# 2000 Honda Insight, Good Buy??



## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

A CVT (less valuable), with bad judder, a bad IMA pack, alignment issues, and 225k? Maybe $1500-1700 unless it's cosmetically perfect.

I just got an m/t with a bad IMA battery, a bad transmission, and some repaired front end damage that drives perfectly (no shuddering) for FREE. These cars are oddly undervalued, price wise, for what you get.


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## Snakub (Sep 8, 2008)

For free?? How did you manage that? What do you think a deal would be on a new tranny? Could I swap in a manual?


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

He didn't want to see it sitting there anymore and I promised I'd fix it rather than part it.

You can't really swap in a manual... I mean you could, but it would probably be as expensive as buying a second car with a manual . Mounts, ecu, wiring, dash cluster are all different.

Transmissions come up for sale a lot in the buy/sell area of Insight Central, and there a junkyard called Halo Select that specializes in just these cars.


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

samwichse said:


> He didn't want to see it sitting there anymore and I promised I'd fix it rather than part it.
> 
> You can't really swap in a manual... I mean you could, but it would probably be as expensive as buying a second car with a manual . Mounts, ecu, wiring, dash cluster are all different.
> 
> Transmissions come up for sale a lot in the buy/sell area of Insight Central, and there a junkyard called Halo Select that specializes in just these cars.


Damn, I wish I could have gotten a free insight!

Yes you could swap in a manual if you have the mounts.

The ECU, wiring and dash cluster are meaningless, but you would end up with a perpetual check engine light and no lean burn which sort of negates the purpose of the MT right?


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## Snakub (Sep 8, 2008)

I found a honda insight without a motor. Now the question is could I use the stock assist motor as the main propulsion system? How would that be achieved?


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

Snakub said:


> I found a honda insight without a motor. Now the question is could I use the stock assist motor as the main propulsion system? How would that be achieved?


At a minimum you will need a bearing to support the flopping end of the motor and then an independant control system like the MIMA to have some throttle control.

You should develop a method of cooling and likely would again at a minimum use the 33%+ circuit to overdrive the stock controls.

A lithium spoof and higher than 144 volt pack would also be needed to get semi decent performance (aka more than 10hp which is dismal for everything but scooting around town)

Good Luck
Ryan


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## samwichse (Jan 28, 2012)

The stock IMA motor has no bearings! It's basically a pancake stator affixed to the end of the crank and the other end is the flywheel. And a metal spacer that forms its case between the engine block and transmission.










Also, I believe you'd be in the saturation risk zone at about 20kw.

I think you'd be much better off sticking an AC35 in there.

Also I wouldn't use the stock Insight M/T if I could help it. It's a weight reduced civic tranny internally and so it's extremely prone to ISB failures even with the meager torque of the stock setup, and the synchros clocking tabs have a design issue that seems to turn them into unclocking tabs in short order (my first insight had severe downshift grind when I bought it at 95k miles).


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