sonata vehicle speed sensor

I was driving Kiri's car (an '02 Sonata) not too long ago and, suddenly, the speedometer dropped to zero. A few seconds later the check engine light came on. The car also started idling at very low rpm, but I'm not sure if that was related. I had taken the car to the dealer with the airbag issue and immediately suspected them of accidentally screwing it up or giving themselves a little job security. Either way, I didn't want to take it back. I began searching online and found that there are actually three speed sensors on a Hyundai Sonata.

Conveniently, Sonatas do not have repair manuals. Instead, Hyundai provides a cryptic website for diagnostic and repair info. Anyways, the input and output sensors are located on the transmission and help your vehicle know when to shift. Much information regarding these two sensors can be found in online forums and even on the crappy Hyundai service website. Little to no information, however, can be found for the third sensor: the vehicle speed sensor. Fortunately for me, I had a vehicle speed sensor problem. I'm writing this post to maybe save somebody the headache of trying to figure it out on their own. Most of the information I received from conversations with dealer service department people and one particularly helpful dealer mechanic who walked out to my car with me and showed me where the sensor was and described how to fix it. I have a 2002 Sonata and I imagine this applies to all automatic Sonatas with the same body style.

The vehicle speed sensor is located on top of the transmission as shown in the picture below:

Click on the image for a larger view. The sensor is circled in yellow. I began by disconnecting the air filter hose and removing the top of the air filter housing. This gave me better access to the sensor. A close view of the sensor can be seen below:

To remove the speed sensor, I disconnected the electrical plug from the sensor using a flat head screw driver, taking care to not damage the plug. The plug came off easily. If the terminals on the plug look corroded, it's a good idea to clean them and reseat the plug, as a bad connection may have been the only problem. If that doesn't work, keep reading.

Because the sensor plugs into the top of the transmission, it is a good idea to clean the area around the sensor to prevent dirt from entering the transmission when the sensor is removed. Next, I removed the bolt which holds the sensor in place.

The speed sensor assembly is comprised of the speed sensor and a plastic gear. The plastic gear is turned by the transmission. The sensor measures the speed of the shaft on the plastic gear which is held in place by a retaining ring. I purchased both the sensor and the gear for good measure. The new speed sensor assembly is shown below:

The white helical gear can be seen on the right and, just to the left of it, the retaining ring which holds the small gear shaft on the sensor.

After removing the bolt from the transmission, I removed the sensor assembly by gently prying it upward with a flat head screw driver. When I removed the retaining ring and gear from the sensor, small pieces of broken plastic fell out of the sensor. I guess that was my problem (it's good to know the dealer probably wasn't pulling a fast one). The disassembled speed sensor assembly removed from the car is shown below:

The old speed sensor was covered in transmission fluid. So, for good measure, I applied fresh transmission fluid to the o-ring on the new sensor, gear shaft and helical gear. I then inserted the shaft in the speed sensor, installed the keeper ring and installed the assembly by reversing the removal procedure. When the car was put back together, I started the engine, the check engine light turned off and the speedometer worked perfectly!

For those unfortunate enough to own a Sonata, I hope this tutorial helps.

removing image links

Okay this bugged the heck out of me when I started posting on blogger so I thought I'd share how to fix it. The problem is that blogger automatically includes a link to a larger version of any image posted. If you don't want high-res copies of your pictures available online (for whatever reason), this post is for you.

The picture below is a typical picture uploaded to blogger through the post editor:

If you mouse over the image, a little selector hand will appear which will allow you to open the full size version of the image. Annoying! To remove this option, follow the instructions below:

There are two tabs at the top of the post editor: "Edit Html" and "Compose". The "Edit Html" option allows you to edit the code of you're post. Select the "Edit Html" tab and locate that portion of the code applies to your picture. The applicable portion of the code for the image above, is as follows:

<a onblur=“try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6IF2BtrMoDs/R9YQkD-74aI/
AAAAAAAAAF4/Jt084qPh1Y8/s1600-h/IMG_2510.JPG”><img style=“margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6IF2BtrMoDs/R9YQkD-74aI/
AAAAAAAAAF4/Jt084qPh1Y8/s400/IMG_2510.JPG” alt=““ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176343033439576482” border=“0” /></a>

You're image name and folders will be different than those in the code shown above, so everything will not look exactly the same. The link-removal method, however, is the same for all posts. Simply edit the code as follows:

1. Remove all of the picture code before "<img"
2. Remove "cursor: pointer;" from the body of the code
3. Remove "</a>" from the end of the picture code

The portions which should be removed are shown in green below:

<a onblur=“try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6IF2BtrMoDs/R9YQkD-74aI/
AAAAAAAAAF4/Jt084qPh1Y8/s1600-h/IMG_2510.JPG”><img style=“margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6IF2BtrMoDs/R9YQkD-74aI/
AAAAAAAAAF4/Jt084qPh1Y8/s400/IMG_2510.JPG” alt=““ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176343033439576482” border=“0” /></a>

the remaining code should look something like this:

<img style=“margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center;” src=“http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6IF2BtrMoDs/R9YQkD-74aI/
AAAAAAAAAF4/Jt084qPh1Y8/s400/IMG_2510.JPG” alt=““ id=“BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5176343033439576482” border=“0” />

The results of these modifications can be seen on the image below:

Even after this work-around, a particularly snoopy visitor can still find the full sized image by opening another post with a linked picture, copying the link from the address bar and changing the filename to that of the desired picture. For example, if you click on the picture in my photostitch post, the full sized image will be opened in the current window and the following text will be displayed in the address bar.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6IF2BtrMoDs/R8uoJOy2rfI/AAAAAAAAAFI/
nMxjewxpZbo/s1600-h/mini-stitched2c-1.JPG

That text reveals the location of the full sized images. By simply changing the filename at the end of the text (mini-stitched2c-1.JPG) to that of the desired photo (obtained by right clicking on the small image and selecting "properties"), which in the case used in this tutorial is IMG_2510.JPG, the result is the following text:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6IF2BtrMoDs/R8uoJOy2rfI/AAAAAAAAAFI/
nMxjewxpZbo/s1600-h/IMG_2510.JPG

When this modified address is pasted in the address box of any web browser, the full sized image will be retrieved. A nice workaround for this problem is to simply resize your images before uploading them to your blog. A great free image resizer/converter is Mihov Image Resizer. To resize in Image Resizer, install and open the program. Next select the file type tab at the top of the page (probably JPG). Then enter the desired picture size in the Pixels box to the right (the large setting in blogger is 400 pixels) and select your picture quality (I always select "Better Quality"). Next, in the box on the upper left, browse to the folder containing the images to be resized and select the image file or files to be resized. Then press the resize button and Image Resizer will place a resized copy of your picture in the same folder as the original. The new file name will begin with the prefix "mini-". A screenshot of IR is included below. Note the mini version of the picture in the images list on the left, indicating that the picture awesome.JPG has been resized.

Simply upload the mini picture instead of the full-sized picture (before modifying the code to disable the link). The result is a small picture for everyone, including those super snoopy types.