I've just had one of those heart thumping moments whilst doing a DIY oil and filter change on the Pug.
I'd drained the sump, changed the filter, put a new washer on and put 2 out of the 4.5 litres of oil in the filler when I nudged the engine cover as I leaned over. One of those silly plastic twist studs with the metal springs decided to jump up and disappear. I missed seeing where it went, but was searching towards the back of the engine bay which is where I thought it should be.
SWMBO was sat watching and piped up "I think it went down where you just poured the oil. Does that matter?"
Aaaaarghh! At least she noticed though!
After peering with a torch I saw it, and then tried to grab it with a pair of long nosed pliers. No luck, but lots of swearing!
Eventually resorted to taking the rocker box cover off to get to it.
A half hour job lasted 2 hours. I wasn't impressed, but mightily relieved. Driving off with it in the top of the engine still sends shivers down my spine.
I think Anne might be coming with me to do other jobs on the car again.....
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Sounds like a real Wallace and Grommit moment.
Might I suggest you buy a long flexible grabber, available from a car parts shop for less than a fiver, as this should have saved you removing the rocker box cover.
--
Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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It's even worse when you can't find it, but it COULD have gone down the oil filler. Do you take a risk, or dismantle the engine just in case?
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Might I suggest you buy a long flexible grabber, available from a car parts shop for less than a fiver,
>>
I bought, abroad, I think in Aus, a magnetic tipped retriever.
It is in effect a bendable aluminium rod with a small magnet on the end. Fortunately it has not been deployed to date but it was a cheap tool I could not resist.
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"I think it went down where you just poured the oil. Does that matter?"
:^D
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There might be part of a 2thou feeler gauge floating around somewhere in my motorbike engine. It snapped off as I extracted it from the tappets as I was checking the clearances - and fell straight down the channel where the camchain comes up between the 2 cylinders.
Happened several years ago, and have covered 5000 or so miles since (hardly use it). I imagine the gearbox has chewed it up and spat it out either through the exhaust or when I next changed the oil.
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While doing a decoke and valve grind on the P4 some years ago, a collet off one of the side valves slipped down into the sump. I was quite prepared to leave it there but found it impossible to source another one, so it turned into a sump off job. Unforunately the sump wouldn't come right off due to crossmembers and steering rod so it was a case of shirt off and arm up to the elbow in the (very large) sump fishing around in the sludge until I found the wretched thing. Funnily enough since then I've always stuffed rags done oilways when doing any work.
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One mans junk is another mans treasure
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I had a similar experience to Steptoe,when renewing valve stem oil seals in situ I lost a collet down an oilway.A crossmember meant the sump could only be dropped by half an inch.Using some flexible magnet(like a can tester)attached to a welding rod I went fishing and got it first go,and I,too,always stuff rag in the oilways now.
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My dad knew someone years ago who filled his engine up with varnish.
I'm sure he immediately labelled all his containers!
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Mike Farrow
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Sorry to ask simple questions, but, what is a rocker box?
What is a 2thoufeeler gauge?
What is a P4?
What is a collet?
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what is a rocker box?
It's a cover that sits over the top of your valves and rockers.
homepage.ntlworld.com/david.jackson17/images/cov24...g
What is a 2thoufeeler gauge?
An acurate measurement device for setting up valve clearances, spark plug gaps and the like.
www.toolspot.co.uk/products/Mag%20Dishes/13%20Blad...g
What is a P4?
An old Rover.
www.roverclub.at/bilder/big/1960%20P4%20big.jpg
What is a collet?
They're used to hold valves into place.
www.650motorcycles.com/XS01-9091.jpg
donalds-hobby.com/Prod/myProdImages/OSMG9227.jpg
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Sorry to ask simple questions, but, what is a rocker box?
a coffin for a 70s musician
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not quite as thumping, but I knocked the oil filler cap down into the engine bay of my friend's brand new passat earlier this year. Didn't think much of it, until I tried to find it. There's a silver catch it tray underneath part of the engine. And it's somewhere down in there & he needs to be off in 15mins & I have NO tools. Not even an adustable spanner. Nearly broke my wrist feeling around for it, but at least I found it before he cottoned on!
Moral of the story of course is to keep the working area clean, which means clean of bits just taken off & tools. Uhuh. Other moral is that we are all 'the other guy' that the unfortunate one off event happens to. Well I am!
Glad you found it!
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While my grandfather was on holiday many years ago, I thought I'd do him a good turn by taking his Tipo for a run. Battery was flat, so I connected leads to my polo. Tried to start the Tipo, large bang! Seems somehow I'd blown the filler cap off, covered his & nextdoor's (white) garage doors in oil. Ooops!
