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What did you do to your G1 Insight today?

828K views 7K replies 527 participants last post by  Lyger 
#1 ·
I'm shamelessly copying this idea for the thread from another car forum.

Reading this thread may help other members (new or old) remember to do some simple but forgotten maintenance, or inspire them to accomplish that long desired mod, or simply learn something new about their Insight.

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- Changed oil with Peak full synthetic oil.

- Changed cabin filter. It's helpful to clean leaf and other debris from the filter box with vacuum or air pressure.

- Replaced spark plugs. OF COURSE I had "A" plugs in there instead of the required "B" plugs. (Don't forget to use anti-seize compound on the new plug threads.)
 
#5,525 ·
Not for me 😭😭😭😭😭😭. Got these 4, plus 2 more off screen, plus one not even on this property(at home). And that's just the Insights. Every single car in that row, not including the two grand jeep Cherokees need work done, up to and including transmission work. And that's not even all of it. Not even close.

Car Tire Wheel Land vehicle Vehicle
 
#5,527 ·
I learned a downfall of owning an Insight during the summer. IMA battery was stressin' in the heat especially with the hack in place and I don't have ceramic tint yet.

Made a sunshade for the liftgate window for the time being.
 
#5,532 ·
Remove the cargo carpet box, and let the underside of the battery box breathe. Helps a lot.
 
#5,529 ·
I plan on doing 70% ceramic on all of the windows (including windshield, might hold off on the tiny liftgate window). It's been a plan of mine but the windshield replacement needs to get done first after the rock chip fiasco.

Before Insight ownership, I was interested in lach's Insight considering he could drop it off at my parents' house then I could drive it back. His had the same tint - you can see it on the left door here.

Automotive parking light Car Vehicle Automotive lighting Hood


Phantom Z3 did the same thing, but 40% on the door windows - What did you do to your G1 Insight today?
 
#5,542 ·
I plan on doing 70% ceramic on all of the windows (including windshield, might hold off on the tiny liftgate window). It's been a plan of mine but the windshield replacement needs to get done first after the rock chip fiasco.

Before Insight ownership, I was interested in lach's Insight considering he could drop it off at my parents' house then I could drive it back. His had the same tint - you can see it on the left door here.

View attachment 97851

Phantom Z3 did the same thing, but 40% on the door windows - What did you do to your G1 Insight today?
I'd recommend going to at least 50% on the sides and rear of you can I was afraid 40% was going to be too dark for night driving but it's no problem. On the windshield, I went with 70% so it still looked like it was clear (since windshield tint is illegal here) but still had alot more heat rejection over the 90%

Take a look at the IRER values for 3m crystalline:
Font Rectangle Electric blue Pattern Typesetting
 
#5,531 ·
Specifically ceramic tint is a game changer. Have a few friends with it and one lived in Texas. Never looked back. Another has it on his hotshot hauling truck.

Here's lach's comments on it: Going To Tint my G1 Insight - Anyone done so?
 
#5,533 ·
I don't have the box in mine because I have a full-sized spare, however I did leave the carpet door open to let it breathe. Nothing's in that nook considering I have a milk crate instead.

Still runs pretty hot if I'm driving around town, but I did notice a difference. I've noticed the battery is happier in town when it's below 80°F. It was 90° most of the week.
 
#5,534 ·
Have you had the big cover off to seal the battery cooling fans? I used window putty, rolled a few ropes with it, and went around the fan to seal it up. My Insight, before I gutted the back end, didnt seem to mind 90 degree days with teh AC on during deliveries.

I found out also, some relays were nto allowing the power blower or battery fan to come on at low speed, would only jump right to high speed. THat might have something to do with my setup being a bit less sensitive (once the cooling was triggered).

All the big snapon scanners can force activate the cooling at all speeds, so well worth having a mechanic buddy help diagnose if you simply have a bad cooling relay. There are 2 relays in the rear (just behind driver right shoulder, forward battery enclosure) and the 4 or 6 relays in left far rear corner of enclosure.
 
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#5,569 ·
Circling back to this post in response to my heating woes. I got a hold of my friend's scan tool while he was on vacation and did some tests on both fans.



Both fans ran on both settings. Went under the car while the DC-DC converter's fan was on and felt strong airflow from the vent. I think I need to just make it a habit of running the AC, especially during days over 90°F while the "feels like" temp was in the hundreds last week here - it's the hottest it's been here since I've owned the Insight.

It also doesn't help I've been reliving my teen years with the +40% hack on said hot days. Drove around all day yesterday with the windows down in 80°F and behaved myself a little. Giving it the beans didn't seem to affect it like it did last week.

I made an appointment for a windshield change yesterday and today I'm going to make another appointment for tint. The windshield guy said he can get a windshield in quick and tried to get me to do the swap today! If the forecast didn't call for rain today and the next few days, I'd be down to do it but I don't want to drive around with the A-pillar panels missing. I also need to fix the seam sealer under there, too.
 
#5,536 ·
I re-soldered 2 of the 4 IMA Boost Box wires after experiencing intermittent "cutouts". Yellow and green becasue the grey plug was easier to get to. Basically from no assist to max assist or somewhere in between every few moments. Took it for a drive and filled up with a bottle of Techron & gas. So far it is stable but before the attempted fix sometimes it would work fine so could be a fluke. Sure feels good to have it working now.

The green wire solder joint looked pretty bad so I tested it out after fixing that particular one and I had already redone the yellow.

I've never really used fuel system cleaners aside from a couple of those random gas stations on the freeways that pump some with the gas. I rarely rev it out and do a lot of city trips so hopefully this will keep some carbon and whatever other crap at bay.
 
