Just sharing what I understand about how Insight starts its engine.

Under normal circumstances where your IMA battery is not completely exhausted (which very rarely would as the computer will try its best to keep it at least 20% soc or above unless you left the car parked for more than a month without start), the car engine would be crank started using the IMA motor instead of the normal starrter motor. IMA motor will spin up the engine before resuming the combustion cycle, it is kind of like we push-start a manual car with a dead battery.

Because this process does not involve the use to starter motor powered by the 12V battery, and the starting method is to spin up the entire engine to speed and resume the combustion cycle i.e. fuel injector, spark plugs and valve trains, the engine is kind of like 'resuming from hybernation' instead of starting from stop.

If you notice, starting Insight with this method is extremely fast and quiet when compared to cranking up any of the non-hybrid car using a regular 12v starter motor.

As other forumers had mentioned, this is actually a designed feature and definitely this revolutionary method of starting the car avoid those wear and tear produced by regular starter motor. This method also reduce a lot of polution and dirt builtup as the first cycle of fuel injected when starting engine will be completely burned (as engine already spinned up to speed using the IMA motor), while in regular starter vehicle, the few engine cycle during cranking up left behind unburned fuel, which turns to carbon deposit in combustion chamber and exhaust system.

Finally, starting the vehicle using the IMA instead of 12V system reduce stress to the 12V supply system, as you will not get power surge or sudden voltage drop during engine start, thus can help to prolong the lifespan of all 12V equipment and accessories from faulire caused by power fluctuation.

This post has been edited by cbinn: Jan 26 2012, 05:46 PM

I am using HID to replace the 2 low beam headlamp behind the standard projector lens housing. Been using it since I got the car Oct last year, lots of night drive, my mileage now is close to 15k.

This could be long and boring writeup for those who already DIY their HID or familiar with it, so bear with the long posting.

Type and brand. There are plenty in the market. Branded ones like Philips or PIAA easily cost you above RM500. There are also a lot of china and claimed-to-be taiwan made kits that cost below RM300. I am using those below RM300, no particular brand printed on the ballast or bulb (I think to avoid legal implication, probably they could have broken down those branded ones to copy their circuit and design).

For balast wise, there are regular size and slim size ballast. Honestly I do not see much different except for the size itself. Regular balast have the ignitor built into the balast thus bigger, but will have one less component dangling around, while slim balast type have an external ignitor. adding up, both design roughly take up almost similar amount of space to install. I am using the slim balast type. I tied the ignitor box using zip tie to the balast and make them into a single unit for neater installation.

For the bulbs, there are 2 things to choose. The wattage normally is 35 watt, and that already is roughly twice as bright when compared to a 5 watt halogen bulb. Some people opt for 55 watt hid system, which I do not recommend because apart from endangering other road users with excessive glare, you are attracting enforcement officers to flag you down for some chat, besides, there could be too much heat to the lamp housing. Second thing to look at is the colour temperature. Our normal halogen bulb is about 3300k in colour temperature. Typical HID bulb is 4300k, which is white but still slightly yellowish. 6000k bulb is very white with slight blue. 8000k and above is bluish to purplish. To avoid inviting trouble when passing roadblocks, try to keep it at 4300k. JPJ website says all HID modification is illegal unless from original car manufacturer. Insight have projector lens headlight, so the light beams are well focused and controlled. And you can point it further down using the level adjustment. My point is, when it is not excessively glaring, you are less likely to get into trouble with the law enforcement part.

Heat wise, actually, when using an IR thermometer to test both type of bulb (55 watt standard halogen vs 35 watt HID) that had been turned on for 30 minutes, HID bulb actually reads slightly lower temperature than halogen. This could be due to the low wattage of HID, and also HID are more efficient converting electricity to light while halogen waste a lot of energy producing heat. Halogen bulb also emits more IR than HID.

Now comes the most important part, installation. Some of the issue heard like meltdown of lamp housing, burnt wires or fuse, are normally due to improper installation (although some could be due to the defects from the ultra-cheap aftermarket kits).

The standard wiring that runs to the halogen bulb is quite thin, so if you are using the 35 watt HID kit, I would say it is quite safe to use the same wire to directly power the HID kit, otherwise, you will have to consider adding relay harness. Problem with my kit is that the power source wire only comes with two metal pins for you to slot them into the standard bulb connector for the HID to get power supply, making them stay in position and water proof is a bit of work. Loose pin may cause arching or even worst, shorting the entire lamp circuitary, so pay some extra attention here.

