Honda Inshite - now collected - the end.

[Kringle]

I love these, when a manufacturer makes a car for a particular reason other than cash then beautiful things happen.

 

How much are the batteries to recondition them?

[Asimo]

A replacement battery from Honda is about £2500 plus fitting.

 

British Insight owners are lucky to have one of the world's Insight specialists at  http://www.solarvan.co.uk  in  Yorkshire and he can do an improved spec. battery rebuild with new cells for £2000 fitted.

If I get a battery problem I may try bodging it with used  cells if I can get hold of an old Insight battery. There is a massive amount of discussion of battery ills and cures on www.insightcentral.com but no easy and obvious way to go.

I'm more likely to just ignore the battery completely, (I can drive around the lack of electroboost)  or to just spend the money. £2k is a lot but my cash is depreciating faster than this car at the moment so why not?

[Asimo]

This happened last week, northbound M6 in the Tebay / Shap bit. The 68.8 mpg is the running fuel consumption since I reset the display shortly after getting the car, nearly 5 years / 30,000 miles ago. Note random and annoying airbag light. 

[jonny69]

@Asimo great to see some recent updates. I'm having a bit of a forum catch-up so it's good to see this has still been around in the last few months - I missed the June/August updates as I haven't been on the forum much.

I was quite new to mine when I last read this thread and I think the grid charging bit was a bit lost on me back then, as I didn't realise you were still running this after your earlier battery issues. Mine threw a P1449 / 78 recently and I started grid charging - it has completely fixed the problem and the car performance is transformed. Previously it would give full assist for about 5 seconds on full throttle, then back it off to partial assist. Now it just lets the battery dump full assist for as long I keep my foot in!

Your SRS error is annoying though. Can you tell from the ODB2 code what side the error is coming from?

[Asimo]

It is time for an update I guess, but there is not much to report as the car just keeps going. Battery maintenance apart nothing vital has needed attention except for rusty rear brakepipes which the MOT place did for me. At oil change time in September I changed the gearbox oil and clutch fluid and polished the headlight lenses - maintenance highlights! Non-vital but irritating is that the rear hatch struts have got a bit weak, and the hatch has whacked me on the head a few times.

I get the occasional battery failed error code if I use full power up hill unsympathetically but only if the state of charge is low anyway. The amount of IMA boost is a bit low but rarely matters.

As for the airbag light, that is on permanently at the moment, the last time I cleared it, the fault was an out of tolerance passenger airbag ignitor, but presently the fault light is on but no fault codes are showing, so I can't clear them. Sadly this car is too old to be covered by the Takata airbag recall, so no free replacement airbags.

[Raff]

Love these things. There's one very near me in Oxford, possibly same colour. Hadn't seen the funky dash before!

[hairnet]

3 hours ago, Asimo said:

Non-vital but irritating is that the rear hatch struts have got a bit weak, and the hatch has whacked me on the head a few times.

 

show it whos boss  - make an electric tailgate  steal chasefarters lexus ones

re the battery pack in a civic ima similar size wise? can they fit in the same place for yours?

or a mk2 insight - find a dead one (bodily mechanically)

 

[Asimo]

Each of the Honda hybrids has a unique battery pack so they are not interchangeable. The packs are all made up from stacks of cells and the cells from other packs could be used in sets if they are dimensionally the same BUT the charging electronics won't be correctly matched to the electrical characteristics of the cells used.  So a massive amount of work, not worth the trouble as far as I am concerned.  I am more interested in keeping this original battery healthy enough  to get it to 20 years.  Ten months left!

And because threads need pictures - cutaway drawing of the power unit of a Mk1 Honda Insight.

 

[jonny69]

^ Yeah the batteries are very similar in spec and physically interchangeable, but the Battery Control Module expects to see cells with a capacity and discharge curve the same as the originals. As soon as you put in different cells, they only have to drift out a tiny bit and the BCM flags an error and disables the battery for safety. You can put in a BCM interceptor or fooler, but as Asimo says it’s quite a lot of work. I expect if you took the BCM off a Civic IMA as well, it would probably solve the problem, but again it’s a lot of work and expense just to find out. Not sure if anyone has tried that.

A lot of Americans are just moving to using a lithium battery from a Fit when their NiMH batteries completely give up, and bypass the BCM completely with a custom made module. 

