on a scale of 1-10 how likely is a socket that fell to the bottom of the engine bay of a car likely to cause damage? its not in the engine its omewhere on the bottom of engine area. my mom is giving me grief, i was trying to tighten her battery cables and it popped off.
#2
Ravenpoe
I'm certainly not a car expert, but if you dropped it near the battery, it probably shouldn't be able to hurt much. Assuming you didn't have anything open or taken apart, it's probably just sitting on the bottom of the frame.
#3
jwhouk
...Did you, by happenstance, check to see if it fell all the way down to the floor of the garage, under the car?
#4
Bones
her car has like a complete underbody skid plate, i couldnt see it anywhere under the car.
#5
PatrThom
Time to jack up the front end and see if it rolls out.
I mean, the short answer is yes, it could conceivably cause damage, but the odds are small. Most of an engine's moving parts are encased within the engine/transmission housing(s), because their motion is quite violent and is really not the sort of thing you want out in the open.
--Patrick
#6
strawman
Well, for perspective we've had a suspected rock on our engine splash guard/skid plate/plastic thingy underneath the engine for over two years now. So far we haven't notice any issues with it bouncing and sliding around down there.
That said, if you drive on enough dirt roads it'll fall out by itself.
Also if you get an oil change and mention it to the oil change place they may be able to retrieve it for you.
If you really want to tray to get it yourself, decide where you can access the holes in the plate the easiest, then accelerate forward an brake to move it to the front, or backward and brake to move it to the back, etc. Then you can use a magnetic retrieval tool to pull it out.
#7
Mathias
Worst thing is you lost a socket and it might be annoying as hell rattling around on the skid plates.
