Can You Solve The Mystery Of The Errant Screw In My Mom’s Fiat 500?

Menu Home » Can You Solve The Mystery Of The Errant Screw In My Mom’s Fiat 500? Can You Solve The Mystery Of The Errant Screw In My Mom’s Fiat 500? By Jason Torchinsky October 6, 2026 6:30 am 36 Comments Like many of you, I have a mom. My mom has been around for a long time, and happily she’s still going strong. She’s also still driving, and driving a 2013 Fiat 500 that, when compared to her own shtetl-hobbit scale, is like an SUV. She mentioned the other day that she saw a screw sticking out of the hood of her car and wasn’t sure what it was, which, of course confused me. A screw? Just sticking out of the hood? The hell is going on?

She wanted me to drive the car around anyway because she felt it was sounding loud, so I had her bring it by so I could drive it and listen and all that. Oh, and I could also take a look at whatever the hell was going on with that screw.

I’m happy to say the car drove and sounded just fine, at least to me. Of course, my standards for what makes for a loud car may be pretty far off what most rational people who don’t daily drive rattly air-cooled tin cans around, but even with that in mind, the car sounded fine to me. Really, that little Fiat has been a remarkably reliable car for my mom, despite those acronyms going on about all those Anthonys, fixing the cars again.

My mom’s Fiat is one of the 1957 Edition ones, which means it has nostalgic, old-school Fiat badges, a white roof and mirror caps, chrome bumper inserts, special wheels and chrome hubcaps, and some other detail features to give it a charming even-more-retro look. It also has the 1.4-liter, 101 horsepower naturally aspirated engine, which will sort of factor in later as we look into the Mystery of the Screw, In fact, just this very second, I realized you can see the screw there on the right, by the headlight, in the picture above from when my mom brought her car to the Old Folks Car Show we just had.

There’s the screw. Just sort of trapped in there. How long has it been there? Months, at least. I opened the hood to get a better look:

The screw was just sitting there, pinned between the hood and radiator support/front fascia. But where the hell did it come from? How did it get there? Based on the way it was stuck in there, it must have been inside the engine compartment and gotten trapped, as opposed to somehow being flung in there from the outside, which would have Final Destination levels of improbablity.

It must have come from somewhere inside the engine bay; but where? I looked around, but didn’t see any obvious places a screw like this would have been. The mystery here, it’s intoxicating!

I did eventually figure it out, but I’m not going to tell you just yet, because why steal all the fun? Here’s an image of the engine bay from the Fiat’s owner’s manual, and I can give you a hint: the location of the wayward screw is actually visible here. There’s really not many components labelled in the image, because, well, not many are really all that visible in the little bay. That battery takes up a good chunk of space at one end, then the engine coolant reservoir at the other side, and a lot of plastic engine cover in the middle.

So where do you think this screw came from? Take a moment to think about it, and here, while you’re considering, you can watch Charlie Sheen drive a Fiat 500 Abarth around inside a house while he’s under house arrest and having a party, a party where the dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning are likely being prevented with copious amounts of cocaine.

Okay, think you know from whence the screw came? Here’s where it was from:

The air cleaner housing. The screw on the passenger side! I suspect it was left when she had the car serviced last, and they changed the air filter. I changed her battery a bit before this, earlier in the year, and this must have happened after that. But I think it’s been like 3 or 4 months? Can that be right?

Anyway, I was glad to have figured it out. Otherwise, that screw would still be driving me bonkers.

0 Member TriangleRAD 58 minutes ago Hey my ex’s 500 is missing one of those air box screws. Maybe that one’s under your mom’s hood, too!

This reads like a “your mom” joke, but it really isn’t.

Torch, I’ve also experienced the overall dependability of a well-maintained 1 4L 500. Remind me to tell you about the time MultiAir saved ours from engine damage due to oil starvation.

If your mom’s little Fiat does start giving her trouble, be sure to let me know. I know a few tricks.

1 Rick Cavaretti 1 hour ago Great service facility, leaving screws out of the air filter box.

2 Member DysLexus 1 hour ago Hey Guys you’re looking at this all wrong. This is a HUGE Fiat success for the body engineers. They spent countless hours ruminating over the proper panel gap spacing so that no screw be left behind. AND the assembly technicians kept that proper panel gap spacing. Quality work. Now break open the fine wine team, carefully.

2 Jeff H 2 hours ago I would have thought Jason’s standard operating mode is bonkers and this episode was driving him beyond bonkers.

2 Member Mechjaz 2 hours ago Without looking at the answer, it looks like a plastic (as opposed to wood/metal/machine) screw, so I’m guessing the air box, and it just happened to be trapped just so after the last time the air filter was checked/changed.

1 Member Tong Thrower 2 hours ago /thread

1 Pete M Wilson 2 hours ago I could see it having come from the outside and wedging itself in there – reminds me of the C&D (or R&T) long term Cayman that they discovered a steak knife stuck in the underside in a narrow slot beside the door.

Also, I don’t see why it would be left on the edge of the engine bay when it was removed so it had to fly over there instead of out to the ground and that seems pretty improbable as well.

