Hello all,

So this morning started off well, changing my starter motor. Putting everything back on and im missing a bolt. I cannot find it anywhere. The only place I can think of it going is in to the bell housing for where the starter motor is Been poking around for too long with a magnet with no luck trying to find it. Not sure if I should turn my landy on or not?? Any help if greatly appreciated. Its on a defender td5

Nath

I don't think you'd have dropped it in the starter motor hole. You'd have removed the bolt and dropped it before removing the starter

+1 unlikely to be in the bell housing but you could always try turning the engine over by hand to check it is free (and also that you don't get that bolt falling sound!) before you go for a start if that helps calm the nerves. Don't forget to fit a new bolt too.

I once dropped a metallised bushing when removing the inlet manifold on a (dare I say it?) BMW. Couldn't find it anywhere and suspected I had dropped it into the engine. Bought an endoscope from a well known high street electrical component retailer to have a look down the inlet port and found the component not in there but wedged in a small gap below it. Retrieved the bushing and took the endoscope back the next day . I have since bought a USB endoscope from eBay for about a tenner. It has come in quite useful at times

I had an air intake hose come off the engine on my Ferrari. It was in the V of the V8. The only way to get it back on was to remove the inlet manifold, which took me all morning.
I dropped a small bolt and couldn't find it anywhere, eventually l gave up and assumed it was just on the engine block somewhere.
I put it all back together and when l started it the engine locked up. I had to get it recovered to a specialist and it turned out the bolt had fallen down the front of the engine and jammed in one of the timing belt pulleys.
On startup the cam drive had stalled and as a result the crankshaft drive pulley had sheared.
The repair estimate was £10,000. It needed amongst other things 16 inlet valves, two camshafts and a new water pump, which cost £750 just for that part.
I was lucky to get the car in the first place and there was no way l could afford the repair.
The specialist bought the car from me, fortunately values had risen in the time l'd had it and l pretty much got back what l'd paid.
But l guess l was still down £10,000. I used the money l'd sold it for to buy a Lotus Elise S2 but l never bonded with it.
So l sold that after three years and bought my 110 Defender TD5 plus a BMW Z3 3.0