ok
 

Im

Probably rolled into one of the crevices. You need 2 things: 1) a small adjustable mirror, and 2) a magnet on a stick. THeir use is self-explanatory. I would not start it up until I find that socket.

Don't even think about starting the engine! Stick the magnet in every crevice you can find. Eventually you'll hook the socket.

Yeah...Ive got the magnet and the mirror, need more light!

Thanks for the one star rating, thats what this one deserves. ;)

This happened to me once.....work light and telescoping mirror.....I HATE when stuff like this happens.

my tools have been running away from home for years............incidently..........whenever i am at my brothers houses, i see that they have every tool i have ever owned in my life, even the "special made" ones.

It's not a dumbass problem; just unlucky. Shows you one of the additional uses for crazy glue. Yes, I have used it to hold nuts into sockets and to keep sockets onto tools. clean after you're done and call it a day.

If the socket rolled one way, perhaps you can get it to roll the other way by jacking up the left side of the car.

It sometimes helps to know the lay of the land. here's the top of a Carrera w/o all the mess
http://gallery.rennlist.com/albums/a...0442.sized.jpg
and a different view
http://gallery.rennlist.com/albums/a...0445.sized.jpg

I once let a wing nut fall into the heat exchanger. If you're still in the process of removing the heads, then you'll find it eventually. If it's just a valve adjustment you're doing, then the intake system should not be off and 'open.' I guess I don't understand.

Bill,

Very nice (albeit gratuitous ;)) engine picture. Wished mine looked so nice!

Bill,

I love the gratuitous engine shot. Makes me want to take my motor apart for fun.

If he was taking off the valve covers inside the engine compartment, there is no way - unless he doesn't have the engine sheet metal - that the socket would get under the car.

Try sticking a magnet down the plug holes as this is one of the places that sockets like to go if the cover is on when you lose the socket. However, simply dragging the magnet around that side of the engine compartment has been known to help.

That's a 3.2 Carrera, not mine but since i've been accused here's mine
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/DSCN3215.jpg
Somwhat different

Bummer. When you do find that socket, be sure and post where it was you found it. That way, the rest of us will know to look there first when it happens to one of us.

Good Luck.

Thanks for

Just be sure to take some pictures of the blow-up for the Mechanical Mayhem Files.
:rolleyes:

How about this one....Let the Nephew check the oil...and he drops the dip stick into the tank :)

That's why they call it a "dip stick". :D OK, sorry, really.

There are actually not many places that the socket can go, and absolutely nowhere that it can get "inside of the motor". If that was true, I would not be able to wash my motors w/ a garden hose, now would I?

I think that *down a plug hole* is a good guess, have you stuck the magnet down all of them? Otherwise drag the magnet around the top of motor, or just run to Sears and buy a new 13mm socket. And I am relatively sure that you are calling a valve adjustment a "valve job", right? An actual valve job would require the removal and disassembly of most of your motor, so lost sockets would have nowhere to hide. :cool:

Speeder....

when you get that new socket, drop it in the same area where you last saw the other one, except this time tie a string to it, and follow the string to it, and there, nearby, you will find the other socket, then pick out the best one fer yerself, and take the other one back, with the reciept.
cordially, tom and huck, missouri.
ps, buy our book

Check the places where the head studs are. 13 mm socket is too big to fit through a 14mm spark plug hole. If it were my car, I would ... drop the engine to find it.

I once dropped my oil temp sensor down below the pulley. It took a while before I could even see it, much less retrieve it. I used one of those long, flexible claw grabbers. You can buy one of those magnetic, flexible lights to search for it. It will probably make some rattling when you drive. Sure would hate to see what happens if you hit a bump and it somehow contacts the fan.

Where could it go? It's either hiding under some of the stuff on the top of the motor sitting in a low spot on top of the air shroud, or it might have fallen down one of the spark plug holes (i assume the spark plugs were still in place), or sitting on top of the cooling tin on the side of the engine next to the valve covers, or it could have possibly made it's way to the low spot under the crank pulley. You'd be amazed at the stuff I fould in that low spot the first time I worked on my engine :(

The only possible danger I can see is if it made it's way into the cooling fan or got caught up in the belt, but highly unlikely.

Try this one: I replaced my spark plugs (first time) last weekend. The last friggin plug I hear kindof a "snap" when I was about finishing tightning it. I thought, hmmm, that's weird. I recheck tightness, it's good. Well, I spend like 15 minutes trying to get the damn plug wire on the friggin plug to no avail...it just wont snap on! Finally, I pull the plug. OMG, the top ceramic part is broken. Worst part is, where? It's a small part...small enuf to fit in the plug hole. Look for over an hour, no dice. I put a magnet all the way into the head through the plug hole...still nothing. I give up and go to put another plug into her. I find the top of the broken plug stuck in the socket. he he he, now I really feel like a fool :)

Just thought I'd share ;)

We're all human, anyone who has NOT had this kind of stuff happen to them has NEVER touched a wrench!

was this a 1/4" or 3/8" drive socket? 1/4 drive is what I use when I work inside the engine compartment on the valve covers. SOCKETS THOSE SIZE FIT EVERYWHERE ... especially down the plug holes. This sounds to me like if you really want to find your socket, you're going to have to take apart the top of your motor. Sorry dude, I feel your pain.

I dropped a couple of screws and nuts in the mess of vac hoses for a cis system before taking the motor apart. Never found them until i took the motor apart, and when discovering where they'd gone i understood why it was that i couldn't find them.

the likelihood of a tool disappearing during a project is directly proportional to the number of times you will need it, and directly related to how favorite a tool it is, buy spares.

.....How true this is. Must be a psalm from the DIY Bible.

I bought a 1/4"-13mm swivel just for removing the HE bolts. Somehow it fell on the floor and got kicked into some crevice, lost forever.

Thanks for the reminder that I'll need to go buy another for the install;)

Sorry to hear about your troubles Sonic.....Keep poking around with that magnet on a stick.