Did a stupid thing today!

[wlong01]

I was out in the garage checking oil level on my 2016 Touring. I had a small flashlight sitting on the frame on the left hand side. The flashlight rolled forward (toward the engine) and fell straight down and disappeared. I assume it's sitting on the bottom shield. I got under and removed a few screws from the forward shield and tried prying it back. Did not see the flashlight.

I don't do my own oil changes so I've never looked down there with the bottom shield removed.

Question - is there anything down there that the flashlight could interfere with? If not I might just leave it there until the next oil change. It's one of those small
LED flashlights about 5" long.

 

[Silly Wabbit]

It could roll to the passenger side where the belts are or to the radiator fan when you brake.

 

[cz5gt]

If it fell to the bottom - nothing there except the shield bottom. It may make noise or over time fall out from the sides during cornering.
Once i dropped a brush cleaning my radiator through the grille

 

[yrwei52]

⋯
Question - is there anything down there that the flashlight could interfere with? If not I might just leave it there until the next oil change. It's one of those small
LED flashlights about 5" long.

Oil change for the CX-5 won’t help too much to find that small flashlight as it only opens a small plastic window, not the entire undercover.

Look through the drop location and imagine the route the flashlight was dropping. Can you see all the way through the engine to the undercover? Try to rethink the dropping noise when the flashlight dropped. If the flashlight has dropped all the way to the plastic undercover, you should hear the banging noise to the plastic undercover, which is different from the noise the flashlight got caught in the middle of somewhere. The worst scenario is it got caught somewhere on one of the pulleys along the serpentine belt or water pump belt path. If that you should hear some grinding noise when the engine is running.

Usually such small LED flashlight is made of aluminum. Those magnetic pickup tool won’t help.

My guess is the flashlight is sitting on the undercover. You may have to remove the entire cover to recover the flashlight.

 

[sm1ke]

You can try removing the air intake box to get a better look?

 

[ruthrj]

I’d remove the entire undercover too. Not too many bolts, just several of the annoying plastic push pins. I changed out my serpentine belt a few weeks ago and in my haste to finish for dinner, I took it for a test drive with a crescent wrench still on the belt tensioner. One bump in the road was all it took to jar that loose and fall down onto the shroud (facepalm). Thankfully no damage. It happens to us all!

 

[wlong01]

You can try removing the air intake box to get a better look?

I

Oil change for the CX-5 won’t help too much to find that small flashlight as it only opens a small plastic window, not the entire undercover.

Look through the drop location and imagine the route the flashlight was dropping. Can you see all the way through the engine to the undercover? Try to rethink the dropping noise when the flashlight dropped. If the flashlight has dropped all the way to the plastic undercover, you should hear the banging noise to the plastic undercover, which is different from the noise the flashlight got caught in the middle of somewhere. The worst scenario is it got caught somewhere on one of the pulleys along the serpentine belt or water pump belt path. If that you should hear some grinding noise when the engine is running.

Usually such small LED flashlight is made of aluminum. Those magnetic pickup tool won’t help.

My guess is the flashlight is sitting on the undercover. You may have to remove the entire cover to recover the flashlight.

From what I remember it fell straight down, hit the front underbody shield and rolled towards the back. I'm going to try removing the shield today, hopefully I can retrieve it.
Doubt it hit anywhere near the belts, I think I would of spotted it if it did.

 

[yrwei52]

I

From what I remember it fell straight down, hit the front underbody shield and rolled towards the back. I'm going to try removing the shield today, hopefully I can retrieve it.
Doubt it hit anywhere near the belts, I think I would of spotted it if it did.

If you feel the flashlight had rolled towards the back; open the small oil change panel may worth a try searching the flashlight with your hand through the opening.

 

[yrwei52]

I’d remove the entire undercover too. Not too many bolts, just several of the annoying plastic push pins. I changed out my serpentine belt a few weeks ago and in my haste to finish for dinner, I took it for a test drive with a crescent wrench still on the belt tensioner. One bump in the road was all it took to jar that loose and fall down onto the shroud (facepalm). Thankfully no damage. It happens to us all!

Yes it happens to us all the time. Sometimes I found some tool I couldn’t find sitting on somewhere in the engine bay in later repair or maintenance job. One time I used my magnetic pickup tool to retrieve a bolt fell in the engine bay while I was changing the belts and tensioners on my 2000 BMW 528i. Later when I needed the pickup I couldn’t find it anymore. A month later I found it by accident that the pickup got stuck near the intake manifold and engine block of the I6. The magnet helped the tool to stick on the the engine block, and didn’t fall to the ground and get damaged while driving.