Is this just road debris, or a bit of the car?

[EV_Hopeful]

Returned home after a long journey. Noticed an intermittent "squeak" that seemed to be coming from the driver's side of the car. Been driving for a couple of days and the squeak keeps appearing, every now and then. This morning I noticed what seems to be a bit of metal (roughly rectangular cross-section) on the lower part of the body, just behind the drivers side front wheel. (As in the photo, just below the gap between the door hinge. Car does need a wash.)

Tried removing it, but it doesn't seem to want to budge. I am now wondering if somehow this is part of the metal frame/structure of the car that has somehow managed to come through the plastic panel.

Am I being silly? Is it just debris and I'm just not using enough force to remove it?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Regulo]

Wow! Is that actually embedded in the panel?

 

[EV_Hopeful]

Wow! Is that actually embedded in the panel?

I have tried pushing it to the side with my thumb and it is having none of it, so it seems to have gone through the panel. (I think the bottom panel is plastic?)

What I am trying to work out is if it came from outside, i.e. something flying up from the road, somehow, and embedding itself...

or

is it part of the car's structure that has worn its way through from the inside somehow. I haven't taken a pair of pliers to it yet and given it a pull.

 

[Mad Professor]

Having a look quick look at your pictures especially your last one, I am guessing that it's a neodymium magnet.
I am not sure if that part of the car is steel or aluminium.
If it's aluminium then that shoots down my idea.

 

[kelvin 660]

Just put a magnet on my rockers panel and it is steel!

 

[EV_Hopeful]

Just put a magnet on my rockers panel and it is steel!

Doh! I should have tried that. Thanks.

In that case, it is unlikely that it is something that went through (from outside or inside). I'll try pliers...

 

[EV_Hopeful]

Having a look quick look at your pictures especially your last one, I am guessing that it's a neodymium magnet.
I am not sure if that part of the car is steel or aluminium.
If it's aluminium then that shoots down my idea.

Bizarre, but it seems it is steel. Would love to know how that got there, but I'll try pliers. Thanks.

 

[Mr H]

I'm wondering why a tiny magnet, if it is one, would cause an intermittent squeak...

 

[EV_Hopeful]

I'm wondering why a tiny magnet, if it is one, would cause an intermittent squeak...

I am assuming that in this case correlation doesn't mean causation. I now suspect that the squeak is unrelated, and possible I just spotted the magnet because I was trying to work out where the squeak was coming from.

 

[EV_Hopeful]

And thanks all!

Turns out it really was just a small rectangular neodymium magnet. Absolutely no idea how it ended off on my car...

Happy and only a little confused.

 

[IWRBR]

Having a look quick look at your pictures especially your last one, I am guessing that it's a neodymium magnet.
I am not sure if that part of the car is steel or aluminium.
If it's aluminium then that shoots down my idea.

Great call and looks like you were right based on OP comments!
User name checks out

 

[init6]

Absolutely no idea how it ended off on my car...

It fell off the CIA/KGB/MI5 tracker

 

[Pink Duck]

Tesla’s panel gaps look worse close-up

 

[anarchi]

And thanks all!

Turns out it really was just a small rectangular neodymium magnet. Absolutely no idea how it ended off on my car...

Happy and only a little confused.

Motorcyclists sometimes put a magnet on the end of the bike's oil filter cover (it's supposed to attract any metal debris so they don't go back into the engine). It could have come off at some point and then you conveniently drove past.