NGC - Lost My Screwdriver While Changing Sparkplugs

[sign216]

While changing the plugs on my '06 Mazda 6, a screwdriver slipped from my hands, falling into the engine.  I thought nothing of it, but when I looked I couldn't find it at all.
Ended up jacking the car up, looking from below.  Still no screw driver.

Wtf?!

Finished changing the oil.  Took the car out over some bumps and all.  Still nothing.
I know that someday it'll appear. 
Or maybe not.

[rodekyll]

Falling into the engine or into the engine box?


When I worked for Datsun we had a customer come in with his brand new 280Z.  It was making a horrible racket, dripping oil, and only had a few hundred miles on it.  We asked what he might have done to contribute to the situation, and he denied having tinkered with anything, but he wasn't a happy camper, since he'd paid a crapload of money for it, and suddenly now this, and etc.  So one of the mechanics opened up the cam cover and looked around.  The cam cover seal was broken and down in the cam chain well was a screwdriver with the owner's driver license number scribed into the handle.

[sign216]

I think it's the engine box, as there's not really enough room in the engine proper to hold it.
Still, I can't find it.
It might be buried behind the alternator, waiting to come out and jam things up in a few thousand miles.

[canuguzzi]

It will fall out onto the pavement at highway speeds and get stuck in someone's radiator. No worries, they'll let you know.

[LowRyter]

don't those Mazdas have plastic bellypans under the engine?

[CalVin2007]

  I generally find things like that in a rear tire.

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Lost tools and parts alway go to the most inaccessible place that will cause the greatest problems.

 It's what they do.

 For instance, if you are working on an old V8 auto engine and have the carb removed and you are putting a wire onto the alternator and drop a nut,  The nut will inevitably bounce into the manifold and no matter how you use dental mirror and flashlight, you will not be able to see it.  Fishing around with a magnet on a probe won't work because the nut is made of brass.  You are not even allowed to know which bank of cylinders it went to.  So you remove the manifold and still can't find it.  Thus you know it went down an open valve into a cylinder.  Removal of a head does not find it so you remove the other one.  It will always be in a cylinder of the second one.  Your triumph is short lived as you remember that one of the head bolts broke instead of unscrewing.  And so it goes.

[Tom]

I think I found it.  About 12" long, blue/clear handle Phillips?  Craftsman?

[Muzz]

Gotta be in the engine bay somewhere. Can't get in to the actual engine when you are only changing the plugs.

My son owns a power steering and wheel alignment business. It is amazing where tools can hide when you drop them.

[Two Checks]

Why were you using a screwdriver to change spark plugs? 

[lucian]

Joe ,those Mazda's are famous for containing screwydrivers.

[Chuck in Indiana]

When working on airplanes, I *always* keep track of my tools. Don't need a wrench locking up some control a mile in the air. One afternoon when I was cleaning and organizing the tools, a 7/16" wrench was missing. I looked for it for a week. No flying until that wrench is found... Expanded the search to the Guzzi Garage. I put out a $100 reward for it.  Dorcia looked. The Kid looked.
Nada.
Decided to service the battery. It's under the copilot seat, so started to remove the seat and it wouldn't move. That wrench had *somehow* bounced off the floor and up into the seat track. That's a long ways from the floor. (!) Laid flat in there and couldn't be seen with the typical mirror and flashlight. Smiled and paid myself $100...

[sign216]

Ok, ok.  to answer all: I was using the screwdriver to unclip an electrical connection so I could get the intake manifold off, to expose the far bank of cylinders.  Screwdriver 8" green and chrome, no brand name.  If you find it on the road, let me know.

The Mazda 6 does have a partial belly pan.  Jacking the car up and looking from below, did not produce the screwdriver.   It's amazing as there aren't many areas for it to hide.

As for Mazdas having screwy drivers; I don't mind be a screwy driver, but I'd like to have one less screwy passenger (the lost screw driver).

I'm sure it'll show up on a dark winter night, in a remote area without cell coverage, where it'll cause a disabling problem.

[Rotten Ralph]

Did you try sweeping the engine area with a magnet?

[sign216]

Did you try sweeping the engine area with a magnet?

I didn't try that.  I'll give it a go tonight.  The frustration is that theren't aren't any areas that are big enough to hold the screwdriver, that I can't see right now.

But obviously I'm wrong.  Or...I've discovered a portal to another dimension, and the world-changing entrance to another universe  just happens to be in the engine bay of my '06 Mazda.

[johnr]

What Jim said!

