guys, while adding some oil to my motor, i left the cap right ontop of the stock airbox filter. After adding the oil, my elbow hit the cap and it fell into the engine bay compartment. I believe i heard it fall and land on the underbody panel in the front.

Now my question, how do I remove the underbody panel right underneath the engine. If i tap it, I can hear the cap moving.

Thanks

Mike

 

If it's just on the plastic undercarriage, you can drop it with only 2-4 bolts.

 

yea, i guess thats what u call it. the undercarriage...

 

2-4, or maybe 10 ...

Just work your way around it, but it's hard to do if you can't at least get the front of the car elevated a little bit.

Dave

 

If you're going to remove the whole undercarriage, you will an extension for your socket wrench 'cause there's 4 bolts that's in there pretty deep. Like dgeesaman said, it would be better to have the car elevated. Good luck!

 

You just need to drop the rear section of the undercarriage (which is either 2 or 4 bolts depending on the car... the previous owner or who ever worked on the car replaced two of the bolts with ties on my FD).

Bringing the rear section down should be enough to get the cap. I've had to do it many times with bolts and/or tools.

 

Yep. You only work on this car a few times before you learn to be VERY careful in not dropping nuts, bolts, sockets, ratchets, extensions, screwdrivers etc while under the hood. I swear to god if you drop anything in there it never falls out onto the floor. Heck, you're lucky when you hear it clunk into the undertray because then you know where it is!

I kid you not the first time I removed my UIM I found 2 plastic oil filler caps sitting on top of the coils. When I replaced the motor I found a third behind the power steering pump. I put one of the caps in the driver side bin for the time it's my turn to drop one while adding oil on the road

 

I've lost numerous coolant caps in there. Its amazing how the thing just dissapears...

 

i dont have one of my fd guess the previos owner took it off.

 

I dropped one of my AST nuts when I upgraded. I searched for at least an hour. I didn't find it until a year later, when I replaced my radiator . It had fallen inside the fan shroud.

 

I've still got a 10mm sockett in mine somewhere.

 

In other words, get used to it. Seriously, you will learn to expect that you are going to have at least one MIA everytime to work on anything under the hood. That will also quickly teach you to keep multiple spares of everything handy, since you never know what will go next, and only the lucky ones land in the tray.

 

Since the first "drop", I have been very attentive about every nut, bolt, and tool. I even bought one of those extendable magnet pens. Every FD owner should have one. Despite my extra care, I have had to use it a couple of times

I bought one similar to this for around a dollar:

http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...id=00947071000

 

Amen!

 

I can't tell you how many times I've been saved from pulling the undertray off by a magnet.

 

So how is he going to use a magnet to pick up a plastic oil cap? Just remove a few of the bolts on the "UNDERCOVER"--(FSM) and reach your hand in there and grab it!

 

i just scoot under my car to get the undertray off, since its not lowered

 

It was just a general reference....

 

Duh ............ You would obviously need a very powerful magnet