lost wedding ring in AC vent

jay0109

1 in a million chance of this happening but it has. Messing with wedding ring and let it fall in back of 09 reg BMW 320d. It rolled under the drivers seat and into 1 of the twin air conditioning vents under the drivers seat!!!!

How to get it out?
I've been looking online and some people are saying to take out the drivers seat, pull back the carpet and cut the AC tube...but I'm not sure where exactly the ring will have gone to within the tube.....will it have moved far from the initial point of entry? (how slippy is the tube and would it's texture mean the ring has moved far from this entry point?)
Others are saying to tape a narrow hose to a hoover hose and see can it be sucked out etc etc

has anyone any ideas or experience of this...before I start whats going to be a tough process I reckon!

jay0109

jay0109 wrote: »

Others are saying to tape a narrow hose to a hoover hose and see can it be sucked out etc etc........

If you can get a hoover hose/nozzle into the air con tube I'd try that with some onion bag (net stuff) over the nozzle.

jay0109

it's a narrow inlet so even the hoover option with an extension is going to be tight but will give that a go as the 1st option
Can't believe that a 'hole' like this has not got a grid across it. I can only imagine how much stuff ends up these inlets

Zulu

Oh man I feel your pain; that vent is the exact same size as a brand new apple iPhone 4. Guess how I know that! :rolleyes:

Sadly I never managed to get my phone back. I tried a wire clothes hanger, and I tried reversing down a car park ramp & slamming on the breaks. None of which worked. There's a small lip about 6 inchs into that vent which, sadly, will keep your ring in place.

Sorry I can't provide anything other than a shared experience & misery.

jay0109

Zulu, found this comment on a site I was looking at earlier in the UK:

The wife lost her iPhone down the duct this afternoon. Reversing and breaking didn't work.
I got a piece of cardboard about 1 metre long and 2 cm wide. Stuck a bit of double sided tape on the end and pushed it in the duct sticky tape side up. The cardboard slid under the iPhone, the tape stuck and out it came.

Zulu

thanks!

deandean

OP if you can see the ring you'll probably be able to hook it with a bit of wire.

You can buy a low cost endoscope (60cm fibre optic camera with monitor) for small money now, e.g. at CQ communications on Dublin North Quays, or maybe Maplin.

You'll be able to feed the camera into the vent and look around. With a bit of luck you'll recover enough coins outa there to pay for the camera LOL! Best of luck.

mickdw

If this vent is big enough for an iphone, about 300mm of garden hose taped and sealed onto the hoover should be ideal and will fit no bother. I use this to clean awkward parts of my car and the suction is brilliant due to the small opening. It should pull a ring out of the vent.

Muckie

For an awkward job like this, i'd try a straighted out coat hanger, put a loop or knot on the very end, then press on a lttle ball of bluetac.

Then its a game of finding it with the coat hanger and pressing it onto
the ring once you've found it. Bit of a Mac Gyver job i know. Happy fishing

Slidey

Zulu wrote: »

Oh man I feel your pain; that vent is the exact same size as a brand new apple iPhone 4. Guess how I know that! :rolleyes:

Sadly I never managed to get my phone back.

:eek:

You mean to say you just left the iphone down there?

I disassembled a hydraulic tank on a forklift to get a maglite torch!

jay0109

ok, got the ring back! It was'nt too far down from the inlet- seems to have got caught there,maybe where the AC tube joins the plastic casing. You could just see the shine of it when a torch was flashed down there. My mate got a bit of wire with a hook on the end and after much manouvering, and times when it looked like it was been pushed away rather than caught on the hook, he got it out.
Blessed I have to say.

For the record I had secured the hire of an endoscope with a retrieval device which was going to be used in Plan B. That would have been hard work also but as DeanDean said above, half the battle would be to see where it is in the tube. So I reckon this would have worked

Thanks to all for your help and advice. greatly appreciated

Zulu

mickdw wrote: »

If this vent is big enough for an iphone, about 300mm of garden hose taped and sealed onto the hoover should be ideal and will fit no bother. I use this to clean awkward parts of my car and the suction is brilliant due to the small opening. It should pull a ring out of the vent.

iPhone is 10mm wide. The vent isn't much wider. You wouldn't fit a standard hose into it.

Slidey wrote: »

:eek:

You mean to say you just left the iphone down there?

I disassembled a hydraulic tank on a forklift to get a maglite torch!

Did you pay a monthly fee to insure said maglite?

Tallon

Wedding ring?

iPhone 4?

WTF, I'd be ripping those seats out in a heart beat.

BeardyGit

I always checked down the sides of the couch and armchairs when I rented a house/apartment. Never failed to turn up beer money.

I reckon we'll all be doing that with 320's in a couple of years time, except looking down the vents for iPhones and lost jewelry!

Zulu

Can I advertise my car as "with fully integrated iPhone 4"?

I mean, it is fully integrated...

...into the ventilation system

listermint

If i get it out can i keep it

who the fug

If I get the Car out can i keep it

biko

Good sales point, "you get an iphone with it"