And it is a walnut. But walnuts have caused a surprising number of problems in cars compared to other plant material.

This Accord had only a couple thousand miles when it came in for a suspension noise. I drove it over some bumps and heard a clunking from the left rear. After lifting it and inspecting the suspension I couldn’t find any issues, until I looked at the spring. This walnut was sitting between the lower spring mount and the body, and when the suspension would compress it would cause a clunking noise.

I have seen this same problem before with a walnut in one of the front springs of a car, but that wasn’t the most interesting walnut-related problem I’ve seen. A while ago I wrote about a car that wouldn’t go into park. It turned out that a walnut had found its way onto the top of the transmission and blocked the movement of the shift lever.

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-Dan