quite the opposite, which is precisely why it's prescribed to bipolar patients... it simply stabilizes mood, which is the exact opposite result most addicts seek when taking illicit drugs.

No street criminal is going to say "wow dude, look at that Honda Insight with license plate 'LITHIUM'. That guy must be a drug dealer! How did he convince TN to approve that plate? Man let's go buy some lithium salts from him." I could understand the State not wanting to endorse vanity plates with illicit drug names - such as "COCAINE", "OPIUM", or "METH" - but that is not the case with here. Lithium isn't a 'street' drug and nobody who hears that is going to think that about it.

Worst case, a doctor seeing the plate might think "I wonder if he means lithium batteries or lithium carbonate?" And that's ok, because lithium carbonate is a miracle drug for those that take it.

***I'm not likely to win a lawsuit against the state, due to Walker v. TX Division.

...

Once my car hits 25 years old, I'll be able to register the car in TN again, as TN allows antique vehicles to display any "period-correct plate", as long as the actual (antique) plate is inside the vehicle.

 

[M.Liston]

You probably lost it by trying to explain how even if it were medical related, it should be okay.

Had you left it with a simple phrase of "it is the type of batteries that the vehicle was converted to", you might have had a better chance.

Government employees are freakin terds 90% of the time, and dumber than a box of rocks the rest of the time.

 

[Rainsux]

I’ve never had a problem with my RAINSUX plate on my Miata, but others who have tried to copy it in other states have had it refused. Fun fact: a friend who had a lifted, big tires, V8, etc Land Cruiser was able to get EATBUSH.

Sam

 

[Atheos]

TN believes my plate is 'inappropriate' because it promotes drug use

I got both of my vanity plates denied by the great state of Tennessee (one I already had from Indiana), but they refused to provide reasoning for the rejection (I assume to avoid any litigation). The rejection letter attempts to abstract the reason by inferring that either someone else already has that vanity plate, OR it's rejected because they deem it inappropriate. It's pretty trivial to find out if a vanity plate has already been registered in Tennessee, and neither of my vanity plates have been registered to anyone here before.

Plate #1: Skeptic

I had that plate in Indiana for over a decade.

Plate #2: Atheos

 

[mudder]

You probably lost it by trying to explain how even if it were medical related, it should be okay.

I only sent my final reply, after TN came back to me and said my (already issued) plate was 'inappropriate'.

Had you left it with a simple phrase of "it is the type of batteries that the vehicle was converted to", you might have had a better chance.

My initial submittal (which was initially issued) was exactly as you suggest. However, my plate came up for review during renewal.

Government employees are freakin terds 90% of the time, and dumber than a box of rocks the rest of the time.

Brief list of issued TN plates I've seen on the road:
KUKALUX (a decade ago)
TDFRGSN (today)
CMYX4BJ (last year)
69PWNDU (she is suing TN for this one as we speak)

 

[mudder]

I got both of my vanity plates denied by the great state of Tennessee:
"SKEPTIC"
"ATHEOS"

That's ridiculous. I'm skeptical TN could survive a 1st amendment lawsuit on the merits. Therefore, I've decided to sue the state. Want to join me?
I've just placed Daniel Horwitz on retainer.

Now I'm wondering how long "4CHAN" will last on TN's autism awareness plate .

 

[JackSJ]

Just got notification that Scott is shipping out my belly pan. Heck yeah! Wind and road noise be gone from the front, plus better highway fuel economy!!!

How quick was the turnaround?

 

[czach]

Installed the new $40 EGR valve. It is a bit bigger at the top than the factory one, and just barely fits around one of the hard water lines that run right by it. Install was simple, and although the car is not noticeably different I did take it on a 100 mile test drive today on the highway.

MPG was 56 highway at 70mph instead of around 45 prior so that's an improvement. No codes thrown, but then again I wasn't throwing many codes before aside from random misfires when the car would stall at idle.

Tires are not the super efficient ones, swapping the rear tires to the front and putting a pair of RE92's on the back is next on the agenda.

 

[mudder]

Is that the EGR valve out of the Odyssey?

 

[M.Liston]

How quick was the turnaround?

less than 10 days

 

[czach]

Is that the EGR valve out of the Odyssey?

It is a Standard Motor Products EGV658T EGR valve. Found the recommendation in the forum, for $40 it was worth a shot.

Amazon.com: Standard Motor Products EGV658T EGR Valve : Automotive

Buy Standard Motor Products EGV658T EGR Valve: EGR Valves - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

I'll test the old one and see how it works in terms of resistance and all. I wish I had a light to show me when I was in clean burn mode, is there a simple way to do this or something I can program Torque to watch for from the CAN bus?

 

[Vivila]

I installed an IMA Boost device from Peter. The boost button is quite fun lol. I'm thinking a shift knob with a button I can grip and boost would be great. I set regen pretty high and it kept up with my liberal use of the button for the short test. I will turn it down a smidge because of my old engine mounts and it feels like it wants to stall when regen braking coming to a stop at a slightly higher speed than usual trying to keep the higher regen going. Downshifting to 2nd for a stop has more of a use case now.

Soldering all the way up under the glove box was a pain. and used my USB iron from a battery pack for the first time so it took ages to get up to temp. Did the job though.