IMA battery connection loose? That will give you an IMA warning DTC code on your ECU, your IMA warning indicator on your dash should have been lit up.

I am not there seeing what the SC had done to your car, so I am just guessing based on theory and experience. I suspect what the SC does to your car is to disconnect your 12V battery for a while to have the BCM memory cleared, then rev your engine to above 2.5k rpm at neutral gear to recharge the IMA and triggers the IMA recal sequence. If your car is recal issue, this should solve the problem and return the IMA function to normal, however, if it is your 12V battery going bad, the symptom will return later.

But if you ask me, if my Insight have this symptom, first thing I will check is the 12V battery capacity (not with a volt meter, you need a proper load tester for that). What does a low capacity 12v have to do with the IMA? A bad 12V drained the IMA via the DC-DC converter, and causes the BCM to looses memory thus causing frequent IMA recal, which is exactly the symptom you are seeing on your car (one minute IMA close to full, and another short moment later it falls to 0, system frequently on regen mode rather than assist, and eventually the car felt extremely sluggish because not only the 1.3l engine have to propel the car, but also have to keep charging the IMA at the same time). I think I am not going to go through it again, you can search the previous thread for detailed explanation.

If you have a 'friendly' car battery shop that you can loan a good 12V battery to you for a few days, you can run your own experiment on the above.

When Insight owner goes to SC on similar problem, all kind of different version of explanation given. Most common example is IMA system software requires update. IMA battery connection loose definitely is a new version of explanation I have heard of.

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Added on November 25, 2012, 6:23 pmYea, my Oct 2011 pre-facelift Insight have that piece of gasket extending out at the same spot too.

This post has been edited by cbinn: Nov 25 2012, 06:23 PM

Copied from what is written in Insighters Malaysia Facebook page, lazy to type all over again, credit to all the Insighters who had contributed in discussion:

Most mechanic will simply change the 12v with your engine running. Reason being, even during the 12v batt being disconnected, all the electronics like the clock, radio and ecu still receive continuous 12v supply from the running alternator (the dc-dc converter in the case of insight), thus all setting and memory would be retained.

So, whats bad if memory not retained? For clock and radio, it would be the trouble of reprogramming the time and station. As for the ecu side, not really that harmful except you may get rough engine and transmission for the first few journey after battery change, till the ecu relearn all the setting like fuel curve by itself. Otherwise you suppose to perform at least Idle Relearn and Crank Pattern Relearn procedure. hybrid have one more extra issue. the bcm or battery control module memory is lost means it will trigger recalibration routine. then you will get cases where the state of charge being full one minute, and without much assist, the soc will suddenly drops to complete 0 and ima keep on staying on regen mode making the car felt sluggish. this will go on a few cycle depending on the condition of the ima pack till the bcm determined that the soc being recalibrated properly.

Have some 1 told if u dun want reset everything, change the 12v battery while car started. Is that true?

True but just have to be very careful. Lots of moving things when engine running, and reversing the polarity or accidentally touching wrong cable at wrong place can be very very damaging to entire car electronics because everything is 'alive' when engine is running.

So the best way still is stop the car to avoid any unnecessary damage?

Best is to let experienced mechanic do it, whether to change with engine running or attach a backup battery before performing the change, you still need to do it properly and carefully to avoid unnecessary damage. Modern cars have plenty of electronics, not to mention ours have even more because of the hybrid system.

Got this paragraph from the internet. Removing 12V may cause ECU to be reset / memory loss, and if you do not recalibrate the CVT's start-up clutch 'release' position after ECU reset, you may get high fuel consumption during the first few drive. Because engagement of the start-up clutch (when you shift from P or N into D) is via hydraulics and activated by the ECU via sensors, once you reset the ECU, you need to let it detect when the start-up clutch is at full engage (what they call 'lock-up') and when it's at full release. The best way to do this is to get your service center to do it as there is a specific procedure for it. If you don't, the ECU may not have the start-up clutch in the fully released or fully engaged positions when it needs to be and you may end up with very bad fuel consumption. This has actually been reported by a number of owners who resetted their ECU without doing the proper re-calibration procedure. They reported very bad fuel consumption but it was solved after the SC did the proper recalibration procedure for them. In my opinion people resetting the ECU but not recalibrating the CVT may also possibly be one of the reasons for some of the small numbers of start-up clutch failure that has been reported.

paultan.org written this for City, but also applicable for other Honda CVT like Jazz and Insight.
http://paultan.org/2005/09/04/honda-city-c...osition-memory/

I had 4300k HID for my projector low beam.

