When cracking open the hood of an old car for the first time, you’re bound to find some surprises. Rusty bolts, mangled wiring connections, cracking rubber, you name it. Sometimes, though, you see good stuff, like new parts, upgrades, or repairs you weren’t expecting. And other times, you come across weird stuff that wasn’t ever meant to be left under the hood of a car.
Over my years of working on cheap shitboxes, I’ve been constantly surprised by the stuff I find under the hood of cars I buy. In some instances, I’m only able to get a quick glance at the engine bay when I’m going through the buying process, meaning I don’t really get the chance to shine a light into every nook and cranny. It’s only when I get back home to I find the truly weird stuff.
For me, there are two instances that stick out in my mind for strange things I’ve found in my engine bays. The first isn’t strictly weird as it is funny; As I was looking over a BMW M3 I bought back in 2021, I discovered that someone had left a pocket screwdriver under the hood, around the brake reservoir area. But it wasn’t just any screwdriver. It was a fancy Snap-On-branded screwdriver.
The previous owner told me they never worked on the car, so this was likely some mechanic’s tool that they forgot to take with them. The screwdriver was also pretty rusty on either end, which made me think it was probably there for at least a few years without anyone seeing it. It remains the only Snap-On tool I own.
The second instance was when I went to check the oil on my E30-generation BMW 325iX. Upon lifting the hood, I discovered a massive pile of sunflower seed shells sitting atop my valve cover. For a few seconds, I wondered if I had somehow spilled some seeds into my engine bay the last time I was working on it before I realized a rodent of some kind had probably just been feasting on top of the car’s warm engine overnight. It also smelled like rat pee, which really grossed me out. Thankfully, all of the engine bay’s wires were intact.
Your turn:
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve found in your engine bay?
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