After noticing flaky warning lights on and off of ABS and ESC Off light for a while at my aging Sonata- like years-, I have noticed those two lights have always showed up in dash from some point in past – maybe before pandemic. But as a cheap guy ๐ I have ignored with the thoughts that I don’t need ABS nor ESC Off function anyhow… ๐
However, in last week after going thru hilly roads, one driver who was following me for a while finally walked to me at the stop light and told me “Dude your break lights are off!” then my stress from ‘fear of getting rearended by a car behind me at night’ started ๐
As a cheap and stupid owner, I thought it was a bulb problem ๐ – I had my Odyssey’s bulb fried on both sides of rear for a while ๐ However, the bulbs at Sonata were absolutely clean without any sign of problems.
After some YouTube research and looking at Sonata’s wiring diagrams – I realized break lights and ABS ESC switch are all connected and controlled by the switch connect/disconnect on the lever behind the break pad.
So as a cheap and easy guy, I fall into the trap of YouTube always being easy ๐ finally ordered the part from Amazon and end up rushing to auto part store to buy a “when needed not easily found” 14mm ranch. After struggling with acrobatic posture of throwing myself at the bottom under the handle for good 20 minutes and finally replaced the break switch.
Now, here comes the peace of no fear of rear-ended and no irritating dash lights plus likely I saved some good $120-$130 cost for replacing this part at auto shop. ๐
After extensive research on cause of dome/reading light failure, I found out most of the case for Honda Odyssey not working on single side is likely the switch failure but not the burnout of bulb. This meant I will only be able to fix it, if I endeavor to open the whole unit and replace the switch.
After 30 mins of trial-and-error approach on detaching the dome/reading light unit and $15 package from Amazon (2 LED bulb+2 Switch+Plastic wiggling tool) finally changed the faulty switch – now back to brightness in Honda Odyssey ๐
Being stupid on attaching buttons with needle with blurry eyes, I tried to avoid any chances of repairing the loose or detached buttons for whole life. Then, I found this after facing a shirt without 2 buttons ๐
This solution works incredibly easy – simply inserting the silicon based tie with folded form along with button and letting out when needle is pulled out – after one trial and error everything worked so perfect. So now I am looking for any shirts need repair ๐
One more – maybe & hopefully the last DIY I am doing with my retiring-soon Odyssey – replacing the ‘pressure rod’ which holds the tailgate door open. (still don’t know how officially it is called) but beauty of YouTube search function and Amazon’s search function give me enough information to order and teach me how to replace.
Now, my odyssey has super power only at the tailgate door from $25+little bit of labor.. ๐
Cheap replacement of broken/worn out rubber for controller: $7 for 16 silicon cap ๐ it is crazy to realize anything guessable is actually available at Amazon..
Actually, part of the reason went thru the journey of DIYing was also because of this drill – Installing Trailer Hitch. Again, did the huge amount of search the web and youtube video to know what hitch fits odyssey, how to install, and ordered the ramp, hitch at Amazon and tried to install it.
As usual, everything was smooth in YouTube, while there are so many dumb challenges at my end. All the video suggested me doing with 2 or more people, but I don’t have that luxury – no one in my house can help – so brought out home various size of boxes and used those to balance and attached one hole after another hole. Also, used Ratchet Socket Wrench to installed it but it only went into few rounds and half tightened. ๐ฆ
So used my own ‘impact’ drill with socket but no luck -it was so weak only to make few more twists/advances, then learned that I need Impact Wrench ๐ฆ
As it was already evening, I had to leave the hitch as ‘not to fall off’ level and Amazoned overnight delivery ๐ – This must be the Copang experience I hardly ever had ๐ and magically package arrived at next day morning 6AM.
However, when Impact Wrench arrived tried to use the Ratchet socket but learned this doesn’t fit Impact Wrench and actually it is not recommended to be used with Impact Wrench anyhow ๐ฆ haha – so had to order another long Impact Socket set for Impact Wrench with same day delivery – ha ๐
Finally, all the bolt and nuts are 100% tightened – so wondered a bit on setting the Torque but as the car is old and I suspected some of miss-treading is there during install, thought this is good enough for me ๐
At the end dirty hands with some scratches, series of Amazon orders, and crazy searches on YouTube and Bing (Yes I work for Microsoft haha) mission complished ~80%: Now I need to unbox and install the ordered bike rack ๐
This was my street snack – usually you buy this at stationary shop near elementary school – in Seoul when I was a kid – still not clear what is made of but taste chewy, sweet and crusty after torching ๐
One thing encountered after moving in current place in last summer was this place is hot in Summer ๐ – Part of it driven by Townhouse structure and also next door neighbor’s air conditioner vent was installed right next to the siding door of our place; hence opening the window/siding door never helped or even made worse in hot summer days.
After long thoughts and landing a plan to stay at this place for one more year, purchased expensive LG portable Air Conditioner. Now, the problem is how and where to install the vent, and making it worse, this home doesn’t have a horizontal or up-and-down windows, leaving the only option as installing the vent at siding door. (plus as a rental house had the solution shouldn’t impact the main structure of the house and should be easy to remove when season is over)
As all the portable air conditioner assumes up and down windows, had to find the solution to have vent at tall siding door, but luckily found there is something at Amazon for this.
However, this was not sturdy enough (PVC) or very loosely standing – likely because this is optimized for siding window – not turning out to be a long lasting option (had to do adjustments almost every time we turn the conditioner on) and also the default vent didn’t fit with LG’s outlet.
So had to take several actions
– Hand cut the vent to fit the LG outlet with knife and hand saw
– Buy and cut the 2×2 lumber and cut + make a rabbit cut at the bottom to fit into the door’s rail
Then forced to snug the vent kit between the door and inserted wood – but kit was still unstable as the door’s lock installed at the end of door wasn’t providing angled & straight support to the kit.
So bought one more 2×2 had it as a place holder at the door’s end and inserted the vent kit between 2x2s; worked well but vent kit was still dancing around and had tons of gaps to let air flow in various locations, and – as expected- 2×2 not being straight/square also generated sizable gaps between door and 2×2 when closed.
To solve these next set of troubles, drilled between the kit and 2×2 and screwed it to make it sturdy; adding one more layer of wood at outside to close the gap between door and 2×2, + applying weather stripping to seal the gap around the vent kit and 2×2 and also applied the weather stripes on inner frame gap (between the moving door and fixed door), and also cutting the 2×2 for security lumber as the lock will not work during the times we have this vent. ๐
Although not having ever been an engineer, reminded me engineering is all about problem solving ๐
Now the question is – shall I paint the woods to white to match or not ๐
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