This post is definitely not about IT.
As almost everybody else in US I own a car. It's an old SUV - QX4. Being on visa does not let you to earn more to keep more, so I have to spend less to keep more :) And so I fix my own car.
Anyway, this particular model is known to have one common problem - loose front hood lock. In many forums you can find the problem described as "hood rattle". I've seen a lot of forum posts about this problem, but I never actually thought that I have this problem as well.
About a week ago I noticed that my hood...shakes. Nothing crazy, but it really did not feel like it was dead on where it was supposed to be. It was definitely a bit loose. And I bet that it was like that for all the previous year!
So after a very easy fix (undo 3 bolts, push the lock down as much as possible, level the lock, tighten the bolts) I took a car for a test drive and I was shocked. All the explainable rattle, muffled clanking on speed bumps and bunch of other symptoms are gone ! I was always blaming the suspension, mounts and any piece that has rubber in it, and all this time the problem was in a front hood lock.... Crazy!