#5,552 ·
After a few days it's been working fine but this morning on my drive to work with low battery it started acting up again. I'll look at the other two wires on the blue plug and see what I can do. Might end up crimping them to avoid this headache. Hopefully it's still just a poor connection and not an issue with the device itself. These two wires are the ones I soldered the boost box onto the existing wiring harness by cutting away a section of insulation and soldering then to that to tap into and they might also not have been reliable.
 
#5,537 ·
If you really want to clean your fuel system, you need to use a can of Chemtool B12, dump the entire $5 can into a full tank of gas, and run that tank until near empty.

Those small bottles of fuel injector cleaner do nothing. You would need to dump 10 or more of them to really get the proepr concentration of cleaner to do anything in a meaningful manner.


Rarely revving it out means you are probably going to notice the effect of cleaning even more, as at full throttle and hgiher rpms, it really doesnt matter if the in jector is spraying a good pattern. Partial throttle and low to mid rpms will be far more sensitive to good atomization.
 
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#5,538 · (Edited)
Finally started my LTO build and worked on my custom BCM. When finished, the custom BCM will support either a NiMH or LTO pack, or a "mixed pack" (NiMH with LTO "boost pack"). It will NOT require monitoring while driving - install and forget - and behave exactly like a stock Insight with a pack in perfect condition. Subsequent additions will support things like "hypermiling cruise control" that will keep the car in lean burn by applying assist and regeneration as needed, and "moar mode" which pretty much maximizes assist and regen. A customized MCM will be needed for LTO and certain BCM modes.

I am using a 28 pin DIP chip, AVR128DA28, which has 10 analog inputs (read tap voltages!) and can be programmed like an Arduino, but doesn't have a bootloader and it can run immediately after it is powered up. The custom BCM will have two of these on a daughterboard - one to do real time voltage and current monitoring and translation, and the other to support communications, failure detection, additional logging and future add-ons. All pins on AVR1 are used!!!
Passive circuit component Circuit component Hardware programmer Resistor Electronic component
 
#5,539 ·
In wiring the BCM daughterboard I need to be concerned with power and ground routing for digital vs analog. Decided to run power and ground for daughterboard digital parts star-like with a fat bus back to the regulator. The analog signals in the BCM appear to be terminated just before entering their ADC inputs with a separate ground bus returning to the regulator; will likely do the same, with the ground return for the termination not going to the daughterboard ground but back to the original ground termination point for those (relocated) signals. Putting this out there in case any other hardwareheads have something to say about this.
 
#5,540 ·
I’ve been working on the railroad. Not really.

I am working for a construction company we’re building a 4 lane Highway 35 miles from where I live.

I’m not driving Frankenstein my experimental car it has a wonderful paint job. Where I am working has dust more dust lots of dust bunch of dust butt load of dust dust here dust there dust everywhere.

back to the dusk it’s really dry where I’m working because of the drought and there’s lots of dust.

There’s even dust coming over from Africa from a big desert over there it blows across Atlantic Ocean and settles over South America and sometimes up here in Tennessee. But that’s just a little dust. I’m talking bucket loads of dust where I’m working.

we are working from dust to dust.

So anyway I have been driving a car from Missouri got it four years ago that I don’t use much.

For the last week been getting 75 to 80 miles a gallon in it. So I took the dusty hybrid battery out. The Dusty passenger car seat out.
And I aired up the dusty tires with some dusty air.

Cool cool water shot man on the Mexican border because it was so Dusty.

Anyway I put my copper tubing in the whatchamacallit on the car drove it home tonight after I worked on it and got a 30 miles to the gallon increase. This is of course on a dusty five-speed 2000 Honda insight.

I think I have clearly describe the dirty situation I’m in at work.

I will and always have been
Love the smell of aluminum in the morning Type feller

like they say in Star Wars

May the dust be with you!!!

Tomorrow I will drive the new apparatus round-trip and see if beats 75 to 80 miles a gallon like I’ve been getting for the last week.
Ps
I have been burning 301 gallons of fuel a day for the last two weeks. 300 gallons in the tractor 1 gallon in the 70 mile round-trip car. I’m hoping to get about 100 miles a gallon round-trip
 

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#5,544 ·
Should really post more often here. I've done the following since last post:
  1. Window tinting all round
  2. Refurbished the wheels, powder coated alloys and centres and new emblems
  3. 3D printed window switch to sort my broken switch out
  4. Repainted the front bumper myself - need to wet sand and buff to finish
  5. Refinished the headlights
  6. New DAB radio and powered antennae
Automotive parking light Wheel Car Tire Land vehicle
Wheel Tire Vehicle Car Automotive parking light
 
#5,547 ·
@NathanC
I do believe I speak for everyone here...
Pictures of the dust. We need som dust pictures!

I've been working in the Dust Fields
all the live long day.
I've been working in the Dust Fields
just to pass the time away.
Can't you hear us all a-chokin'
coughin' hackin' up our lungs?
Can't you hear the boss-man shouting
"we eat dust by the ton?"
 
#5,553 · (Edited)
Got the good news.

About 10 days back commuting home I overheated, as in steam-from-under-the-hood overheated.

I shut down as soon as I saw the temp rising, but it did go into the red after engine shut down. At my mechanic’s since.

Today he called. Rusted hose clamp allowed a hose to pop off. He replaced same & coolant. Has been running for past hour without incident. I think I dodged a bullet. He asked me where he could get an Insight for himself. I told him I had an extra in my garage I’d sell him. We’ll see where that goes.

The extra is the ‘04 Navy Pearl I got from Nojunker in Western Mass. in January. Needs brake lines, a thorough de-mousing and an IMA revive, among other things.
 
#5,557 ·
Invite him to the event in September! We can give him the lowdown on the various issues we face and, something he may be more interested in, all the cool mods.
 
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