On Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:12:31 -0400, "John Smith" <jsmith@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>While struggling to keep my 99 Accord on the road (192,000 miles and
>climbing) I have become pretty familiar with it, but so far with my 2003
>Accord all I've had to do is change the oil.
>
>I just tried to replace the air cleaner element and found the designers have
>replaced the steel hold-down clips with screws. So I removed them and then
>tried to maneuver the cover off to expose the filter but could not. All
>right, I need a book for the "new" car and will get one. But in the
>meantime, while replacing the four screws on the air cleaner, I dropped one
>and lost it somewhere in the engine compartment.
>
>Can anyone tell me what screw to use as a replacement? I've gone crazy
>searching for that little sucker. Thanks as always to this generous group
>for all the help.
>


Last year I did exactly like you. I cleaned my filter and dropped the
bolt when putting it back together. I couldn't find the orig. bolt
either so before finally going to the dealer for the new bolt, I
called my repair shop. They told me their mechanic did the same thing
the day before and didn't know the size. Hence I went to the dealer
for the new bolt. I don't recall the size now and I think I paid
about $2 but I had to travel almost 1 hour round trip so the new bolt
was expensive. I learned from that experience and later the same
year chose to replace the filter (wish I did that to begin with
instead of cleaning the filter) and decided to let my mechanic do it
instead. Afterwards I checked for missing bolts and all was fine.
Unless they sell a special tool, I think you need very nimble fingers
for this job.