Hi everyone,
Lurker here for quite some time, but now I'm in a situation where I'll have to ask for some assistance.
A few days ago, I had my mechanic replace the valve cover gaskets on my 98 Forester S 2.5L, as the car was doing the usual burning oil smell. Things looked fine driving home (about 12 miles). The next day, the wife takes the car out, comes home, and you can smell major oil burning along with smoke coming out of the engine !!!
After looking underneath for leaks, I checked out the engine, and there was quite of bit of oil droplet stains around most of the pass side (by the firewall, etc), and a bunch of oil leaking on the axle/wires/cv boot and anything else underneath the passenger valve cover area.
I started the car and found the source: oil was spritzing out of the top plastic cam cap. Looks like my "mechanic" didn't realize these existed and when putting the valve cover back on, the cap didn't seat properly, and now it was inside.
I brought the car back, and after trying to grab it, he managed to drop it inside somewhere. Where? We have no idea...can't feel it anywhere. We tried vaccuming the area inside where the cam is, in the hope of sucking it in, but no luck. The bottom cam cap fell off now too, but we manage to put that back on.
We were under the assumption that the cap may have fallen off while driving, since the car didn't smoke until the next day, despite the 12 mile ride home (plus other errands earlier). So we put everything back together. But then I put my finger back in the cap opening, and noticed it felt different. Earlier, I was able to feel the plastic cap, but now I can't. So that means the cap is still inside somewhere.
My questions: Any ideas on how to find this cap? We removed all the bolts from the valve cover, but didn't fully take it out of the car. It still gave us some decent clearance to get our fingers in, but we couldn't find the cap. What kind of damage, if any, can happen if the cap just stays in there somewhere? It is plastic and not metal. Any other suggestions besides firing this "mechanic"?
Thanks so much for your help.