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The relay of no return

Richard B

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Location
Australia
Car
2006 Tourer
Stupid things happen.

My 1994 VTI wagon has a parasitic drain on the battery. So am poking around with a multimeter trying to find the culprit, and I pulled a few fuses and relays in the process. As I'm fumbling with one of the RC2225 relays, it slips out of my hand and falls down past the intake pipe somewhere below. I don't hear the clack-scrape of plastic hitting concrete, just bounce-ping and then silence. I search for about 15 minutes and can't find it. I get so frustrated that I pull the second RC2225 and start dropping it in the same place to see where it goes. It mainly falls straight through but then it takes a dive into the subframe that holds the rack & pinion. I manage to retrieve it, fumble again, drop it and it disappears somewhere underneath the intake manifold where my hand will never fit. Great. Now Im chasing 2 relays. I poked around a bit and eventually it clatters to the ground but there is still one relay missing.

3 hours later we've has 5 people have a go at finding it. I have tried poking in holes, poking from underneath, high pressure water in every nook and cranny, high volume water from above, below and sideways, high flow air, bumping the car up and down, braking hard in the driveway multiple times in 2 directions.. nothing. The stupid thing is the size of a matchbox and wedged somewhere out of sight. Now to wind the windows up and down we need to pull the relay for the radiator fan, clip it in place of the missing relay, and put it back again. I've lost nuts and bolts by dropping them, but never something this large. I think there is a portal to another universe down there, somewhere under the intake pipe. It's the only explanation.
 
It's actually the Honda wormhole, used for passing parts between owners when a spare is required.

I'll have a look for it under the engine and drop it back in when I get back from lunch in about 30 minutes.

Otherwise, you could look inside the bumper housing, I found a headlight bulb cover in there two years ago even though I had the full brace in the bay.
 
It's been sucked into the 10mm socket universe never to be seen again
 
Thanks for returning it. Can you aim 20cm forward next time though.
wormhole.jpg
 
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