Second this is the bulb, never touch the glass surface of the bulb. When installing bulb to housing, the original bulb will give a click feeling when it is in position, but my aftermarket HID bulb does not do so, so after installation, do extra visual inspection and try pulling or twisting the bulb and see whether it could easily dislodge or not. A lot of cases of burnt housing is caused by bulb that are not properly installed, dislodged from the mounting when the car in motion and the hot bulb surface touching the plastic part of the housing thus melting it. This hardly happen to standard halogen bulb as I had mentioned earlier, it has a click to indicate proper installation so it rarely goes wrong.

As for the balast, bear in mind that the 12v power supply entering it would be converted to very high voltage to power the HID bulb, thus the wiring existing the balast would probably carries more than 20000 volts. Anyway, SOP for car wiring works, make sure none of the wires hanging freely or could potentially tangle into moving parts or hot area of the car, especially the engine belting, block etc., make sure none of the wires are under stress or being pressed against any metallic part that could damage its insulation. The balast do produce some heat and gets warm in operation, so best to mount it properly onto metal parts of the car body, if possible in places where would not get wet when driving in rain or through watery road.

In this coming weekend, I will get my camera out from my storeroom, charge up the battery, and try to get some pics uploaded to the original post.

My car just past 3 months aniversary... and... just got rear-ended at LDP this morning while crusing smoothly at 80km/h. Just out of sudden hear car emergency brake from behind... and bang. Look at a brighter side, I got to test for myself the rear impact protection and headrest restraint system, it really works.

My rear bumper (together with my mugen lip ) koyak clips broken, bonnet cover metal part kena a bit (luckily the glass part and the lamps not affected), the rear part of the body frame distorted inwards (bonnet cannot close properly and can see bigger gap on both side of the lid after closing).

Can claim the other car insurance, but....

1) No car to use for a period of time and my job requires me to be on the road almost daily.
2) I cannot claim for the Mugen rear bumper lip..... and worst still... I cannot just purchase the rear bumper lip by itself because it has to come in a full complete set

What a start for the new year for me...

Thanks bro for the info. I will contact you once I done the insurance claim and repair.

Right after accident, I already called Honda Assist and they gave me a list of authorised panel workshop to go. Will take your advise and go for RodaBB.

Thanks everyone for the advise. Definitely going back to Honda. I also do not want issue with warranty later. Police report part I can settle myself since it is a quite straightforward case. Car wise, I guess I would have to share my wife's one for time being.

I agree I have to be grateful to be ok. The car behind knocked onto me towards the right side instead on center, at the speed we are travelling, my car could have easily spin in circle, knocked onto divider or turn over.

Sweet, you are great! This forum is just great!

I still remember asking SA for this when collecting car and they quoted RM400 for adding some buzzer by accessories shop to get the beeping. Probably they drive the car out, program it and collect RM400 for nothing.

The alarm beeper is illegal to be used in EU countries (also mentioned in the manual) probably due to noise pollution reason, that's why it is disabled by default. If Honda service center claims that enabling the beeper would void warranty, I would really want to hear what excuse they are going to give for that (they could be claiming the vibration from the buzzer could possibly shatter some engine components, they are so used to coming out with excuse that sounded silly, hahaha). Come to think about it, there could be a possibility that most of the SA or service center doesn't even know about this because whenever alarm got problem, they send it to Cobra instead of servicing it themselves. And being typical mentality of our local service line, if that is not their job, they will not have the curiosity to find out more.

Reading through the manual that you shared out, I noticed there are some additional function that interest me e.g. the auto-arming and the programming of additional remote control to arm/disarm the alarm (which HM quoted a surprisingly shocking price for additional remote). Sadly, my car is now in workshop after accident so I only get a chance to try those out when I get my car back. And I just got news that they are short of parts (the rear bumper), so the wait could be a longer ones than expected.

In the mean time, good luck for those who is adventurous to try this out, excellent job to gadgets2us for finding this out and most importantly sharing this out for the benefit for the forum community.

