hello all, I am new to this site but am active on insightcentral for my 2000 insight 5 speed, and am hoping this will be a good resource for the 2005 civic hybrid 5 speed I recently bought (from a crappy dealership) with 53k miles for $10k. No knocks at all to Honda, but the dealer skimped on some things...thus my issues I'd love some help on...

Anything special about brake replacement? Rotor turning? Just like on all other cars? Thinking of going with Carquest pads that supposedly have free replacement with premature but even wear. I live in the mountains so they wear pretty quickly...any suggestions as far as a 'performance rotor', or a waste of money?

It seems like front end is very bouncy and/or too low? Any suggestions for a fix?

We get a lot of snow? Anything out of ordinary to expect? I drive the insight fine in the snow so....

Any mod to the backseat to get room for skis to pass through from trunk? Or is battery / electrical blocking the back of the entire backseat?

Anyone with a ski / roof rack? How does it effect mpg?

Thanks for all your help. I get 68mpg in the insight, but need a 4 seater for the family. Over the last 6k miles of driving the HCH with the previous owner's oil, cotton air filter, and dirty tranny fluid I've been getting 51mpg doing 75-80 along I-210 between home at Lake Arrowhead (6000 ft elev.) and work in Downtwon LA. My goal is 55-60 mpg sustained over a 600+ mile tank. Is there any truth to the talk on this site that the FCD on the dash is UNDER valuing the actual mpg? I've seen the photos showing 48mpg, but 547 miles driven.

I just put in a k&n air filter, some mobil1 0w-20, and honda genuine mtf. Seemed like the previous owner, a lessee, was doing a conventional, higher weight oil. I got code p1021 immediately after I put in the synthetic 0w-20.

Hope some people dedicated to the cause are on this site and we can link up to share info and keep our cars rolling along at max efficiency forever and ever. Thanks!

 

Hello I’m also new to the form I own a 2003 civic hybrid and I have been working on this car allot and I’m quit familiar with it. I’m an aviation mechanic by trade and a car mechanic by hobby. I’m a very noligable guy but my spelling is poor to say the least. So sorry in advance ok brake rotors and pads are same as any other car nothing special about that. As far as buying performance rotors or pads it’s your call as far as stock ones go they work really well and the electric motor aids in braking also so I’m my opinion it’s not worth the extra cash.
As far as your bouncy front end your shocks might be leaking or bad I know my car has bad ones.
Also the computer and battery is behind the back seat and makes it impossible to access the truck from the cabin.
Good move on the oil 0w-20 is what the manufacture recommends and for good reason the low viscosity and synthetic requirement is because of the small tolerances in the engine. The running tolerance (gap) between parts on the hybrid engine is much smaller than most other cars. Also your check engine light after oil change is because (p1021 valve pause system stuck on) this is because when you changed the oil. The oil drained from the pump to the valve train. So the oil psi that opens it was not there this should not come back after cleared. You can prevent this from happening when you change oil next time fill the new oil filter with new oil. The oil filter holds about 1/4 quart. That allots to pump next start up. Most people don’t think about that. Also the k&n I also have one that going to be put on soon I have no idea if this mod has any effect to mpg. As the air filter element is not the bottle neck of the intake system. Meaning that the other parts are holding the efficiency back more that the air filters. You can see this if you look at the intake system. So hope this helps anyone who can read my crappy writing. Also my car has 248,000 and is still running good. I have however replaced the ima battery and transmition. I have also rebuilt the transmition and yes it can be done. Even though all the shops will say no or they charge half what the cars worth. Also I live in Victorville ca and if you or any one needs help. Let me know

 

thanks dr schwinn, I'm right up the street from vic-ville up here in the mountains, I did the brakes yesterday, only thing different from any other car i've owned was those **** highly unnecessary screws holding them on, I had to buy an impact driver just to get them off, had the rotors turned they were severely warped....all is good car runs as smooth as possible, k and n air filter doesn't have as dramatic effect as on my insight....btw, there's a guy in apple valley selling a man tran 01 insight with 220k for around $3k. insight is tiny 3 cylinder mounted on some unistrut roomiest engine compartment and easiest car to work on ever

 

drschwinn answered most of your questions, so the only thing I have to add is regarding driving in the snow. Like you say the front end is low; maybe yours was lowered too, who knows? So if snow is very deep, there's not a lot of clearance.

I did get a set of good snow tires and they help a lot with traction. I got Nokians, but the specific model is now unavailable. Still, there are a lot of good choices out there if you choose to go with snows.

Regarding the FCD, I don't know if it under-or over-reads, but on my first full tank I got 47.3 mpg with 571 miles driven (calculated manually, miles driven compared to gallons to fill tank)

Welcome to you both!