Help me find this bolt a home!

Back in February I did my timing belt, water pump, and both roller bearings while I was in there after work taking a total of 2 days from start to finish. I triple checked to make sure all of the water pump bolts were in place before buttoning everything back up. I have had zero issues after completing the timing belt service. Everything went well except for one thing. I cannot remember where this bolt goes it was kind of hidden under some other things before I realized it. I know since it's clean it must have been somewhere not exposed to the elements..

So this bolt has been bothering me ever since and wanted to see if the fellow Tacoma world members can help me pinpoint where to look before I tear everything apart. I did the steps as described in the factory service manual and from watching the "safetydang" video on youtube. Thanks in advance guys/gals for any clues you have to offer.

 

Assuming v6. Maybe timing belt tensioner or starter wire bracket. Truly, guessing game.Trying to think of spots that would have had slight oil coating.

 

Yes, it's a v6. The bolt is actually dry just really clean. So I'm assuming I used a dirty bolt in place of where this one is supposed to be...

 

Is it a 8mm or 10mm? Could it be one of the bolts for your timing cover? Maybe on a bracket that hold a line?

 

It's a 10mm bolt. I have all of the timing cover bolts accounted for, and all lines are secure. I will have to double check my tensioner this weekend as per Andy.G's reply. Really don't want to open everything up again this weekend, sucks!

 

Trying to figure anything easy to check first. Fully threaded bolt almost looks like crush washer. I think a bunch of the internal bolts are shouldered? Def sucks. Fingers crossed for you Scott.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8pvD_4Pd1A

 

Check the bracket that holds the oil dipstick to the engine. I had to remove a bolt to move the dipstick out of the way to remove the water pump. Looks very similar... Either that or the wire bracket down at the bottom of the timing covers, but I think they were smaller than the one u have there.

 

Besides the water pump what other hardware do these type of bolts secure? I know how happy feels 'offroadToy' haha. Dipstick tube bracket bolt is there, the lower wiring bracket bolts are 8mm I believe.

 

You got parts left over = You did the job right!

 

Frustrating

 

I had a leftover last time I did mine. Bolt was for the plastic cover, somewhere near the bottom.
Bolt is still currently in the glovebox.

 

Not going to be able to mess with the truck this weekend. Thanks everybody for the replies!

 

I'm thinking this or simliar....I've got some random 10mm looks just like this one, they use them all over..

Unless it just makes you OCD until you find it, probably not a huge deal, might check any brackets holding trans lines if auto again toyota uses the hell out of little brackets, most useful, some just in the way..

 

I am really OCD when it comes to certain things, especially not knowing the importance of the bolt...

 

Fair enough, depending how long ago this was, as time goes on with no issues the importance of this bolt fades if ya know what I mean, but I agree its annoying as hell when you've made conscience detail to re assembly just to have 1 or 2 hanging around without a home..

 

I found one of those in my driveway. In trying to track down the source, I saw that these trucks have a lot of bolts, inside and out, that look like that. I eventually found a missing bolt on my radiator fan shroud, as well as a couple of more loose bolts. I'm not positive that that's where the bolt I found came from, since it was pretty clean, but that's where it is now.

 

Yeah, I'm not really worried about something failing due to the lack of this bolt missing. I have driven the truck about 2000 miles already with no noises or leaks of any sort.

 

Funny you say you were missing a radiator shroud bolt because mine was too due to the timing belt being replaced by the previous owner. I went and bought a new radiator shroud bolt. Now I have another missing bolt somewhere. I hope this isn't a trend, every time I wrench on the truck I am left with an extra bolt after I find where the previous leftover bolt is supposed to go.....