[old as dirt 2]

just make another one, this time use  grey goose as you won't lose it because of the higher costs

[oldbike54]

 Bought a slick 1964 Chevy SS Impala for 100 bucks from another troop . The car had been to a couple of mechanics who diagnosed the knocking sound as fatal main or rod bearing failure . It really was creating a racket , but ran fine and held oil pressure . One of my buddies was a talented mechanic , and told me to buy it , worst case scenario he had a spare 327 to install . We drove it to the hobby shop , clattering all the way , drawing stares from every one . Pulled it into a bay , and began the disassembly process . Out came the radiator , and the source of the knocking sound became obvious , a 1/2 " Craftsman combination wrench situated just right to produce a glorious cacophony  We put the car together and attempted to return it to our fellow troop . Nope , he was TDY , and his wife's dad was already there with a newer Ford , the dad told us all Chevies are junk , keep it , and good luck 

 Dusty

[sign216]

Bought a slick 1964 Chevy SS Impala for 100 bucks from another troop . The car had been to a couple of mechanics who diagnosed the knocking sound as fatal main or rod bearing failure . It really was creating a racket , but ran fine and held oil pressure . One of my buddies was a talented mechanic , and told me to buy it , worst case scenario he had a spare 327 to install . We drove it to the hobby shop , clattering all the way , drawing stares from every one . Pulled it into a bay , and began the disassembly process . Out came the radiator , and the source of the knocking sound became obvious , a 1/2 " Craftsman combination wrench situated just right to produce a glorious cacophony  We put the car together and attempted to return it to our fellow troop . Nope , he was TDY , and his wife's dad was already there with a newer Ford , the dad told us all Chevies are junk , keep it , and good luck 

 Dusty

Awesome story Dusty.  I had a Monte Carlo SS, last year they were made, and it was an terrific piece of Chev engineering.
The best I did was 135 mph before my fear of the state police kicked in.
Another era, eh?

[oldbike54]

Awesome story Dusty.  I had a Monte Carlo SS, last year they were made, and it was an terrific piece of Chev engineering.
The best I did was 135 mph before my fear of the state police kicked in.
Another era, eh?

 135 , WOW !

 Really nothing wrong with the 1964 SS , well other than it was engineered in 1960 and built in
1963  It was a nice dark red with bucket seats . 4 speed car with the old stock Muncie shifter that was a bit vague . My buddy the mechanic ended up with it , I was foolishly involved with an Austin Healey Sprite at the time 

 Dusty

[jbell]

sign216, I'm guessing you have about 100K on the plugs to be changing them.  Highly recommend you replace the coils and the six plenum gaskets while you have it apart.  Don't cheap out on the coils or you'll be doing it again in 10K.  Just did my '04 6 Wagon at 120K (I should have done it sooner) and it's nice to have it running as it should again.  Can't think of anywhere specific to look but would suggest feeling around with a strong "magnet on a stick."  Also, if you haven't replaced the plastic T that sends coolant to the throttle body to warm it up, it's only a matter of time before it crumbles.


Oops, just reread your initial post and see you've already put it back together but still do that plastic T to the throttle body if it hasn't been done already.

[cruzziguzzi]

Drop another one but watch it this time... At least the first one'll have company.

Todd.

[canuguzzi]

Wouldn't want to be the motorcyclist (or anyone else for that matter) who finds that screwdriver going down the road at 60 mph. If you know for sure it didn't drop to the ground, driving it around seems a questionable activity.

[Penderic]

 

[Moto Fugazzi]

That screwdriver will be next to the left sock that you lost in the wash last week.
Ken

[pete mcgee]

Congratulations,
You have discovered your own personal black hole, every garage has one.
Every item you have ever lost resides in this black hole, the only thing it won't accept is the dust devils from under your bed.
They will not reappear even when you move, however if you buy another identicle item to replace the one you lost it will reappear miraculously.
 Cheers

[sign216]

sign216, I'm guessing you have about 100K on the plugs to be changing them.  Highly recommend you replace the coils and the six plenum gaskets while you have it apart.  Don't cheap out on the coils or you'll be doing it again in 10K.  Just did my '04 6 Wagon at 120K (I should have done it sooner) and it's nice to have it running as it should again.  Can't think of anywhere specific to look but would suggest feeling around with a strong "magnet on a stick."  Also, if you haven't replaced the plastic T that sends coolant to the throttle body to warm it up, it's only a matter of time before it crumbles.


Oops, just reread your initial post and see you've already put it back together but still do that plastic T to the throttle body if it hasn't been done already.

Jbell,
I bought the car recently with 109k miles.  The plugs look like they've got about 50k miles on them.  The gaskets looked ok, but I added a little Hylomar to the seals.   As for the "T" pipe that sends coolant to warm the throttle body (TB), did you know there's a modification to eliminate that? 

An interesting design idea; do you want a heated TB, or a cool one?

[Gliderjohn]

Well at least you didn't loose the whole toolbox. In a book on the Women's air corp in WWII a gal took off from the factory with a new P-51 Mustang. It would not fly level with neutral stick and full aileron trim in, she had to keep the stick to the left some. When she arrived at the delivery base she reported the problem. After much searching for a problem with no luck they started peeling the skins off a wing and found a whole tool box toward the out part of the wing.
GliderJohn

[sturgeon]

In a similar vein, I once found a handful of head bolts in the V of a POS V6 Chev my wife had bought. I was doing something or other to it, probably air filter, when I found them. All brand new, obviously been there since it was built 6 or 7 years prior. And no, they weren't missing from the engine 

[oldbike54]

In a similar vein, I once found a handful of head bolts in the V of a POS V6 Chev my wife had bought. I was doing something or other to it, probably air filter, when I found them. All brand new, obviously been there since it was built 6 or 7 years prior. And no, they weren't missing from the engine 

 Brian Bosworth model 

 Dusty