What is this thing?

[Towncivilian]

I dropped the plastic skid plate yesterday to drain and refill my coolant. Once the plate dropped, the following item fell too:


Apologies for the terrible photos, all I have available is my iPhone 3G.

I looked underneath the engine and wasn't able to see any obvious place where this could be missing. My car hasn't exploded yet and I have no leaks other than the slow rear main seal leak I've had forever. A few weeks ago when changing out my spark plugs I thought I heard something drop on the driver side of the engine away from anything critical, and couldn't find it anywhere. Maybe that's it? But what is it and where's it from?

[Pathfound49]

Nice manicure towncivilian. No idea what the part is.

[esy]

have you removed your stock airbox at all?

kind of looks like the washer that goes around the bolts that secure the airbox to the chassis.

[Towncivilian]

Yes, I did attempt to remove the airbox at one point, but never got it out of the engine bay and screwed it back in.

Could you take a picture of this part installed, if it is indeed around the airbox?

[Towncivilian]

Looks like you're right - the bolt closest to the driver's side on the airbox looks like it's missing the part in question.





EDIT: Or is it? See the exploded parts diagram, bottommost one: http://www.courtesyparts.com/pathfinder ... _4720.html

It looks like the part that goes in the pictured position is 16510A and has no "mounting rubber" here, is that correct? The three other bolts do have this mounting rubber currently on my airbox.

EDIT2: I am mistaken again. On closer inspection, all four of the airbox mounting hardware have this mounting rubber. The intake tube, however, seems to be missing one. Look at the exploded parts diagram linked above. On the left, 16557M is not present for me. Can someone verify that there should be a part there? It should be right underneath the brake fluid reservoir. See pic:



I can't tell from this pic whether there should be something under that bolt.

[Towncivilian]

Could someone look in their engine bay to see if this bolt has such a mounting rubber grommet under it?

[esy]

sorry, haven't checked this thread out too much. i'll try and take a peek into my engine bay ASAP, as well as my bro's Q and let you know.

[Chuck Tribolet]

Could someone look in their engine bay to see if this bolt has such a mounting rubber grommet under it?

Where is that bolt? If it's sorta under the master cylinder, then yes, it has a rubber washer on my '01.

[Towncivilian]

Could someone look in their engine bay to see if this bolt has such a mounting rubber grommet under it?

Where is that bolt? If it's sorta under the master cylinder, then yes, it has a rubber washer on my '01.

This pic might have a better reference point:



Very close to the brake fluid reservoir, holding the intake tube in.

[Chuck Tribolet]

That's the one I was thinking of. Mine does have a rubber washer under it. IIRC, you have to remove that to change the spark plugs.

[Towncivilian]

Yes, it was removed when I was changing out the plugs and I dropped that washer - I heard something drop, but had no idea what it is. Thanks for the help.