Dropped Piece of Plastic in Engine Bay

I was spraying some rodent deterrent in my engine bay today and the plastic “trigger” from the spray bottle popped off and fell somewhere into the engine bay.

I tried looking for it, but couldn’t find it. I rocked the 4Runner a bit to see if it would rattle or fall out somewhere but no luck.

I’m about to go on a trip for a few weeks, so don’t have time to get to it now (the 4Runner will be staying in the garage).

I wanted to know how big of a deal is this? Should I be concerned about anything when I get back? I know a metal socket falling in there could be bad, could a piece of plastic be just as bad?

*I did not have time to drop any skid plates to check if it fell on them.

Thanks

 

Plastic...no worries

 

It will fall out or blow into a void area. No worries.

 

I have dropped zip ties, spray nozzles, spray tubes , plastic wrappers etc. if I see that the serpentine belt is clear and the radiator is clear I don't bother.

 

I wouldn't worry about it, it probably went to where all the 10mm sockets go.

 

Thanks fellas

 

The plastic could get wedged in a crevice in the exhaust manifold and melt, in which case you'll smell it. That's about the worst it'll get.

 

If this were on an aircraft, you would have to find it and extract it.

A little stray piece of plastic dropped in to a 4RUNNER engine bay- 99.999% chance not going to be a problem.

 

That's like saying " chances of getting killed by a Corgi is practically nil but never 0."

 

It is prolly on ur skids.
I’d wanna know, lol
Take them off and report back when you return

 

You could have removed the skid plates in the time it took to make this thread

 

When we used to go inside power transformers to make repairs all our tools were tied to our wrists. Bolts, washers, nuts, lugs, everything was counted before and after. Drop anything inside a machine that operates at 345,000 volts and you've got a million $ problem...

 

Can’t remove the skid plates while on the toilet.

 

We were at about 3000 feet and the cabin of a 172 started filling up with smoke. Landed at the closest airfield and it turned out to be a bird nest on the engine.

 

Many ears ago I was working on the distributor of my '57 Chevy when I dropped a stubby screwdriver. It fell down onto the bell housing. Being young and not really thinking about any consequences, I just blew it off. While doing a road test, the clutch hung up with the clutch disengaged. Somehow, in the dark, I found my stubby screw driver lodged in the pedal linkage.

Lesson learned.

 

Off road, the engine bay is peppered by all kinds of small rocks and twigs. Not a big deal.

 

Those little bastards will build um fast and deep to!

 

You can however leave some skids

 

Extra overland points if you use a Yeti bucket. Even comes with a clear lid to show off your accomplishment afterwards: