Sometimes its the easy fixes......
 

So I had a massive clunking noise which seemed to be coming from the rear drivers side wheel well, which was getting progressively worse. After several lengthy probing sessions under the rear of the car up on jacks, I simply could not find anything.

Just about came to the conclusion that my torsion bar needed re-indexing or something to that effect as there was nothing visibly wrong (and the CVs & wheel bearings were fine as well).

Then on some "what parts need refreshed on the car" session over a beer on a Sunday afternoon, I realized that the rear hatch shocks were getting tired. Replaced them and everytime I hit a bump on the road the hatch would raise wide open. Anyways, to get to the point, a 20-minute cleaning session with some WD-40 to the hatch locking mechanism later, no more hatch problems or clunking. Great to realize I finally fixed it, but if only I realized this was the issue six months ago!:mad:

Anyone ever had a similar easy fix after assuming it was the worst? I'm sure that there's other stories out there

Yea, quite embarassng when the hatch pops open whenever you hit a bump. I thought at first this was some sort of a drag racing option and a chute could be installed if needed.

Seriously, I found that adding a washer spacer between the hatch latch and the body mount point kept the latch from binding in the open position and causing the hatch to open unpredictably. Otherwise tightening the latch screws would pinch the latch enough against the body so that it would bind and not release back to the closed position, even when well lubed.

lol that happened in Top Gear.. that episode was funny...

i had a similar sound... clicking, though.. not clunking... and this was just months after doing the rear bearings for the first time... drove to work, heard the clicking.. drove home, clicking... sounded just like the bearings did when they started to go bad.. i thought i'd have to do the job over again...

turns out 3 out of 5 lug nuts were loose... tightened them up, clicking gone.

Here it is!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iUTgaze_nM&mode=related&search=

Back some time ago, I heard a story about a lady (who had just had a reman tranny installed) complain to the tranny shop that the car would not budge in the morning but was fine after lunch. The shop had it for days trying to figure it out. Then they left it in the heated garage one night and it worked fine the next morning. Turns out that she neglected to tell them that the stream behind her house overflowed and submerged the back half of the car. The diff fluid was displaced by the water and it would be frozen solid in the morning and thawed out by lunchtime. They changed the diff fluid (now water) and they never heard from her after that. It was December in New England.