RichardKs wanderings: Insight or in-stinked? Smokin! (advice request)

[RichardK]

4 hours ago, Asimo said:

Insights do leak, it took quite a bit of work to get mine rain proof. There are places behind the seats and under the electronics which fill up with a cupfull or so. There are pads of wadding which take forever to dry out. Possible source of smells? 

More details here 

 

Possibly - it does get a bit steamed up at the moment, but I've also spent ages sitting in it fiddling with bits of trim or computer stuff. The first job I do on any car I get is 'drainage assessment'; all enclosed panels, scuttle, door and other drainage points are checked to allow water to flow as designed, and all seals are checked. The age of the Insight and style of construction makes me suspect it's like the MX-5 MK-3 windscreen trim - there are plastic insets with foam washers to hold the trim in place, and the foam ages and shrinks breaking the seal, so the water drips in slowly, so slowly that a regularly used and heated car may never show a problem but a parked up one will gradually get waterlogged.

This doesn't feel waterlogged to me, just in need to a few regular runs, but given the side trim attachment clips and arrangement, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a foam gasket that fails and then subsequent owners fight a variety of ways of fixing it because Honda don't make those clips anymore. My solution would be to remove as many factory clips as possible and cut new foam gaskets, if I get to that stage (this is why I've ordered a new spindle hasket for the wear wiper, it's on an almost flat surface and quite a large hole into the body!).

Until the weather is nicer I can't do the kind of going-over-it I want to do, partly because it's not easy for me to move the RX-7 and bring the Insight indoors for comfortable tidying work. Maybe getting the RX-7 starting and running enough to move should be a priority...

[RichardK]

Okay, I have already replaced the wiper blades, but the first proper replacement part is always exciting!

I do love a genuine part label.

What vital, hugely important piece is getting replaced? What seismic shift and revolutionary improvement am I making?

It's a huge deal! Really important!

Looks better in Japanese, that's for sure 😂

[spike60]

I don't know if there are any others on the forum but I have had a 2015 reg CRZ since June 2023 so if you if have any questions fire away. Almost total reliability ay 67k, about 47mpg round the houses and just under 60mpg on a run,

[RichardK]

30 minutes ago, spike60 said:

I don't know if there are any others on the forum but I have had a 2015 reg CRZ since June 2023 so if you if have any questions fire away. Almost total reliability ay 67k, about 47mpg round the houses and just under 60mpg on a run,

I'd been contemplating a CR-Z for Meena, as they seem quite cheap sometimes. This is definitely pushing me in that direction

[mat777]

10 hours ago, RichardK said:

Okay, I have already replaced the wiper blades, but the first proper replacement part is always exciting!

I do love a genuine part label.

What vital, hugely important piece is getting replaced? What seismic shift and revolutionary improvement am I making?

It's a huge deal! Really important!

Looks better in Japanese, that's for sure 😂

 

Aaaah, so _that's_ what it means! Though I now wonder, is that a homologation sticker saying the car beats a government target, or an individual "MOT" sticker indicating the car passes its own limits? If the former, I'd have to ask just how strict the Japanese emissions laws were if an Insight only beats them by 5%?!

You'll be pleased to know there's another couple of stickers in the post to you as part of the care package from the RR

This one also coincidentally popped up on my feed yesterday, papped at (of all places) a VSCC meeting! Check out both the sticker and the plate  

 

 

9 hours ago, RichardK said:

I'd been contemplating a CR-Z for Meena, as they seem quite cheap sometimes. This is definitely pushing me in that direction

 

I had also contemplated a CR-Z before purchasing the Insight, and it seemed to have its pros and cons. They're a fabulous looking thing and seem to be well screwed together (really, why did they lose out so badly to that bloated Golf-in-a-frock Scirocco?) and have some mod cons missing from the Insight such as DAB and cruise (plus the Spaceship Civic style dash, though of course the Insight has its own digi dash charm). However, they are disappointingly conventional in their fuel economy, owners reporting getting mid 40s on a run - the IMA is still extremely mild as the more energy dense battery tech went into providing a back seat instead. There also seems to be a common fault with door handles breaking repeatedly and irreparably - some sort of weakness in the mechanism I believe. 

[autopaul]

8 hours ago, mat777 said:

 

Aaaah, so _that's_ what it means! Though I now wonder, is that a homologation sticker saying the car beats a government target, or an individual "MOT" sticker indicating the car passes its own limits? If the former, I'd have to ask just how strict the Japanese emissions laws were if an Insight only beats them by 5%?!

You'll be pleased to know there's another couple of stickers in the post to you as part of the care package from the RR

This one also coincidentally popped up on my feed yesterday, papped at (of all places) a VSCC meeting! Check out both the sticker and the plate  

 

 

 

I had also contemplated a CR-Z before purchasing the Insight, and it seemed to have its pros and cons. They're a fabulous looking thing and seem to be well screwed together (really, why did they lose out so badly to that bloated Golf-in-a-frock Scirocco?) 

If you've ever had to sit in the rear of a cr-z you'd probably know the answer.

I loved the cr-z until I worked at direct cars and had to take a customer on a road test in one. Obviously her dad wanted to come along and ride up front. This left all 6ft 1 of me shoehorned in to the rear seats. (I took up both seats as head room is at best limited and leg room again isn't the best.

Lovely cars though and drive nice 

[spike60]

+1 for useless rear seats, mine runs with them folded all the time. Rear and rear 3/4 visibility awful as well. There seem to be 2 versions, the first 2010-13 ( most of them) have 113 bhp engine plus 13 bhp battery, later ones which I've had two of 137 bhp plus 20 bhp lithium battery. They seem to have stopped selling lower spec'd as time went on, my 2015 reg one is a GTT which gets you all the toys. From memory the battery assists 1-2500 rpm giving a nice low down torque I wouldn't expect from a fairly high revving 1.5   V- tech , the engine joins the party much later, I rarely rev it up there.

As I said earlier mine does about 47mpg locally, - 7 mile commute, Tesco's etc and high 50's on a run though we have a Merc E320cdi which gets used for long trips. Last 120 mile return trip averaged 57.5 mpg in normal ecu setting, sport is a bit abrupt throttle for me, Eco makes me want to crash it to get it over with. Sport+ useless because drops out when you lift off the throttle.  I thought door handle problem was a US hot states thing, both of mine and any I've seen for sale have been fine. Not a problem so far on the NE coast!