This post has been edited by cbinn: Feb 11 2012, 10:18 PM

I thought only local car manufacturer will do this type of mistake like designing a car windscreen installation without applying adequate sealant? Tak sangka orang Jepun also cut corner like that one ah? Thia car not CKD, it is fully imported. Hahaha. And since more and more people have similar problem, I don't think it is just bad luck of one or two cars, it could have something to do with the mass installation procedure over in Japan side. Or our weather too hot here, Jepun punya sealant all 'kecut'. Hahaha.

If I had not mistaken, Prius is using Atkinson cycle engine while Insight VTEC engine is a normal otto cycle engine.

Atkinson cycle engine focus on efficiency in the expense of power density. Different strategy.

More info? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_cycle

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Added on February 21, 2012, 12:53 amNo offense to Toyota fans, but this is a bit too far apart in terms of design. Which one leading, I don't think have to elaborate further.

This post has been edited by cbinn: Feb 21 2012, 12:53 AM

.I did my 1st service at 1500km 3 days after I took my car because I did a round trip to alor setar first day i owned the Insight. Service center never complained about it. My 5k and 10k service were quite on time. Just did my 15k service few days back and my mileage is 15699, after i made a round trip kl-penang-kota bharu-kl which is close to 1000km. so far sc had not complained. I am doing around 5k a month.

I just renewed insurance for my other car, a Kenari. I bought insurance frm Etiqa since that car loan with maybank. In the insurance document, since I purchased windscreen cover, there is an attachment stating what is covered. It is stated clearly that it covers front and rear windscreen, including all windows and sunroof, including tinting. Max claimable amount is the sum insured, it is up to you how much you want to insure. Claim based on replacement receipt and all necessary documents e.g. claim form and photographs.

My insight is just few months old, so have not come to renewal part. The first insirance is MSIG, my SA advised me to cover windscreen with amount of RM 4,500 for the premium of RM 675. And looking at the fine lettering, there was this "Endorsement 89 - Breakage of Glass in Windscreen, Window and Sunroof". In the detail, it is mentioned "... we will pay the cost of replacing or repairing any glass in the windscreen, window or sunroof including lamination / tinting film, if any, of your vehicle following breakage of such glass up to an amount not exceeding limit as stated in the schedule." a.k.a your Sum Insured.

I think different insurance company have different terms. Strictly speaking, the term "windscreen" is only the front winscreen, excluding the rest of windows and tinting. So the best is to refer to you insurance covernote and look at the attachment part for windscreen add on coverage. It will normally state there what is covered and what is not, together with relevant terms and conditions.

I know, not many people like to read through the fine letterings.

Hope this helps to clarify.

Insurance company is more or less the same, most of the terms are standardized and regulated by Bank Negara (yes if you ask, insurance is considered financial sector just like bank, so it is governed by BNM).

From a consumer (or more accurately known as the Insured) point of view, what determines whether you will be a happy claimant or not in the event of any accident would depends on which workshop you towed your car to, and also your luck on getting which insurance adjuster to evaluate your car.

Insurance adjuster would be the one that report the extend of damage to insurance company (of course, the workshop will mark the damaged area and recommend the repair), and the adjuster is the one that recommend how much to pay or what parts to be repaired or replaced.

The workmanship part of the repair will of course depending on the workshop itself. Other things such as preparing and collecting police report will depends whether you get a good callman (those walkie talkie guy that appear out of nowhere within minutes your car met accident). A lot of times, callman knows the people in police station well, help you to sketch accident diagram, collect police photo and findings etc, and that save you a lot of trouble especially your one and only car you have is no longer driveable and your job requires you to be in office from 9am to 6pm.

As I had mentioned in my earlier post, you have to take out your insurance policy covernote and read on the endorsement part (because windscreen is an add-on coverage, look for windscreen section), as every insurance company have slight variation in defining their terms and condition for coverage. As far as for all the 3 cars in my house having 3 different insurance company, all their windscreen endorsement mentioned covering all the glass windows around the car, sunroof and tinting.

Whenever you have free time, it is good that car owner run through the insurance policy to know what you are covered for the premium you had paid. Of course, I do hope no one will ever need to make a claim, but in case if you come across the need, at least you don't feel lost or cheated.

Also for new car owner that still have warranty with your car, make sure you insist your car be towed to panel workshop (those who not sure, please call the Honda Insurance Package tollfree number to ask for location and procedure). This is to ensure there is no dispute in future warranty claims of the vehicle.

