I just lost a neodymian rare earth magnet in my e46 m3 engine...

i just lost a neodymian rare earth magnet in my e46 m3 engine. was changing my fuel filter and installing one to catch metal shavings and it fell in now i cant fucking find it. how fucked am i? if i run the engine do you think it will get caught somewhere or is it stuck to something and wont move?

doesn't it have one already in the oil pan?

> just lost a neodymian rare earth magnet in my e46 m3 engine
fuck that cracked me up for some reason

anyway, post a pic of where you dropped it into so we can try and puzzle out a solution

Why would changing the fuel filter require you to open up the engine?

Aren't fuel filters normally at the back of the car closer to the tank?

Did you forget OP was working on a German car?

Some have 2. I know my C4 vette did.

I'm sorry to say OP, but you've fucked the engine beyond repair, at least unless you manage to get the magnet out without starting the engine.

The magnet has most likely fallen down one side of the crankshaft, which means that when you start the car and the engine is spinning, the counterweights on the crankshaft will create a rotational inertia as a product of centrifugal force created by the magnet acting upon the crank. What this means is that you'll experience severe vibrations in the engine, rapidly destroying crank and rod bearings as they essentially get crushed by the sideways movement of the crank. It'll probably result in several crank journals exiting out the side of the engine block, or through the sump.

On the other way, if you didn't care about the engine, this would be a really good way to get your neodymian rare earth magnet back as it would bring the magnet out attached to the crank.

Use a more powerful magnet to get it out

The neodymium is vastly harder than the steel of the engine, a steel engine component WILL be destroyed if the engine is attempted to crank.

I cannot understand what OP though he was doing, a magnet is already in the oil pan to catch the fine particles of metal that wear out of the engine over time.

the OP said
>installing one to catch metal shavings
If the engine is actually generating metal SHAVINGS then it's dead, put it out of its misery. Give Lassie the bullet, she's done for.No magnet will fix that.

Now, WHERE did OP drop the magnet? He doesn't say.
Down the air intake manifold? Should be easy enough to find the magnet.
Or did OP, like an idiot, drop the magnet down the Oil Fill cap on top the engine? That level of idiocy needs a engine tear down to fine the magnet, hopefully it might be near the top, maybe it might have stuck itself to a valve cover without having disappeared down a piston...

There is no easy good outcome to this situation.

what if he loses that one?