Geonovast Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Last weekend I did a little bit of work on the XJ, changed the oil, spark plugs, and air filter. No big deal, but somehow I missed the 11mm wrench I had used to pop off the clips on the airbox. It was fine all week, but early this afternoon the truck died from having the headlights on for 15 minutes in a parking lot. (My battery is shot and was next on the list) Easily found a jump, but closing the hood again must have made the wrench move from its cozy little spot under the hood. Not 2 minutes later, as I'm making turning to go home, I hear a nasty metallic rattling noise for a second, followed by a spraying sound. I immediately pulled over, popped my hood, just to find my radiator giving the water pump pulley a nice green bath. Good thing I have a 3 day weekend to get over feeling like a flippin' idiot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darren Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 I did that once. Left a screwdriver under the hood and it shredded my serpentine belt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dasbulliwagen Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 Did a timing belt on my Hyundai. Left a 10 mm socket in it somewhere. Started it up and it shredded the belt almost in half. Good thing it didn't go all the way because its an interference engine. Another $35 for another belt and all was good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glundblad Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 I love it when you guys leave tools behind. I got a nice set of sockets under the hood of an XJ at a JY. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpace6a Posted May 25, 2013 Share Posted May 25, 2013 I love it when you guys leave tools behind. I got a nice set of sockets under the hood of an XJ at a JY. :thumbsup: I found a 1/2" drive craftsman ratchet, pivoting head, 15" handle in an xj at the jy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wurst Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 had a collision mechanic leave a snap-on ratchet, extension and socket in my radiator on my old F-150. Personally have absentmindedly laid a wrench across both terminals of a battery while replacing a serpentine tensioner. SPARKS A FLYIN! :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geonovast Posted May 26, 2013 Author Share Posted May 26, 2013 All in all I guess it could have been a lot worse. 4 hours after the incident I was filled up and driving again, and about 1 1/2 hours of that was waiting for a ride to the parts store and a gatorade break. The actual radiator swap was pretty painless, other than having to completely take off the rad support again to get the fan shroud back on. I leave tools in there way too often, and after this I'm going to be a lot more careful. It's never caused damage before. I get the feeling Brett got a few tools when he picked up my MJs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfreeman616 Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 as a tech, i have lots of opportunity to do that, but somehow haven't done it much. however, in the last 2 weeks i had to replace a visegrip 7cr and snap on 15mm deep impact 3/8" drive. i know exactly where the vise grip is, so i might still get it back next time the car is in the shop, it won't harm anything there and might stick around til then, but the socket i've pretty much written off. on the other hand, a guy i worked with once opened a hood and found a snap on 3/8" impact gun laying on the frame. that's the best under hood find i've heard of so far, and the worse one to loose! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee21490 Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 I havent had the pleasure of doing this yet. As i'm always super paranoid and tripple check there's nothing left in the engine bay. But i have found at least 6~ wrenches/screw drivers / sockets / etc Between my two comanches, that people had dropped into obscure areas and never bothered to remove. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
64 Cheyenne Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 Not me...I have an OCD about loosing $#!&, If I was to drop a socket into a fenderwell, all work stops, The fender comes off so I can get my socket back. Just kiddin about takin the fender off but if my major effort at retreival doesnt work, then I have a socket rail that has an empty spot and the world just aint the same till I get its replacement.I've lost stuff, that I felt like looking at the GFs house for, although I know damn well that there was no way in hell it could have got there. Still looking for the coffee cup I lost last year.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimoshel Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 This is weird. About a week ago I was at the P&P and under the hood of a chrysler I found a 6 inch crescent wrench. Picked it up and on one side the initials KC was etched. On the other side the whole name Kacy Casebier. That was my best buddy. We've been friends since we were 12 years old. He died 2 years ago. I know for a fact he never owned that car. How that wrench got there has been bugging me ever since. I figure the most likely possibility is he loaned the wrench to somebody or he lost it and they found it, or his wife gave it to someone when she was giving all his stuff away. Weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comanche County Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 Lost a socket inside the frame rail once while working on a control arm, got back three years later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpace6a Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 I havent had the pleasure of doing this yet. As i'm always super paranoid and tripple check there's nothing left in the engine bay. But i have found at least 6~ wrenches/screw drivers / sockets / etc Between my two comanches, that people had dropped into obscure areas and never bothered to remove. lol Buddy of mine found a screwdriver that was so rusted it was barely recognizable under the floorboards of his old xj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mountain Dude Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 Back when I worked on airplanes, my old boss was searching the hangar one moning looking for the portable phone. Could not find it anywhere. He ended up calling the guy whose airplane HE had worked on the day before. They found the phone sitting nicely on the engine baffle inside the cowling undamaged! When He got it back, he passed a rule that WE were not supposed to answer the phone out in the hangar when working on the planes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freakjeep93 Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 when i was in colledge i had a charging problem on my f150, borrowed my teachers snap on multimeter to try and find the problem, set multimeter on truck of car next to my truck went under the hood, never noticed the car drove away... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakedoc67 Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 Back when I worked on airplanes, my old boss was searching the hangar one moning looking for the portable phone. Could not find it anywhere. He ended up calling the guy whose airplane HE had worked on the day before. They found the phone sitting nicely on the engine baffle inside the cowling undamaged! When He got it back, he passed a rule that WE were not supposed to answer the phone out in the hangar when working on the planes. When I was a helicopter mechanic in the Guard we had one helicopter that made 3 flights with bolts rolling around loose by the oil reservoir, which in a Bell Cobra is at the very top of the fuselage above the transmission and rotorshaft. 3 flight crews missed it in pre and post flight inspections as well as the crewchief who looked at the helicopter before it flew each day. They were found on the postflight inspection of the third flight. Also have seen what rags wrapped around a helicopter driveshaft will do as well as numerous other pieces of FOD. On my manche, found a 15mm socket I had left on one of the rear bumper mount to frame bolts. It had sat there for at least 4 months of DD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geonovast Posted May 26, 2013 Author Share Posted May 26, 2013 Lost a socket inside the frame rail once while working on a control arm, got back three years later. I lost a socket down the framerail of my first XJ when I was stripping it... At least I got a few cents for it when I was at the yard.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfreeman616 Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 On my manche, found a 15mm socket I had left on one of the rear bumper mount to frame bolts. It had sat there for at least 4 months of DD. That reminds me, i found a snap on 1/2 drive 21mm shallow impact stuck on a control arm bolt of a hyundai once. had some rust on it, but came off pretty easy so how it didn't fall off, i have no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete M Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 This is weird. About a week ago I was at the P&P and under the hood of a chrysler I found a 6 inch crescent wrench. Picked it up and on one side the initials KC was etched. On the other side the whole name Kacy Casebier. That was my best buddy. We've been friends since we were 12 years old. He died 2 years ago. I know for a fact he never owned that car. How that wrench got there has been bugging me ever since. I figure the most likely possibility is he loaned the wrench to somebody or he lost it and they found it, or his wife gave it to someone when she was giving all his stuff away. Weird. that IS weird! :eek: 'tis a cool memento though. :thumbsup: I too lost a 15mm in the framerail. but I got it back a few years later when I cut the holes for the rocker guards. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted May 26, 2013 Share Posted May 26, 2013 When I replaced my dizzy a couple months back, a buddy stopped by to check on what I was doing, reached up and pulled a screwdriver out of the lip along the front edge of my hood. I'd been looking for that screwdriver and trying to figure out why my hood wasn't shutting quite right for several months... :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeepComanche89 Posted May 27, 2013 Share Posted May 27, 2013 I try to be careful with tools, but it dosent always work that way. I never left anything inside the engine bay that harmed anything but it has happened before. One time when I was probably 13, I was putting the bike rack on my moms truck. I was tightening the bolt with my new "foose" edition mac ractchting wrench. (best Christmas ever :drool: ). When I had apparently placed it on the rear bumper. She then drove me to my friends house (about 3 miles away down a back road), and I got out to take the bike off, and the wrench was sitting right there on the bumper. :eek: And when I bought my MJ, I found a impact grade socket on somewhere on the exhaust I think. It was locked onto the bolt and rusted but came off and cleaned up great. I think it was like snap on or something too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddzz1 Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 I always seem to find extra nuts/bolts when i put things back together. I bag and label everything but there is always something left over, does this happen to anyone else? I swear someone is messing with me and throwing extra nuts/bolts/screws in the bags when I'm sleeping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gogmorgo Posted May 29, 2013 Share Posted May 29, 2013 ^I'd say this is pretty normal for some people... Half the bolts are missing from under the hood of my dad's van (bought off a chevy dealer who must have got it as a trade-in from the world's worst diy mechanic) and my MJ's missing a bunch of nuts/bolts in the front clip. The MJ also has an old ratcheting wrench rusted onto one of the bolts behind the driver's headlight. I'd have to dissassemble to take it out, and I have no desire to do so without a good reason since it seems to be hanging together pretty well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geonovast Posted May 29, 2013 Author Share Posted May 29, 2013 Well at least you know that bolt will never loosen up... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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