I am using slim ballast, small enough that I can mount them hanging using the 2 existing nut on both side of the engine bay (the one that hold the negative wire to the car body on the battery side and link the car body to the engine on the other side. If you worried about ECU getting reset during removal of the nut for mounting the ballast, you can always use a jumper cable as temporary 'bridge' during removal of the nut.

If you want the ballast to be a bit more hidden in case you always bump into JPJ's roadblock, then you can try mount it right behind your bumper or underneath the side fenders. There are plenty of space and holes to place and secure the ballast there. Try to get a spot where there won;t be too much chance of getting splashed by water from outside or the tyres (although the wiring kit and ballast should be water proof). Also avoid the wirings and components from coming near to any heat source or moving parts.

4300k should be quite safe cause it is not bluish like 6000k, furthermore, it is not glaring to other road users when installed behind the projector lens. Those who install HID on a reflective headlamp housing are really irritating to other road users especially opposite traffic.

This post has been edited by cbinn: Dec 12 2012, 09:34 PM

Every design have its on strength and weakness. And in the case of Insight, the CVT does provide advantages as overall. The title of the article could misled because it stressed on the word 'disadvantage' but the content of the article does highlight quite a number of advantages points that lead to the uniqueness and success of this car design.

I personally prefer 4300k as it is slightly yellowish, attract less attention during roadblock and better visibility on wet road at night. 6000k is so white that it already look a bit bluish. Higher than that, it will start to look purplelish.

Just remember to mount the bulb, ballast and all wiring properly. A lot of people have burnt headlamp housing because bulb not mounted properly and get dislodged when HID in use, not really because HID generates more heat.

You can use Insight to jump start another car quite safely if you follow proper procedure.

The risk of damaging your own car when jumpstarting another car could happen to just any car, not only Insight. And the risk is higher if:

1) Your car have a lot of complex electronics.
2) Your 12V battery is of a smaller capacity.
3) The car your trying to jumpstart have some electrical fault e.g. a short-circuit or a very badly damaged battery.

When you link the jump start cable from your car to the target car, DC current will start to flow from your car to the target car. That's draining your 12V battery (if you had not started the engine of your car), or putting stress to the DC-DC converter (or the alternator if your car is non-hybrid).

From my point of view, a good practice to jumpstart another car (not only from Insight, this is applicable if you are jumpstarting from any hybrid or non-hybrid car):

1) Make sure all the electrical load on the target car is switched off (e.g. lights, wiper, heater, aircond, stereo). And make sure you have a proper jump start cable (some low quality jump start cable being sold cheaply at hypermarket heats up considerably when large current flows over them, make sure the insulation is not damaged, touching a 12V +ve cable to any part of car body or engine surface will means a real bad short-circuit and frying of electronics.
2) Inspect the 12V battery of the target car, make sure it does not show any physical damage e.g. leaking, swelling, terminal corroded badly or low in electrolyte in each battery cell (if wet battery) or the battery health indicator showing 'bad battery' instead of 'recharge require' (for maintenance free battery, usually they have a status window).
3) Start your car engine first, make sure all electrical load on your car is switched off whenever possible.
4) Have someone sit in your car and rev up the engine a bit. for non-hybrid, usually rev till 2k rpm should have the alternator spin up to produce enough extra current. For hybrid, you probably need to rev the engine to the point the IMA is charging (since the 12V power comes from DC-DC converter from IMA, Insight don't have alternator, remember?). By doing so, you will make sure your 12V side have enough current being generated to top up what is used for jumpstart, rather risking over-discharging your 12V battery.
5) Connect the jump-start cable. (If you do not know what I mean here, stop immediately, you are definitely not technically equipped to perform a jump start procedure).
6) Do not immediately start the engine of the target car, leave it for 30 seconds or so in order for some charge to accumulate in the target 12v battery first, so when you start the target car after 30 seconds, the stress to your car 12V would be a bit less cause some charge have built-up on the 12v battery of the target car (if the target car battery is only discharged e.g. forgotten to turn off lights, and not damaged or having internal short-circuit).
7) If the target vehicle start, then just disconnect the jumpstart cable and skip to line no. 9. If after a few crank failed to start the target vehicle, wait a while before trying again. You will notice the jump start cable will heat up due to transfer of large amount of current.
8) If a few more attempt also failed to start the target vehicle, its better to call for tow truck or go buy a new battery to put into target vehicle. There might be some other fault in target vehicle that if you keep on trying jump starting, it might also damage your car.
9) It doesn't stop here. If your car battery is not new (e.g. more than 1 1/2 or 2 years old), it is better you leave your car engine running a while even after you disconnect the jumpstart cable, cause your 12V may have been exhausted and needed to be top back up. If you just shut off your car engine with your 12V exhausted, it may cause permanent damage to your 12V battery (long story, I had explained earlier in some other post that unlike marine battery, cranking battery used in car will be permanently damaged if left in discharged state.

