One of the most frustrating experiences as a car enthusiast is when you’re wrenching in your car’s engine bay, accidentally drop a small tool or part, and just cannot find it. This situation, despite the frustration it causes, is also sort of funny. It doesn’t seem to matter how small or large the engine bay is; if you drop a socket, it just seems to disappear into a portal, possibly never to be seen again.
But where did it go? Sockets don’t just disappear!
So yeah, the subject of lost tools is on my mind this week. On Sunday, the Scion iQ in my shared fleet got new plugs, coil packs, and a gas pedal replacement. The surgery was successful, despite the absurd design of the Scion iQ’s engine bay. However, there were two casualties: one 14mm socket and one 10mm bolt. Where did they go?
Honestly, I spent way too much time looking for both. A lot of it was because I was stubborn. “A Scion iQ is barely larger than a Smart,” I thought, “how could a big 14 mil socket just disappear into a tiny engine bay?”
I got serious in my search. I busted out my ramps, pulled out my best flashlight, and even deployed some magnets. I feel like I searched every inch of the engine bay, and yet, I found nothing. Well, that’s not true. I did find some crusty subframe rust. This is a big oof, and a candidate for fluid film:
My search for the lost 14mm got so desperate that I started checking the cracks of the parking lot and under parked cars for my missing socket. Apparently, I must have looked quite suspicious when doing this, because one of my neighbors gave me a dirty look after I checked under someone else’s car for my socket.
My desperation grew to a level where I got into the Scion, hit the gas, and then slammed on the brakes. When that didn’t produce the socket, I started bumping the car into a low curb, hoping I’d maybe jostle the socket free or something. That failed, too.
Sadly, all efforts failed, and once I ran out of daylight, I gave up. I hope my 14mm is enjoying its new life. It served me well and went out like a boss after successfully freeing some nuts. The bolt was also a lost cause. Who even knows where that went?
But I can’t stop thinking about this. It’s not like I was working in a place with a lot of nooks and crannies. While the Scion iQ’s engine bay is tight, you can still see through it to the ground. The car doesn’t even have a belly pan that could catch a wayward socket. I spotted a flat area on the engine and transaxle that could hug a socket, and even that area was empty.
In hindsight, maybe I could have used my borescope camera to get an extra eye in the engine bay, but who knows if I would have been successful there. Sheryl has even driven the car at least a few hundred miles since we completed the work, so who knows where the socket could be.
Here’s where I turn things to you. What tools have you lost in your car? Did you find them? If so, how did you do it? What other sorts of mayhem have dropped tools caused in your garage? I’m looking at you, guy I saw on Insta who set his garage on fire when a dropped wrench fell across the battery terminals and arced. Yikes!
Top graphic images: Mercedes Streeter; Craftsman
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