I drive a 2012 Toyota Highlander. I was pulling my debit card out at lunch today and accidentally dropped it between my center console and my seat. In the process of reaching down to get it it got shoved under the little slot at the bottom of the panel in the pic.
I initially thought I could just unscrew the panel from the back, peel it back enough to nab the card and then screw it back, but the portion of the plastic that my card slid under is a separate, solid piece witho it visible screws (the only screw I can see that might belong to it is blocked by the seat no matter how I raise or lower it.
Am I SOL and should just order another card or is there a solution that a super layman could do (or could a local garage do it for me?)
I'm at a loss here and I don't know if I should just cancel my card and get my bank to send me another (which will take a few weeks)
Please help
It's probably less effort to just deal with not having a card for a week and go to the bank to withdraw some daily-use cash than to spend your time prying at a piece of plastic.
Whoops, wrong pic.
Get something sticky and try and pull it out with a coat hanger?
FROM THE MACGYVER HANDBOOK:
>>15451487
If you are one of those raging fast to anger type dudes. then patience is needed this time.
In order of things I would do:
a. Think. Are there bad places that card can fall to inside the console which make it unrecoverable? That includes any downhill slopes into depressions far down. If so, extra care about pushing the card is needed. Think of ways that card could move to make things worse. Then try not to do those things at random. If you sincerely try and it makes it worse, okay, that is acceptable. If you rage angrily and try methods with bold angry strokes, that is not acceptable. I have seen angry people try to retrieve and fail, so this is why I say this.
b. Thin wooden ruler with nice squared edge. The tall cliff edge catches the card and pushes it back out. Reach in at one side of the card and stroke it out with a sideways motion like a cat would with its paw in a horizontal opening.
c. Cardstock with sticky duct tape on it. Everyone is familiar with the reverse loop of tape with the sticky side out? You fasten that to some card and slide it in hoping the card sticks to it.
This is not that.
Make two slits in card stock about 1 to 1.5 inches apart. Slide piece of duct tape through slits so the sticky side faces out in the middle but the edges of tape stick to the backsides of the paper at the edges of the slit. This makes a much thinner sticky grabber tool than using a loop of tape. Use this to pull the card out.
d.
Come back and report to the thread to encourage wanna-be macgyvers to reply to future requests for help.
>>15451735
*continued MacGyvering*
If you can sort of see where the card is, then you can try wrapping the end of a plastic qtip (cotton removed) with some sticky tape and move the card out. Before doing so, warp the qtip stick so it is curved upwards. Insert into opening a short distance from card with curve still upwards. Get close to card. Turn stick in fingers and the curved end with tape on it will rotate down onto the top of the card. This trick avoids pushing the card further around. Now pull the card out. If the card is far in, you may try this with wire since you can bend a small claw end on the wire to help pull the card closer to opening.
There is the Mythbuster's method which works for many things on their TV show. When in doubt, use C4.
>>15451487
If you have contactless payment just bring the car with you and hold it up to the card reader. :)
>>15451487
If it was me, I'd take the car home and remove the seat to get at it better (probably 4 bolts and some cable connectors), then try to locate the card and fish it out as described by >>15451735
Failing that I might consider removing the console cover to find it, but I'd probably not bother unless that were very easy to accomplish without breaking shit.
Of course, that amount of effort might not be worth it to you. I think in my case it'd be more about undoing a stupid mistake than just having the card back.
>>15451735
>>15451773
OP here. I'll give these a try, though I might have to wait till tomorrow to get the stuff I need.
Thanks!
>>15451487
You can just get another card issued to you for free from the bank can't you?
use a hammer.
MacGyver Log: Stardate today
>>15451884
>I might have to wait till tomorrow to get the stuff I need.
Will driving around cause the card to move around into a worse position? Cardstock could be from the peeled edge of a cardboard box. After all, a cardboard box is two sheets of cardstock between which is that wavy piece of glued paper. If you have unused cardboard it can be used. If you have no qtip then go right to coathanger or wire.
Don't say you have no duct tape? The universal tool? Even my hardware store has joke wallets for sale made complete out of duct tape except for the clear plastic window for the driver's license.
No wire? No qtip? No cardboard? No cardstock? No C4 lying around? You really suck at being an ISIS member. You'd better not join them.
Normally I'd say use a butter knife now. But scissors makes a more fun example. Use a butter knife if you like being safe. If you have thin scissors with plastic handle and a screw in the middle for a pivot, if the screw lets you take apart the scissors, then you can do that. Now you have a long stiff reaching tool that is small enough to fit. Wrap some scotch tape sticky-side-out in a diagonal pattern starting at the tip and wrap a ways down. At the fat end, stop it from unraveling with a small piece of tape with the usual no stick end (folded) so you can remove it easily.
This is your new reaching instrument. I'd normally say use your penis because it is small enough to fit in the crack, but apparently it's not long enough either. Okay, remember where the card is. If you can push the bottom edge of the console inwards to make the crack wider, then you might be able to simply sit the blade on top of the card without any risk of pushing it in farther. If not, then you'll have to approach the card sideways and don't push the card towards some downward slope or it will be lost.
Report back because MacGyver likes to know if thinking outside the box works or not.
>>15451528
I've only ever seen that tool used as a dildo machine, not sure what it is supposed to be used for
>>15451487
>>15451735
My favorite is the wooden ruler or yardstick trick too. I guess no one has wooden rulers, wooden paint stirring sticks, or wooden yardsticks anymore?
I've retrieved many things that slid or rolled under shelves with those things. It also lets me pull out dust and dead bugs from under the garage shelving too. There's no way I'd use the wooden paint stirrer for stirring paint. It's too useful otherwise.
>>15452070
That looks similar to something my GF has but with no sharp ends. It can wiggle in different directions.
>>15451525
Those plastic panels are held in by snap clips
SNAPS!
You could buy the little kit of plastic tools meant to remove these kinds of panels...
OR!
Just use a flat screwdriver
Pry a little bit at the edge, find where a snap clip is, pop it, once you get 1 the rest are pretty easy.
>>15453260
>Those plastic panels are held in by snap clips
>You could buy the little kit of plastic tools meant to remove these kinds of panels..
Like the interior trim tools mentioned in this archived /o/ thread about removing interior trim in order to install vibration and sound deadening dynamat and other materials.
https://archive.4plebs.org/o/thread/15364893/
Additional descriptions and where to get those non-scratching non-marring non-denting tools are in that thread too.