Looks very complicated rite? Well, I cannot guarantee that if you don't follow above procedure, your car battery will 100% get damaged, but if you have no choice and have to perform a jump start, then the above could somehow reduce some risk of hurting your own car for doing a favour to help another car.

One year drop 20 to 25k is about 20 to 25% drop, I thought that's quite normal for imported car?

Hybrid car will have slightly lower resale value due to:

1) There are not a lot of hybrid on the road (as compared to other non-hybrid models). People have perception that when you do not see that car much, means to find a place for repair and spare parts would be difficult, so people tend to shy away from buy that car in second hand market.
2) Honda Insight is CBU from Japan, means any major parts need to be imported. On second hand market, easy availability of parts is one important consideration.
3) When you buy a second hand Insight, you do not know how the previous owner had been driving it. There are too many electronics and complex system in Insight (of course, Prius HSD is even more complex). That create higher chance and more points of failure when the car gets older or second hand.
4) A lot of talk about the IMA battery in the car does not last long, and a lot of people discussing about how their 1 year old car started to develop funny IMA behavior e.g. sudden lost of assist and keep on regen when uphill etc. This is shying away a lot of potential buyer in second hand market (actually this news is also shying away potential new Insight buyer too).
5) The IMA battery cannot be left unused for too long. Second hand car dealer usually keep their cars for months before can find a new buyer. Buyer will consider twice because they do not know the condition of the IMA battery. Buyer can bring an expert mechanic to check the engine and car body, but no way we can check the condition of the IMA battery.

Basically, I think Insight is not a bad choice to own if:

1) You drive a lot, the more mileage you have, the more saving you will get. Typical owner here in Klang Valley is getting around 550 to 600km for RM 62 of RON95 fuel. You do your math on how much km you travelling on a non hybrid in a month, then you can estimate how much you can safe and whether the saving is enough to compensate the slightly more expensive maintenance charge by Honda Malaysia every 5000km.
2) You plan to keep the car for a while. You will lost a lot if you sell off the car in a year or two.
3) You love technology and you love to be environment friendly, so you get to be different by owning a hybrid car.
4) The look of the car is actually very sporty, even if you compared to some non-hybrid at the similar price range, but anyway, the look thing can be different from person to person, so this point is up to you.

It is impossible to operate Insight with a totally empty fuel tank. The IMA system is only to assist and cannot operate independantly. Apart from the small capacity of the IMA pack, the IMA motor is a very simple system that can only produce enough torque to operate efficiently at a very narrow speed range, somewhere between 30km/h to 40km/h. Therefore, this car can never start moving from stationary on IMA alone.

There is a 5 years warranty for the 100v hybrid battery (originally was 3 years or 140k km mileage, but was extended to 5 years even for old cars) and 2 years warranty for the 12v battery. Condition is you must service at authorised service center at the predetermined 5,000km interval. So if your previous owner breach this condition, then you may not be entitled to the 5 years warranty.

Anyway, the replacement cost of the hybrid battery had dropped drastically that the 5 years warranty is not that critical anymore. Furthermore, a lot of owner that face symptom of hybrid battery not holding charge even when the car is only 2 years old is actually due to problem of a degrading 12v battery which drains the hybrid battery excessively during car operation.

My advise, budget 5k as spare. If you get a second hand insight with a bad battery and no warranty, just replaced it and you have a battery like in new car condiion. If you get a car with battery still ok (high likely cause that battery is made to last), then the 5k can be used for paint touchup, bodykit, sound system or even tyres and rims.

