Yeah I beleive it's a prop rod and was left there accidentally.

I once bought a Dodge Aspen back in the late 70's and it had a terrible rattle over bumpy roads. The dealer couldn't locate the rattle so I took it upon myself to find it. Now keep in mind, this wasn't a new car. It was three years old when I bought it, so this rattle had been there all this time. After searching for this rattle I decided to remove the back seat to see if it might be there since the noise was coming from the rear. Prior to this all of the research was concentrated on the rear suspension, and exhaust system. What I found under the back seat was a shocker. There was a whole cach of tools under the seat cusion, the tools were wrapped in rags. There were a couple very nice sets of wrenches, some ratchets and sockets of various sizes. All of these tools were stamped "Snap On" and they said chrome vanadium on them. But the funny thing is that they didn't look anything like the Snap On tools in my box. Instead these tools were black, and not shiny chrome. I took them to Steve, my local Snap On guy, he told me that these are tools supplied and used on the manufacture's assembly line that's why they weren't chrome plated. Anyway, Steve made me a great deal that I just couldn't refuse. He traded me every tool for a shiny Snap-On replacement and tossed in a couple bonuses, he wanted this set for his collection of unusual / rare tools. He suspected that an employee stashed the tools there with the intention of returning later to retrieve them for his personal use, but some how the car got away from him / her and the tools just went by-by. Nice find for me. -Dan

 

When I had the body replaced on my '72 Bronco the mechanic found a box wrench inside the frame. There was no rattling sound from it as the vehicle had been undercoated and the stuff caused the wrench to stick in place instead of move around.

 

Brian "The Boz" Bozworth talked about working for GM when he was in college. He said every so often they would tie a nut on a string and attach it somewhere in an engine block. Whenever someone would take their car in and complain about a strange rattle, most often the mechanics would find the nut with a little note attached saying, "Ha Ha... You found me!" Of course, that would only be after they had completely torn the engine appart.

 

I was watching "Unique Whips" on the Speed channel last night - they were working on Timbaland's new Porsche Cayenne (upgrades, stereo, rims, etc.). Anyway, the guy that does the wiring was up in the engine area and found an odd-shaped hammer in the space between the body and the hood. It was a really old-looking ball-ping-type hammer; it looked very used. The guys thought it was a good find and decided to keep it as a memento. Maybe that's what happened to you HHR?

 

If MikeX is round-eye, then I wanna be brown-skin - can I Please?
All you pale-faces, let me know.