0 Member Canopysaurus 3 hours ago No offense, but isn’t your mom a little a little senior for having errant screws in a Fiat?

13 Member Richard Truett 3 hours ago With apologies to Peter Clemenza: “Leave the screw. Take the cannoli.”

1 Member Cheap Bastard 3 hours ago Next up: The Mystery Of The 10mm Socket.

10 Member Nick Fortes 3 hours ago I’ve got a loose washer in the hood of my GTI. I was installing a hydraulic hood strut and dropped a washer it went down in the frame of the hood somewhere. I tried an extendible magnet but couldn’t find it. Very rarely I will hear it when I close or open the hood, but not always which is strange.

3 Member Parsko 3 hours ago Well, we now have real evidence behind those acronyms. Screws are actively throwing themselves away from the car. Like a reverse tuck everlasting or something to the sort.

Fiat engineers to management: ” We have figured out the source of eternal revenue”

0 Rick Cavaretti 1 hour ago Reply to  Parsko Actually, we don’t. Most of them originated in a period of American history besieged with racism. Fiat doesn’t hold that place overseas.

0 Member Nlpnt 37 minutes ago Reply to  Rick Cavaretti It was also a period where a much higher percentage of the population lived in the Northeast and upper Midwest and they were starting to spread a lot of salt on the roads half the year…

0 Member Tbird 3 hours ago I really prefer spring clips or captive bolt/metal threadsert for airboxes. Coarse threads into plastic just feels half-assed.

9 Member Rollin Hand 2 hours ago Reply to  Tbird Carlos Tavares: “But I was using my whole ass.”

5 Member Jonathan Green 4 hours ago It’s a Sicilian Message. It means Luca Brasi drives a Fiat…

4 Member Carbon Fiber Sasquatch 4 hours ago Is it really a Fiat without a few screws loose?

7 Robert M. Graham 4 hours ago Reply to  Carbon Fiber Sasquatch That actually applies to the drivers …

4 Sid Bridge 4 hours ago Not sure I would have stayed as calm as Jason had I gotten a call like that from my mother.

Mom: Hey Sid. Can you give me some advice? I have a screw loose. Me: Well, I knew that, Mom. Mom: No, seriously. Everything is shaky now and I think it’s because of a screw. Me: Please don’t describe this in any more detail. Mom: I’m coming over so you can look at my car and discuss your dwindling inheritance.

12 Member Rollin Hand 2 hours ago Reply to  Sid Bridge When my late mom was in the hospital due to a sarcoma on one of her vertebrae (dark times), they took a hunk of bone from her thigh and attached it to bridge the problem vertebrae to another one using screws. The bone was so soft one the screws came out. When she told me I said “well, there’s one thing. You’ve been medically proven to have a screw loose.”

She initially was less than pleased, but started laughing within seconds.

5 Member Urban Runabout 4 hours ago *stifling comment about people with a loose screw*

3 Flyingstitch 5 hours ago I’m no connoisseur of screws, but I could tell right away it was the kind of thing I would try to replace with a zip tie after losing it.

10 Member Mechjaz 2 hours ago Reply to  Flyingstitch Connoiscreur is the term, I believe.

.. And in typing this joke I’ve realized I kind of do love fasteners and screws in particular.

2 Member Rollin Hand 2 hours ago Reply to  Flyingstitch I always lose it when I have a screw loose.

1 Member Mighty Bagel 5 hours ago …which means it has nostalgic, old-school Fiat badges, a white roof and mirror caps, chrome bumper inserts, special wheels and chrome hubcaps, and some other detail features…

… like loose screws to complete the charming, classic Italian car feel.

4 Member Mrbrown89 5 hours ago Cucù! – Peekaboo in italian

1 Fruit Snack 5 hours ago The logistics of a screw in a Fiat 500 are too much to contemplate this early in the morning.

7 Member Steve’s House of Cars 5 hours ago As soon as I saw the coarse threads and the wide shoulder I knew it was the airbox. Typical FCA screws…

10 Member Lincoln Clown CaR 5 hours ago Reply to  Steve’s House of Cars I thought I was looking at a wood screw of some sort.

3 Scoutdude 3 hours ago Reply to  Steve’s House of Cars That design with the 8mm hex/screw driver slot is used on a lot of air boxes from a number of different brands. Though usually they are captive.

1 Member Steve’s House of Cars 3 hours ago Reply to  Scoutdude Having recently done the air filters on two FCA products, I can assure you theirs aren’t captive. Though, the threads are just wide enough they kind of don’t fall out if you are careful. But who is careful with an FCA product??

1 Member Ferdinand 5 hours ago Threads into plastic; probably through a decently thick plastic piece to start with. Something on the intake path sounds most likely to me, but I don’t think I’ve owned a car that the airbox has loose screws to lose during a filter replacement.

1 Member GirchyGirchy 4 hours ago Reply to  Ferdinand Yeah, the last vehicle I owned which required threaded fasteners to replace the air filter was built in 1985. Most companies have moved past that.

3 Member Steve’s House of Cars 3 hours ago Reply to  GirchyGirchy Have you driven an FCA lately? (In the style of the old commercial)