The heartstopping part was that the filler cap is flat on top, and I didn't know what it was at first!
Alex.
--
Dr Alex Mears
Seat Leon Cupra
If you are in a hole stop digging...unless
you are a miner.
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I had a close shave yesterday too and no, not the kind you have with a razor, though I did have one of those too.
Yesterday mid-morning I was travelling on a local one-way system, round B&Q/Arches retail park for those that are familiar with Watford. It was very quiet on that stretch of dual lane road and there is no pedestrian access i.e. no pavements, armco barriers either side etc. I was keeping to the right-hand lane due to some debris scattered along the left lane. As I approached the apex of a tight right-hand corner at around 20-25mph (you can't see "through" the corner due to shrubs etc.) I almost had a heart attack when all of a sudden about 25-30ft in front of me there appeared a Fiesta coming towards me in "my" lane at about 20-30mph!
All I remember is looking at the sheepish grin on the old lady driver's face and thinking "Thank god for airbags!".
I really don't know how we didn't have a head-on at 50 plus mph, it must have been so close. Amazing how in these instances instinct and reflex takes over and everything happens in a sort of slow-motion. There was no harm to either party, we didn't collide or even graze each other's vehicles and there were no other vehicles involved.
It all happened very quickly, Fiesta lady or "Aunt Bessie" as I like to remember her, almost immediately did a U-turn and went on her merry way and after a few seconds, so did I - though I must have been fairly dazed without realising it, because it was only half way up to Milton Keynes that I seemed to come off "auto-pilot".
That Lady was very lucky that I was in the Landcruiser yesterday; Due to the extra height and visibility, I saw the roof of her car a split second before it appeared in front of me and that really was the margin of escape. If I'd been in SWMBO's Yaris, I probably wouldn't have seen her until it was too late not to mention that I more than likely would've been going a couple of mph faster to boot.
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That Lady was very lucky that I was in the Landcruiser yesterday; [...]
See - 4x4s are much safer for other road users!
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Well it certainly wouldn't have been lucky for her if we'd had a head-on, thats for sure!
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;-)
My point exactly. Most factors work in both directions at the same time. Which makes it very hard to say much about these things.
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It may make it hard, but most people on here seem to be prepared to make the effort......
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I'll be in the X5 for a few days next week. Must look out for Landcruisers to lane hog in front of (with foglights on....) just in case it's the right one!
Only joking ...
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For the second time I was tail-gated by a little Nissan something or other on the M40 today. Why ? Did he think he was oging to make the big nasty LAndcruiser get out of the way or drive faster by intimidating me ? Or did he think that I would ignore the fact that the middle lane was already occupied and pull in anyway ?
Quite what he thought would happen if I had to brake suddenly, I don't know.
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For the second time I was tail-gated by a little Nissan something or other [...]
:-D
Normal posting will resume next Tuesday, when I am expected to stop laughing at the mental image that has just been conjured up.
What did he plan to do? Bite your ankles?
Where on the M40? I might go hunting.... ;-)
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J10 ish going North around 8:00am.
I've seen the little blighter before. There's a like-minded individual in a Corsa sometimes as well.
Dipsticks.
Its amazing how often you see the same people doing the samething time and time again when you trravel the same route a lot.
Silver Saab estate, Burgundy VW Sharan, MG with the *really* sad spoiler, make-up girlie in the escort, phone man in the VW Toerag.......
and of course the police in the unmarked Silver Omega - morning chaps!
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IMO this type of behaviour is mainly down to the driver's attitude rather than anything else. If the driver has an aggressive or "problem" attitude they are probably more likely to behave like this.....reminds me when you sometimes see small dogs trying to attack much larger ones for no apparent reason.
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On stripping the engine of a Ford Granada I bought, to investigate a rattle on piston no.4 (diagnosed by a mechanic friend as piston slap), I found one of the small rocker cover bolts embedded in the bottom of the piston. This embedded bolt was hitting the counter-balance of the crankshaft on each revolution of the engine causinga nasty knock. The previous owner (who was known to me) had renewed the camshaft and followers and dropped a rocker cover bolt down one of the oilways into the sump. It had been whipped up by the crank and pressed into the piston, where the oil feed hole to the little end bearing is. He was very disheartened to say the least to discover that the original knocking of the worn cam was now replaced by another knocking, which sounded quite similar. He never admitted to dropping the bolt although he was glad to off load the car (probably due to the fact that he would have to strip the engine to repair it) and needless to say I got the car cheap.
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Not so much a close shave as a real "D'oh!" moment when I forgot to replace the sump plug after draining the oil from the engine last year. Poured 2 litres of extremely expensive GTD Magnatec down before I realised what I'd done!
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