The owner of a 2006 Mitsubishi Evolution MR recently made a rather surprising discovery when he opened up his engine for some routine repairs.

According to Jalopnik, the original owner of the sedan, Chris, has owned the vehicle since it had just 4 miles under its belt. It now has 64,000 and upon hearing some strange ticking noises from the engine, he decided to see if there was an issue with the valve lifters.

After taking the valve cover off, Chris stumbled upon a socket used in the engine’s assembly some 11 years ago, seemingly forgotten by the mechanic who put the engine together. It had wedged itself between a valve spring and part of the engine block.

Upon removing the socket, Chris discovered that it had a large gash taken out of it, presumably because the value spring had been rubbing against it for 64,000 miles. Remarkably, the socket never came lose and if it had, it could have caused irreparable damage to the 4G63 engine.

After reaching out to Mitsubishi about their blunder, the owner posted on the Evolution M forums that the automaker said it would only pay for diagnostic fees if the socket is determined to have caused damage to the valvetrain.

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