Piston Slap: The Little Hole, The Truck Spare Tire

TTAC commentator Macca writes:

Sajeev,

This is random, but I was wondering if you could look into an automotive curiosity that has bugged me for some time. Internet searches on the subject have not produced any answers so far, unfortunately.

I do not own a Ram truck, nor do I envision ever purchasing one, but I do often find myself sitting in traffic behind one. I’ve noticed that on recent models, the rear bumper has a slight indentation above and to the right of the license plate area. This indentation appears to coincide with what appears to be a drain hole of some sort for the bed, but the two aren’t ever fully aligned.

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Piston Slap: The Body Control Module Electric?

Gary writes:

Good Afternoon,

Today when I got into my 2002 Saturn SL2, the power door locks started chattering. Each door, over the space of about 45 minutes, had the same thing happen. Sometimes it would be one at a time, other times it would be two or more. I also noticed that the inside locks – the “up/down” button, not the little lever you use to manually unlock the car – would not work, only later to work. For now I have removed the lock fuse and that stopped the problem. I wait and plug the fuse back in, and the sporadic chattering once again begins. Sometimes it is completely quiet. Any thoughts?

Thank you!

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Super Piston Slap: Thrifty Texans Trump Tailgate Theft?

Yesterday’s post on Texas Tailgate Theft definitely struck a nerve with this Native Texan, especially the NCIB’s Quote:

“Since a tailgate theft takes just seconds to accomplish, consumers might consider using an after-market security device, such as a hinge lock to thwart criminals.”

Yeah, not quite…

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  • EBFlex It will have exactly zero effect
  • THX1136 What happened to the other companies that were going to build charging stations? Maybe I'm not remembering clearly OR maybe the money the government gave them hasn't been applied to building some at this point. Sincere question/no snark.
  • VoGhost ChatGPT, Review the following article from Automotive News: and create an 800 word essay summarizing the content. Then re-write the essay from the perspective of an ExxonMobil public relations executive looking to encourage the use of petroleum. Ensure the essay has biases that reinforce the views of my audience of elderly white Trump-loving Americans with minimal education. Then write a headline for the essay that will anger this audience and encourage them to read the article and add their own thoughts in the comments. Then use the publish routine to publish the essay under “news blog” using Matt Posky listing the author to completely subvert the purpose of The Truth About Cars.
  • VoGhost Your source is a Posky editorial? Yikes.
  • Fed65767768 Nice find. Had one in the early-80s; loved it but rust got to it big time.Still can't wrap my head around $22.5K for this with 106,000 km and sundry issues.Reluctant (but easy) CP.