Making movies is fun!

Posted on August 22, 2011 by lance| Leave a comment

The rabbit project is on the slow right now, Liz and I are having some busy summer days lately.  Fortunately, I’ve dug my claws into an area I haven’t worked in since high school, oh so long ago… Movie Making!

I have the video bug right now, and it is really good to be making something for a change, instead of just watching things.  The old consumer vs. creator struggle.  It’s great to be a creator again.

I’m going to be posting  what I learn as I make different kinds of videos, and do the voice work as well for those.  So you will see some of the videos I make posted here, along with some of the work that doesn’t quite fit the bill, but that I learned something from.

It’s a fun journey, and I’m enjoying it immensely, and using open source tools to do it to, which I will detail in future posts.

Thanks for reading, and here’s a little stop motion I did the other night, using some figurines and tums (I love tums, as a prop, and simply for what they are).

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Posted in Audio/Video

New Oxygen Sensor for 2004 Elantra

Posted on July 24, 2011 by lance| 1 Comment

The check engine light came on for the 2004 Elantra I drive, giving me an error code of P0038 and P0136, indicating the oxygen sensor (O2) Sensor was having some problems.  It lists Bank 1 Sensor 2 as the position.

Stopped over at the local Advanced Auto Parts, which was air conditioned, thank goodness.  Had them look up the part and they found this, a Bosch oxygen sensor for 63.99.

It was pretty easy to reach down from the hood to get to the oxygen sensor, but it seemed a little tight with the wrench.  Actually, practically unmovable so I cranked up the car on jack stands outside on the parking area/road and crawled underneath.  Loosened it up with a couple sprays of WD-40 and it came free just fine using a nice BIG wrench.

It looked pretty yucky, here’s a pic:

Hyundai Elantra 2004 old Oxygen Sensor

Then I put the new one in, all shiny and ready to go, with the slightest bit of anti-seize compound on the threads (pre-dressed by Bosch, thanks!).  Sanded the metal terminals on the connector coming from the car due to some corrosion, and dabbed a little dialectic gel on them to prevent any corrosion in the future.

Set everything back in order on the car, reconnect battery, hood down, jack up, remove jack stands, jack down (sloooowly) and try it out!

So far so good, no check engine light after driving 9 miles, give it a few days before we really know if this fixed it or not!

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Posted in 2004 Elantra GLS, Uncategorized

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Brand new grounds

Posted on June 8, 2011 by lance| 1 Comment

A few days ago, I decided to completely replace the main ground lines in the rabbit.  As you saw, they were  very old and yucky.  Probably not doing me any favors.  Wasn’t sure where to go for this kind of thing, so I called up the local auto store, and they only had this gauge wire in 100 foot lengths, no good for a cheap project.

I decided to check out home depot, and you can buy 4 gauge for about $2 a foot, and the connectors for a reasonable price.  I bought about 12 feet to redo the battery to frame, battery to transmission, battery to engine, etc.

Location of the new rabbit grounds

New grounds attached to battery terminal

I found out later that you can buy a complete earthing/grounding kit online for around $20.  Probably should have looked more before I jumped into Home Depot, but my solution is pretty cool too.

So, this hasn’t solved the no-start problem, but at least I can rule out the main grounds.

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Posted in 1981 VW Rabbit Project, Electricals