The Effective CIO

Where Does This Go? October 27, 2008

This weekend my son found a bolt lying in our driveway, where I normally park my car.

Sigh.  I had a lot of work done on my car last week, all of which seemed to go well.  The goal was to stop stuff from dripping out of the engine (accomplished) and to replace the timing belt (presumably accomplished).  I also put on new wiper blades, but there were no bolts involved with that.

I inspected the bolt carefully.  Covered with grime and oil.  No apparent wrench marks on the head.  No shiny threads, indicated that it had recently been loosened.  No, based upon my expert mechanical analysis, this bolt looked… inactive.

I completed my diligent investigation by doing what any guy would do.  I lifted the hood and looked at the engine.  There were no obvious open bolt holes.  In fact, all of the bolts I could see were pretty clean, furthering bolstering my “inactive” assessment.  While in there, I topped off my windshield washer fluid.  (I have got wiper-related maintenance covered).

The car runs fine.  Nothing is clattering (a sure sign of missing bolts) or dripping (possibly bolt-related, I’m sure).  Plus, I have to believe that really important engine parts are attached with more than one bolt, so nothing is going to immediately fall off the car.  What to do?

Loyal readers know that I do not like taking my car to the shop. Still, this cannot be ignored.  So I will take the car back to the shop, bolt in hand, and ask, “Where should I put this bolt?”

I’ll let you know what they say.