You can send it back to Honda Service Center and they will help you on the claim procedure, however, eventually they will still help you to send your car to their panel workshop because the equipment inside service center is for routine servicing and not accident repair. They would not have facility or manpower to perform accident damage repair job such as panel beating or spray painting in the most of the service center.

If the IMA system failed (either faulty IMA battery, controller or IMA motor), the car may still start as usual because it still have a normal engine starter that runs on the 12v battery. However, bear in mind that all IMA assist and regen function will no longer be available, and you will be like driving a regular petrol engine car. Also, if the damage to IMA is at the IMA motor or the DC-DC converter module, your 12v battery may not last very long as there is no way the engine can recharge the 12v battery, so there could be just enough power to move your car to a safer location e.g. rest area or road side for you to wait for help. If only the IMA battery failed but the rest of IMA system still ok, you can drive the car as normal for very long time, just minus the availability of IMA assist and regen braking.

This car does not have a regular alternator. The IMA motor sandwiched between the engine and CVT gearbox serve 2 function i.e. when power is fed to the motor, it assist, when the motor control module (MCM) sense that you are slowing down, it trigger regen mode which turns this motor into a generator. The power generated from the IMA motor will be fed to the back of the car to recharge the IMA battery, which is over 100volts. The battery control module (BCM) have a sub-system that monitors the voltage of the front 12v battery, and when necessary (voltage drop due to consumption by 12V accessories like lights, air cond, wiper or ECU), the BCM will trigger the DC-DC converter module to utilize the power from the IMA motor (when engine running) or IMA battery (during auto-stop), converting it down to 12V to recharge the front 12V lead acid battery.

The car will be completely disabled if your front 12V battery failed. This is because before you can start using any power from the IMA system, you need to power up all the control modules (BCM, MCM, DC converter and ECU), and all these runs on the 12v sub-system.

Lead acid battery is used in car because it can stands many cycle of charge (when engine runs) and discharge (when you start vehicle or use 12V power without running engine e.g. alarm and door locks or even when you left the car not being driven for too long i.e. self-discharge).

However, there is a shortcoming of lead acid battery i.e. it cannot be left over-discharged or being in discharged state for too long period of time. This will lead to a phenomenon call sulfation or formation of lead sulfate in the battery which is irreversable and reducing the ability to accept and store charge thus reducing the battery capacity.

Based on this, there are some steps that one could try to practice to prolong the lifespan of your car 12V battery:

1) Try your best not to use the battery when the engine is not running e.g. leaving the car door open for very long which turns on the room lights, turing on radio or headlights without engine running, letting your kids play with the power windows etc.

2) While waiting to pick up people, whenever it is possible and safe, do not leave the headlights on even if the engine is running. Apart from putting stress to alternator, the headlight assembly will heat up, causing lens to turn yellowish or fade faster.

3) Do not always full blast your air cond blower. If you get into a car that was parked for too long under hot sun, open all windows when start driving to allow hot air to escape will be a better solution.

4) If you install any aftermarket audio system, rever camera, alarm or lighting, make sure the wiring are donw properly, does not create any shorts and unnecessary circuits are turned off together with ignition to prevent power drain when the car is parked.

5) Avoid short trips (e.g. less than 3 minutes) engine start and stop. Starter motor draws a lot of power and a 3 minutes trip may not be long enough for the alternator to recharge back the power consumed (especially if it is a night driving with headlights, aircond and audio system full blast).

People may ask, when my car is running, my alternator is on and my battery would be recharged so why I have to worry of keeping 12v accessories turned off to save power? The alternator for smaller cc car (usually those 1500 and below) are designed not to load the combustion engine too much in order for the engine to have more power to move the car and maintain the car's high fuel efficiency. In order to maintain the load to be small, the alternator produces lesser power. Usually designer calculated the power output to be slight over the regular consumption of all the 12V accessories under normal use (daytime could be hotter so aircond use more but headlight off, night time headlight on but cooler weather so air cond blower not at high speed). The extra from the slightly over output of the alternator is used to top up the 12v battery depleted by engine starter, accessories usage during stop e.g. alarm and also due to self discharge (normally between 3 to 20% a month depending on quality and size of battery).

Based on the above, if your trip is too short, or you have big amplifiers blasting away with air cond at full speed and headlights on most of the time, chances are your alternator output are just sufficient for accessories or even worst, at deficit, thus either not charging or instead actually draining your 12v battery.

