Kali Pics
Sunday, December 13, 2009
I finally bought a cleaning kit for my Nikon SLR. I shot a few test photos of Kali early Saturday in the morning light.
I finally bought a cleaning kit for my Nikon SLR. I shot a few test photos of Kali early Saturday in the morning light.
Mt. Sherman (August 2009) was my second 14,000 foot summit and was much easier then Mt. Elbert. The total elevation gain was around 2,500 feet and it only took about 3 hours to reach the summit. Still, any hike at that altitude is somewhat difficult and one must pay close attention to weather when hiking that far above treeline because there is no shelter from storms. On average, about 3 people are killed and 13 injured each year in Colorado from lightning strikes.
This is the view of the Iowa Gulch which is the first climb of the mountain.
From the top of the saddle, this is looking West toward Mt. Elbert & Mt. Massive.
A small snowfield near the summit. Even though it was August it was still cold at that altitude.
Climbing the ridge spine toward the summit. It's kind of narrow in spots.
My shadow shows the steepness off the trail. Parts of the trail are very exposed with a steep drop off the mountain.
Just a reference pic to put the altitude of the summit in perspective. The gray area is actually the trail head parking area. Click to enlarge and you'll notice a very small dot in the gray area which is a car at the trail head.
GPS reading from the summit. It was around 45F with a very strong wind gusting into the 30 MPH range.
View near the parking area looking toward the town of Leadville, CO. It's a beautiful place.
Here's some pics of a recent drive through the country. Kali enjoyed the trip (for the most part).
We think Kali may become an actress someday. She's already starting to work on her skills.
Here's Kali's Popeye face:
As you can see, Kali wasn't exactly thrilled about her first bath. But Grammy did a good job anyway.
The day before Kali got to go home from the hospital, her Aunt Judy and her family came to visit.
I was a beautiful November day today with highs in the 70's. So, I took Kali out for a quick ride around the neighborhood this afternoon. Even though it was warm there was a nice breeze blowing. So, we bundled her up.
I'm not sure who was more confused for her first bottle feeding. Even though we really didn't know what we were doing, we had fun trying.
We got to bring Kali home from the hospital today. Here she is sitting in her car seat & ready to go:
Disclaimer: This is simply a documentation of work I performed on my Xterra. I am not a mechanic therefore any work you do on your own is at your own risk.
Recently, my 2000 Xterra’s “Service Engine Soon” light made an unwelcome appearance on my dash panel. Frustrated, I did some quick research as to what steps I should take regarding the newfound problem. I pulled out the owners manual and found that the SES light wasn’t an emergency unless it was flashing. If the SES light is flashing it can be a sign of major problems and should be driven with caution. Since my SES light was constantly on and my X didn’t exhibit any signs of trouble, some of my worries were relieved. But, that little light drew my attention every time I started the engine. I couldn’t stand it any longer and decided to take action!
First, I found that out that Autozone would test my SES light for free. So, I took them up on the offer and found that my Xterra was showing three error codes:
*(NOTE: According to my Nissan dealer almost all Nissan’s have a knock sensor error and they can be ignored for the most part. A knock sensor will not cause your service engine soon light to appear on it’s own. Since replacing 2 oxygen sensors, my service engine soon light has not come back on).
OK, so what does Bank 1 & 2 mean? In Japan, the steering wheel is located on the passenger side. Therefore, Bank 1 is the passenger side of the engine while Bank 2 is our driver’s side. The 2000 Xterra has a total of four oxygen sensors. Two sensors are located before the catalytic converters and the other two are located past the catalytic converters.
Specifically, Bank 1 Sensor 1 is located on the exhaust manifold on the passenger side of the engine inside the engine compartment. Bank 1 Sensor 2 is located underneath the chassis approximately where the passenger’s feet would be located. Bank 2 Sensor 2 is underneath the driver’s feet just opposite of Bank 1 Sensor 2. Bank 2 Sensor 1 seems to be the most difficult to access as it’s mounted between the engine & firewall on the driver’s side of the engine.
At this point I knew I had two oxygen sensors that needed replacing but knew I had a lot of work to do. I purchased both sensors at my local parts store for around $100.00 and decided to give it a try myself since my local Nissan dealer wanted over $300.00 to replace one sensor!
Replacing Bank 2 Sensor 2
I slid under the driver’s side door and located the 02 sensor. Notice there are four wires (two white, one black, one gray) going into the sensor. There’s also a red cable protector which comes in handy when locating the connector inside the engine compartment.
As you can see below, this connector has the same red cable cover which makes it easy to locate inside the engine compartment. I use a flat head screwdriver to remove the connector from the bracket by forcing the connector forward. Notice the connector is located just above the oil filler cap. The new oxygen sensor reuses the old 02 sensor’s connector. I disconnected the cable and trimmed about 3 inches from end of the cable to make the length correct. I also reused the existing red cable cover to help protect the new 02 sensor.
To summarize the steps I took to replace the oxygen sensor:
The entire project took about two hours from start to finish. It’s not too technical and in my opinion well worth the effort considering the cost a dealer charges to change a sensor. The tools I used in the project included: