Car comes back from the shop, a few days later I start hearing rattling from the aircon fan. I open the bonnet - the battery cover is off, jammed in the space in front of the battery, probably pushing against the blower fan intake. I pulled it out, and the rattling mostly stopped.
I contacted the insurer who organised the repair, and they replied - "we only repaired passenger door side, so any issues with bonnet or engine bay are not covered by your claim".
So my question is - do panelbeaters usually disconnect the battery when working on the car? Because that would explain what happened here.
The only alternative I guess is that my usual mechanic forgot to reattach the battery cover when I took the car in for service the month before.