[Asimo]

Ok folks, spring is in the air and I have decided to sell. For more details, see above.  Tank is full which will get you home anywhere in the UK. 

 

UK supplied 2000,  X981 CBL

Blue

103330 miles

Mot June 30th

In regular use.

No known mechanical issues. A/C works OK, Trip buttons done. (Buzzer removed) Original Honda cassette player.

No water leaks. (It did leak when I bought it in 2014 but has been quite dry since I sealed up all of the usual places under the roof/side trims)

Original (I think) battery. Needs a charge every few months to keep it happy enough. Won't produce full assist for long however.

SRS light is on (again) and won't clear. Previously has indicated an out of resistance-tolerance on passenger seatbelt actuator or airbag, but has always cleared before.

Paint is a bit scruffy - lots of chips to the bonnet and a few scabs on the bottom of the doors. Bonnet badge has come off but I do have it.

Recent tyres: Continentals 175/65s

Matiz rear springs.

Recent discs and pads.

Rear screen heater - almost all of the elements are open circuit.

Tailgate struts are weak.

Engine top cover removed (just so I can keep an eye on things!)

 

I am the third owner.

I paid £3600 for the car in September 2014 and have done 33000 miles since. MOT work has only ever been SRS resets and last year, replacement of the rusty rear brake pipes.

 

Lots of "history" but all the servicing has been done by me whilst I have owned it.

 

Hoping for £1800 but I am sure I would take £1500 beige pounds.

[Fat_Pirate]

Would love this but no space.  Suggest you stick a link in the 'For Sale' area, this will be popular.

[loserone]

1 hour ago, Fat_Pirate said:

will be popular

I think it already has been ?

[somewhatfoolish]

Wantage overload; if I wasn't in the middle of the German Ocean I'd be transmogrifying the beer tokens your way right now.

[dome]

I absolutely adore these and if it could take a mountain bike in the back I'd be all over it. What's going to replace it may I ask? Must be tough shoes to fill.

[skattrd]

Hmm, I really wanted a CVT, but … its cheap and I am weak.

[GeordieInExile]

Swapsies for an R53 Cooper S...?

[willswitchengage]

Hopefully not scuppering myself as I REALLY want this car but are you happy that's a fair price? They go for at least double that on eBay.

You live in Cheltenham, right?

[Asimo]

Sold to the first Autoshiter to PM me.

If it wasn't you, sorry, but thank you for your interest.

[320touring]

Glad it has sold - I had to put my phone in a different room to avoid buying it:)

Hope whoever got it (I suspect someone who is waiting on an i3...) Enjoys it:)

[willswitchengage]

I love how we all on here pretend we're into Talbot Matra Ranchos and Corsa Bs but in reality the most sought after vehicle is a contemporary tree-hugging hybrid...

[skattrd]

It wasn't me Neil, I was too late with PM.
I'm regretting working this afternoon instead of browsing the forum.

[320touring]

Bloody Norah!

[Asimo]

1 hour ago, dome said:

I absolutely adore these and if it could take a mountain bike in the back I'd be all over it. What's going to replace it may I ask? Must be tough shoes to fill.

The guy I bought it from used to carry a road bike in it, I think it would be front wheel out and check carefully before closing the hatch..........

As for what next, I just don't know.  Right now I want just the one motor to care for, and that needs to be the van for all of the usual practical reasons.

 Since Christmas I have seriously considered a new Jimny, a Twizy, a Corvette and a Sprinter................

[Kringle]

2 hours ago, Asimo said:

Sold to the first Autoshiter to PM me.

If it wasn't you, sorry, but thank you for your interest.

Genuinely think I'm going to sob.

[Fabergé Greggs]

Flip! YOU SHOULD NOT EVER LOOK AWAY FROM AUTOSHITE 

[Asimo]

Bye bye little car. 

 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

End of an era.

[willswitchengage]

WHO BOUGHT IT??????????????

We're out of the EU now. Pretty sure GDPR no longer applies and you can tell us EVERYTHING.

[Tickman]

Jim Bell is the very fortunate man

[greengartside]

On 8/29/2014 at 5:22 PM, Jim Bell said:

They are very interesting things. Owners really seem to gush about them so I'm surprised they weren't more successful really.

I'd certainly rock one. Better than a Prius by about 16 billion percent.

And now he has this very car. Top buyage Jim B!