ok so me and my friend were changeing my oil today. we were getting ready to take out the oil filter and we dropped the socket and it laned under the SC im guessing on the intake manifold. we couldnt reach it by hand so my friend got a magnet to try and get it out. then it went BOOM sparks every were smoke every were i thought my car blew up. we quick disconected the battery. and pulled out what was left of the magnet well it was melted in half and like 4 inches of aluminum on both sides was turned blue we checked it out but there were no open wires and nothing was burned in the engine bay. we finished the oil change and checked all the electronics every thing was fine my friend has been a mechanic for 5 years now and has done thousands of oil changes and every one on my car. WTF could have caused this and what do you think i should do.

 

the magnet could have caused a short circuit to occur...

 

maybe somehow the magnet hit the positive lead on the starter and the other part was on the negatively grounded motor

 

Starter would be my guess.

 

Starter is my guess

 

It would only do that if the car was actively being started though. (if it was the starter)

Honestly I couldnt tell you what it might have been, try to take a look down there and look for any exposed metal objects which would be positively charged

 

No it doesnt have to be started, i was working on a van at vocational and i thought the other class unhooked the battery the van was already up in the air. I took off the starter and hit the side of the van and engine and sparks went every where.

 

the filter is paper and plastic... what good would a magnet do anyway?

 

They dropped a socket.

What position was the ignition switch in.

 

Not the starter, the starter solenoid, which happens to be mounted right on top of the starter. It's hot all the time. You grounded the solenoid lead. Usually that one has a little terminal boot insulator over it. I guess yours didn't.

 

Actually the starter receives the primary B+ connection directly from the battery. It doesnt need to be cranking for the sparks to fly. I suspect if the mechanic is as experienced as indicated, he knew full well what went wrong. As long as it didnt melt anything too badly or start a fire there should be no long term repercussions.
Wop

 

Ohhhh the solenoid, that makes sense.

 

Shouldn't be too big of a deal. I've done it before by accident and nothing bad came of it except the fact that my heart was in my throat for a minute.

 

True, But I've seen a few guys burnt pretty bad working down at the starter though. I once seen a Snap-On ratchet go "red-hot" until it melted the lead solder right out of the side post battery! (The cables actually fell right off- which stopped the current) On an aluminum block there IS a risk of punching a hole at the contact point if something doesnt terminate the flow.
I know what you mean by having a heart-stopping moment though
WOT

 

Mmm... perhaps this is why one should always disconnect the battery before rummaging around under the hood.

 

LOL Yeah, that's why most repair procedures start out saying Raise car, support it on jackstands, disconnect battery.... Of course, no one ever does this for an oil change.

 

i actually did the same thing a month ago execpt i didnt use a magnet i used a cloths hanger and it sparked on me... not as bad as dudes did but it scared the crap outta me..... 1 1/4 ssocket is a pain in the butt

 

well the car runs fine and there nothing wrong w/ the starter. but it scared the crap outta me and my friend he got a pretty good shock.

 

Haha, now tell him to check the boots on your igntion coils. Another one I've seen quite a few times was people trying to hook up battery power to their distibutor when it's got voltage, it has about the same effect except they are actually holding the wire that sparks.