well a couple nights ago I commented on a post about a monte throwing the check engine light. Well..........yesterday I was out driving for work (one of the perks of my job) and low and behold the check engine light came on. I at first thought to myself that I had just gotten gas and there is a chance I didn't put the cap on properly, so pulled over and did a quick loosen and re tighten of the cap, but no luck (and yes I know the light stays on for a while lol) so I thought to my self I should give a quick look under the hood. This is where I found the problem. I have recently installed a CAI (or HAI depending on how you look at it) and when I looked under the aluminum piece had come apart from the red plastic



it is hard to see in the picture. Well the problem is that I had no tools of any kind in my car as I had taken everything out so that I could put my gear in my car for my upcoming series of gigs. So I was honestly out in the middle of nowhere about 25 minutes from the closest town, and had no tools, and no change to use as a make shift screw driver. I tried to use my keys but they were too wide for the slot opening. So I stood there for a minute and had a revelation, my wife used to do foot care as part of her nursing profession, and I had "borrowed" a pair of her nail clippers, these are kind of similar to a pair of pliers, but are great for cutting guitar strings. Now the clippers have a type of spring system in them which consists of two pieces of bent metal that interlock at one part and act as compression springs. My brain actually kicked in to high gear as i thought to myself if I could bend a part of the inner pieces they may be the right thickness to do what I needed and luckily they were. Here is a pic of what I am talking about



sorry don't know how to actually post the images. But all in all it turned out to be a lucky moment for me, I mean the car would run and probably wouldn't have been too much of an issue, but I don't like seeing the check engine light on while I am driving, or parked for that matter.

Just thought I would share and see if anyone else has had a moment such as this

edited, just figured out how to attach the images