My car original made-in-japan 'jambatan batu' still got 30% bunga after 2 years and 100+ km clocked on odometer. Of course need to bear with loud road noise cause tyre gets hard after the age and mileage clocked.

Very important tyre care is to keep the air pressure correct, alignment good and periodic rotation. This will ensure nice and even tyre wear and allow the tyre to be safely used for longer period.

I thought the spare key also got immobilizer chip inside? So if cut in key shop to exact replica, can insert into keyhole and turn but engine might not start. Someone tried duplicate the key outside before?

By right the hybrid component in all hybrid car including those from honda and toyota are completely maintenance free. What we service is the non hybrid parts like the engine, brake, suspension and fuel system, just like regular non hybrid car. Even the components and material used are not muh different from regular non hybrid.

So why the service charge is high, that question must ask jonda or toyota, but I speculate that it is due to hybrid is rare and the companies had invested a lot in setting to and training to service these type of car, so they have to recover their investment.

The car has been in production since year 2000 and the current one in Malaysia is the 3rd gen, which has a huge population worldwide especially US. This is a flagship hybrid model for honda (just like prius for toyota) i wonder where the rumours of it going to stop production comes from. But if tax exemption really going to end this year, we can expect insight population growth in malaysia to be stagnant (same applicable to prius). Who is going to spend rm150k or more for a car like this? The extra paid for tax is gping to be able to buy lots of fuel that last an average user many years even if he is driving a fuel guzzling 4wd.

If you noticed, throughout the life of the car, what need to be serviced are those non hybrid parts such as engine, transmission and brake. Furthermore, unlike Prius, insight's engine and transmission are very similar to those non hybrid brothers such as non hybrid jazz and city. Any mechanic that are able to service a typical honda car can service insight. The hybrid part of the car are supposed to be maintenance free.

I had been servicing outside since my car was 50k, now already touched 100k.

Since hybrid battery for insight is rather cheap now, even if they dispute my claim, i can afford to pay from the saving i get by servicing outside. So the extended battery warranty failed to lure me to keep servicing with honda. FYI, i do more than 5k a month on my odo, if i stick to honda, i have to go service once every month.

If you check the service menu for Insight, you never need to service the IMA system at all. All you are servicing are the standard components of a non hybrid car such as petrol engine, cvt gearbox, air filters, aircond, tyre, brakes, suspension and the normal 12v battery. So there is no such thing that this car cannot be serviced outside except honda is using the 8 year battery warranty to deter people from servicing outside and maintain the business in their expensive service centers. If you read carefully, the 8 years warranty extension for the hybrid battery are subject to terms and conditions, and one of the main one is to follow the recommended service intervals and menu at their authorised servie center, so even if you miss one, there is chance for that being used as excuse for them not to honour the warranty.

After saying the above, i have been servicing my insight outside at 10k interval. My reason is the ima battery is cheap now (only 3k plus) and if they dare to give 8 years warranty, that battery should last at least 8 years based on their estimation. After using it for 2 years without issue, i felt quite safe to assume my battery does not have any manufacturing defects. Besides, insight in is have record of ima battery life for about 10 years too.

I started servicing outside after 50k, which when my car about one year old. I mention I service it at 10k interval, not service outside after 10k.

For the brake, it sounds like the brake assist servo did not get enough engine vacuum or the brake assist is not functioning poperly. It is like u trying to use the brake without starting the engine, first step-on ok, but on su sequent press you will find the pedal very hard to step on. Can you emulate the problem when SC is checking the car? It shouldnt be that way, definitely does not sound normal to me, and on area like brake, they really should take the complain seriously.

On the stability part, maybe thats due to this car is extremely light, it is only about one tonne. At high speed, you will probably feel the floating effect if you had driven those heavier car prior to this.

Bought from spare part shop. Honda CVTF Fluid, just like those use by SC. The gearbox in insight is similar to the rest of honda family like city and jazz.

CVTF warning in Insight is based on odometer reading. First warning will come out around 38k km with message CVTF due soon. Then when touch 40k, it will say CVTF due now, and after it pass 40k, its says CVTF pass due.

When you send to SC to change CVTF, the technician supposed to reset it for u, then the computer will start to countdown another 40k on your odometer before next warning. E.g. if you do the reset at 43k, your next CVTF due at 83k.