i noticed a rattle in the wife's 02 civic the other day and decided to check it out. i noticed immediately that it was a screw on the bottom right hand side of the large airbox to the right of the battery. when i reached down to give it a turn to tighten i could lift it right out. is that a bad thing?

no one has worked on it since the last service and it just started doing it. it seems to be long enough to reach the hole it goes into but just turns.

any details?

Maybe the insert pressed into the lower housing came out ?? (no threads to tighten into)

I always tried to keep mine cleaned and light lube on my 05. The inserts are open to the environment.

The dealership broke mine and just left it like that without telling me. Those pieces break very easily when your trying to remove the bolts. Best to put lube on them like ATF like Craig said. Thats probably what happen to yours.

I wouldn't worry so much unless it's actually causing you an issue. If the noise is bothering you, then just get a new insert from the dealer. If you remove the bolt and don't have any complaints about noise, then I'd just leave it be. Some of the bolts for my air intake I left out because I plan on pulling it soon (SRI swap), and because I didn't want to be arsed with them at midnight lol. I haven't had any problems, nor do I foresee any. It's all a personal preference deal here.