I was uninstalling my cold air kit when like a idiot I some how dropped a 3/4 inch long Philips head bit into the engine compartment. It didn't fall thru to the bottom of course but I assume it will after a few runs thru the twisties. But my question is..... Is it safe to drive the car with that tiny bit in the engine compartment somewhere??

 

Where did you drop the bit into? If it's in the duct past the filter, you can disassemble the throttle body to get it out or use a vacuum hose to suck it out. I'd not start the engine if it's past the the filter bc it'll get sucked into the engine and destroy the engine.

 

No it all the hoses were all ready on. It was litterly the last turn of the top clamp. It fell straight down almost like straight past the pulleys but never fell out the bottom. I have already run the engine with out problem. (so far) It definitely didn’t fall INTO the engine. It was more in the engine compartment.

 

I've dropped crap before myself, look under the car, probably cought on top of the headers. If you can see it from above with a flashlight, try a long magnet to retrieve the bit. You can also remove the complete airbox and get a good look around, very easy to do.

 

Then you are okay. A part that small may never rattle out of there. You'll have to take out another bolt to offset for the extra weight you are packing now.



Just kidding!!

 

I drove the car to New York today with no problems. So my guess is it fell out already and if not it is not going to cause a major problem. So stupid of me wasted half my Saturday looking for this dumb bit. On a second note from my own experience the Fab Speed cold air kit was the most outlandish waste of money for me since I spent 150 bucks on the fancy gas cap that looked metal and was actually cheap Porsche plastic. I put it and not that I was expecting to but obviously noticed no increase in power and until the very high end of the range band noticed no difference in the sound of the car. Just my .02

 

Yeah, that's pretty much the concenus on the intake. Unless you do exhaust and chip also, you'd be wasting your time. Those BMC and K&N filters yield pretty much the same result. Just look at the air filter panel, it's about 3-4x bigger than most cars. There isn't much restiction there for stock setup.

Glad to hear no harm w the bolt. You always gotta try to look for it bc you dropped it. If some tech had dropped it, he would have just shrugged it off. That's the beauty (and curse) of DYI.