Who can recommend a low-cost industrial endoscope for motor vehicle work?

[MM]

The lowest price I've seen is around £250, which is rather a lot to discover what is causing the irritating rattle (loose object; maybe a biro pen) that is coming from underneath the dashboard on my Fiat Punto. It's somewhere between the underside of the dash and the heating ducts. I've tried peering up from underneath the dash, but it's in some kind of void. (Removing a Punto dashboard is a MAJOR task.)

The endoscope shaft has to be of small diameter, not the 8mm as used to inspect cavity walls.

If not to buy, then to hire maybe?

MM

[MM]

The only ones I've thought of so far is foam and magnets.

MM

[MM]

No, this is more solid than leaves. I've been listening to the darned rattle for weeks, although I only drive locally nowadays for shopping, so it's not a real sweat. But if I wanted to sell the car....? It sounds like a pen, because when it rattles and slides around, it sounds like it's got several flats, like a biro does. I'm blowed if I know HOW anything could have got in, but whatever it is, I can't see it yet.

MM

[newshound]

Megabux. The smallest industrial ones I've used were about 6 mm, maybe the surgeons have smaller. Can you get a view with a small webcam or bullet camera? Go fishing with magnets on a string or a flexy stick? Dribble gripfix in and hope it catches it? Expanding foam? Paint?

[Derek Geldard]

Can't exactly help you with that except to observe that most rattles I've had to address involved leaves drawn in and eventually becoming dessicated, ending up behind heater vents on the dashboard.

DG

[MM]

Guy? Robots, if you please!

MM

[John]

Did you hear about the guy on the Punto production line who lost a pen............................?

[Andy Dingley]

Mil surplus. There's a lot around. try Anchor Surplus in Nottingham. Short and rigid are cheap, and they'll still let you look through a tiny hole. Flexible fibre optic bundles for illumination are cheap. Fibre bundles that allow imaging are still expensive and only really useful for surgery.

White LED torches make great replacements for the original light source, and they're portable too.

My usual endoscope is 12" long, 4mm wide, sideways looking and cost =A320. I had to vacuum dry it for a while to get the condensation off the mirror before it gave a good image.

[Peter Parry]

Punto? Turn it upside down and give it a good shake until the object falls out.

[MM]

All the oil would run out! Petrol I'm not so worried about, since I can't afford to put more than a pint in it.

MM

[Owain]

He wants to remove the rattle, not the seats and engine.

Owain