To maintain good lifespan of a lead acid battery, it is normally not recommended to allow the battery to be discharged more than 75% of its capacity. The more it get discharged, the more sulfation would happen and the lower the battery capacity. When batery capacity becomes low, there is more chance you going to discharge it more, thus the effect is exponential when near the end of the battery life. In order to save weight, modern small CC car uses smaller battery, thus smaller capacity and higher chance to get badly discharged more than bigger batteries.

Sideline a bit, Insight does not have a regular alternator and power steering that are driven by belt by the combustion engine, that's why even when the engine is just 1300 cc, it felt so light. Insight does have power steering, but it is driven by electric motor. The only belt driven subsystem in Insight is the air cond compressor.

This post has been edited by cbinn: Mar 14 2012, 11:09 AM

Insight engine gets started by the IMA system under normal IMA condition, thus does not affect the 12v battery. Thus the lifespan of the 12v battery in insight depends greatly on usage of 12v accessories like aircond, lights and ICE.

CVT Oil is like the normal auto transmission oil.

It is not optional, in fact, it is critical to change it at 20k period to maintain the good service life of the cvT gearbox which is very difficult and expensive to service if it were to breakdown. For pricing, check the maintenance cost in honda website for more detail.

How old is your car? Battery goes weak in just 2 weeks? I had my 7 months car parked 3 weeks plus without getting weak 12v battery problem.

What i normally do before leaving the car for long undriven period is to make sure the ima battery is fully charged (by force charging: rev to above 2.5k rpm when car in neutral gear). I personally believe that rechargeable batteries are better kept in state of full charge when they are going to be unused for long period.

When i return after 3 weeks and start the car for first time, it starts by the ima motor rather than the 12v starter. It will only use the 12v starter to crank up the engine if your ima battery is completely flat. And when i check the ima battery level, it remain full, so not much self discharge during the 3 weeks of storage.

I guess the above does not apply if your car has been added with some aftermarket accessories that could possibly draw a lot of standby current even when you car being left undriven. That may suck your 12v battery flat in 2 weeks. Bear in mind that even if your ima battery contain charge, your car would still not be able to start if the 12v battery is flat, as all the relay, controller and computer system in the car runs from the 12v subsystem rather than the ima.

Of course, if you have he luxury of finding a shaded carpark for the car for long period of storage, it will be better not only for the battery but also the paintwork, plastic parts and interior furnishing, considering our extremely hot tropical sun.

This post has been edited by cbinn: May 13 2012, 05:46 PM

Just try your best to maintain more than 20km/l reading for every driving trip and you should be able to do at least 650km per tank of fuel.

With the reading of the attached image, which is around 22km/l, I am getting around 700km before fuel warning lights come on.

You can get at least 20km/l if mixed driving around 30% traffic jam and 70% smooth crusing around 80 to 100km/l. Frequent stop will lower the km/l reading e.g. a lot of traffic lights or road junction. Heavy aircond usage greatly reduce autostop and lowers km/l too. My aircond temperature control rarely goes below 25 degrees celcius. I get around 24km/l because I to drive to work much earlier, so no jam at all and minimal aircond usage.

Anyway, I am happy to get anything above 18km/l, that's my minimal target. Compared to my previous non hybrid which is only around 9km/l, and my previous monthly petrol bill of around RM1200 a month, this car saves me at least RM600 monthly.


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I think car owner have to becareful even if you can find service center that allow you to exceed 5000km service interval. Few points to take note.

1) when they tell you it is ok to service at 6k or 7k interval, they only tell you verbally. On records a.k.a. your service booklet, service reminder sticker and also in their computer system, the recommended next service interval is still 5000km ahead of your current reading.

2) In the user manual and all the service schedule published, all are based on 5000km interval.

3) It is clearly stated in the warranty condition that you have to follow the recommended service interval and guideline for the warranty to be valid.

So I personally think if everything is ok and there is no warranty claim, the service center sometime close one eye and just follow car owner request to extend service interval, but they only say it verbally.

In the event if there is any issue that triggers warranty claim, your extended service interval may be used as one of the excuse for them not to honour the warranty, and there is no strong case that you can bring against them as based on documentation, the car owner did breach the terms of warranty by extending service interval.

So to be safe, even if you can find service center that allow extended service interval, make sure they document the upcoming service mileage on your service booklet based on the extended interval and not the standard 5000km, then at least you have proof that this extended interval is recommended by service center.