The concept of motivation is quite powerful. It’s not just the name of a TI song which resonated with me back in 2004. Motivation is the force that pushes. Motivation causes action–you can liken it as the potential energy behind the kinetic energy. It is your fire within. In its essence, motivation is the reason most of us get up every morning. It’s the reason why we strive for our goals and reach.. Read More
So a few weeks back, the garage door opened in the afternoon. Nothing out of the usual–I assumed my wife got home from work early. My wife was not home. I checked my Nest camera and she never came back, yet sure enough, the garage door opened. It proceeded to close and open a few more times. Clearly, shenanigans were afoot. First thing I thought, there must be bad wire connections between my.. Read More
So, let’s talk about laundry. Laundry is a chore, meaning there is never really a good time for it. You have to do it, so you make time for it. In my case, I made time before work as I have the privilege of working at home. So I shove my full load of laundry in my washer and wait for the alert that it finishes so I can migrate the load to.. Read More
So after watching Sebastian (2zzlow on YouTube) and yet another of his videos, my Dad and I think it useful to replace another motor mount under the battery support in the engine bay. This part ID is 12372-22020 and is called several names, the left mount, driver’s side mount, or transmission mount. I still don’t have the rear engine mount I ordered last week, but it usually does take a couple weeks with.. Read More
So as of this past week I have a new issue–the car violently shakes when engaging first gear (or reverse). My Dad convinced me it’s a motor mount issue. I worry that this may have happened when I pushed the car off of the scissor jack while trying to work on the audio system. The car ended up falling on the driver’s side front (left front) rotor rather abruptly so it may have.. Read More
Weather has caused delay in more ways than one. The weather this past weekend was bleak and wet. My original plan was to use wheel cleaner to try to restore what is left of the aluminum alloy Motegi RT5 18 inch wheels I inherited with this project. I did play with the idea of ordering new 17s but I simply did not want to invest in the wheels yet. It certainly is not.. Read More
Something that my older brother got me into in my teen years was car audio, namely in the realm of bass/subwoofers. Back in the early 90s, cars were manufactured from the dealerships with crappy paper cone woofers. It is insane how terrible these speakers really were–it was like the manufacturers made speakers out of construction paper. In my experience, bass in automobiles just didn’t happen off the lot–it was all aftermarket. I seem.. Read More
This post is going to be a deviation from the norm. I want to talk about a short interlude track from Final Fantasy XIII that has struck a chord with me since I first heard it called “A Brief Respite” composed by Masashi Hamauzu. This song is potentially a track that is unknown to many Final Fantasy enthusiasts that in contrast I frequently remember and want to listen to. Final Fantasy XIII follows.. Read More
The car is cleaner both inside and out. Is it perfect? No–still some dog hairs around, but no bad smells! I bought a set of Craftsman brand toolboxes yesterday and was surprised to find that they fit in the Civic hatchback without issue. I heaved them in there and drove back while the rear suspension did all the heavy lifting. I spent all day yesterday rearranging and organizing my tools. My old toolbox.. Read More
Let me start off with–the leak is fixed! It took us (Dad and I) four days what Toyota said would take 5-6 hours, but we have our reasons. We ran into a couple snags… The passenger side motor mount had a bolt that would just spin–we couldn’t take it out. This caused access issues down the line because everything in this 2ZZ-GE motor is jam packed in the engine bay. My Dad managed.. Read More