My son dropped the J bolt from the battery tie-down below the metal battery tray in his 2018 Honda Accord EX. We have tried from above, below and every way to find it. It appears we need to remove the metal battery tray to see where it went. We have removed every bolt in the tray we can see and the metal tray still barely budges.
*** Does anyone know how to remove the metal battery tray???
Please and thank you!

 

This is the battery removal diagram.

 

Sadly it is below the metal base circled in red here.


I’m worried it will be in some moving part and will jam or break something.
Is it possible there are no moving parts below this and we can just buy another J bolt and move on? It fell in towards the wheel side.

 

It may have just fell near the transmission or down to the undercover.

Most everything on that side is sealed (e.g., transmission, etc.); so, almost no risk of it causing any damage.

The drive belt and pulleys are on the opposite side of the engine; so, practically no risk there either.

You can take the engine under cover off and look if you like. But, just getting another J hook may take care of it.

 

This is the battery metal tray removal, which right above the transmission mount.

 

UPDATE: We’ll we never got that plate off despite the helpful replies. Thanx redbull-1! The new battery didn’t start the car so we had it towed to a shop. Apparently there was a frazzled wire near the alternator. Car is running well now with an extra J bolt somewhere in the engine compartment.