Looking at a second hand tin top for SWMBO. Pretty tidy outside and in but I cant help feeling something is a bit off. It drives fine and is a very nice car.

Looking under the car and under the bonnet on top of the engine there is a layer of fine dust/sand. A hoover/pressure wash would remove it.

Having driven spiritedly on the grubbiest of UK roads I have never managed to get that much crud on top of the engine/into all the nooks and crannies under the car.

All I can think is that this has either been in a flood....no other signs of this or recorded repairs.. Or its been used to drive around a building site/quarry with enough speed to kick up the dust.

I can clean the dirt off but not sure if I should follow my intuition and back away....

if it had flooded high enough to leave silt on the engine then I would expect costly damage to the inside and the electronics of the car.
Can you see in the spare wheel well, perhaps lift the carpets inside?

Where in the country does the car come from?

No sign of anything in the spare wheel well. I agree that if it had flooded that much the electrics and interior would be ruined.

Car is currently in Bristol in a "car supermarket" but I am not sure where it originated from. Rather odd that they have not given it a decent clean... most garages make their cars spotless.

Not the dusty residue that's left over after a fire extinguisher has been used is it? I used one recently and the powder settled as a fine dust which could be hoovered afterwards, sounds similar to what you describe?
Just a thought anyway

I dont think so. Its definitely some kind of sand.

Not loads, but enough to make me curious.

You could pay for a vehicle check - never done one myself so I don't really know what you get for your money or how much detail they give you.

Other than that I always take the view that there's more than plenty of cars out there. If it doesn't feel right I feel beeter moving on without the car.

You're right as well anyone selling a car should have it looking as clean and tidy as possible - it's really not difficult!

Its a fairly large car supermarket with an affiliation to RAC so all the cars are supposed to have had their many point inspection... trouble is theres a bit of a conflict of interest going on as its not in their interest to find faults.

Yes you are right, given its a car supermarket you'd have thought they would make an effort to clean... Weird

I live a couple of doors down from a skip yard, which has an unsurfaced yard, and plenty of air disturbance going on as the skips are tipped and sorted. And the prevailling wind comes in our directon. As a result Our cars are *always* covered in sandy dust on the outside, and indeed everything does get dusty inside the engine bay too - with a fairly consistent layer.

It's the same sort of effect as when the UK gets a 'wind up from the Sahara' where people say their windowsills, etc are all covered in sand... I.e. it's not inches thick, but certainly if inside your house was that dusty everywhere you'd think it was filthy.

I guess it's fairly unique, the location and conditions need to be right, and before I lived here i'd never seen an engine bay all dusty like that...

quote:

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Originally posted by tegwin

I can clean the dirt off but not sure if I should follow my intuition and back away....

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so long as it isn't actually sand... I replaced the sills on an Audi once and found they were completely filled with sand!

There's so many cars out there I'd walk away from any unless they were perfect, there's far too many cars for sale just now and it's a buyers market. How about using Cazoo or Cinch etc at least they check their cars, clean them and give you a week or more to return it for any reason. Mine looked like new inside and out and dropped off outside my door.

Mine from Cazoo actually had a difficult to notice scratch on the rear bumper and a small very shallow dent on the bonnet. I did a Trustpilot review last week (mind this is now 3 ½ months after getting the car...) and mentioned it on there, next day they phoned me up to arrange getting it sorted all for free at my house no questions asked! amazing service. Can you imagine a dealer doing that?? lol





[Edited on 17/6/21 by Mr Whippy]

Cars can get pretty grubby in the engine Bay Area what car is it and age mileage does it have an under tray but if your not comfortable with it walk away as said there’s plenty of others im sure

[Edited on 17/6/21 by ian locostzx9rc2]

[Edited on 17/6/21 by ian locostzx9rc2]

Bristol, not far from the coast, i take my car to the beach most days...rephrase that, i take my dog to the beach most days in my car and there is a fine layer of sand everywhere, same as my house and everything else i own so wouldnt be to woried if it is sand, as others have said, there are plenty cars out there for sale, if in doubt, walk away.

Any chance it’s lived in Greece or Spain ?

I live 200 yards or so down an unmade road, all my engine bays tend to end up with a fine layer of dust which does look fairly sandy - can you check previous address to see if it has lived somewhere down an unmade road or a farm track?

On the flip side, if the engine bay looked like it was made yesterday, would you be questioning the sale ?

Any decent valeter, and i know a few, ive also worked with a couple (hard work!!) could make the engine bay look like its factory fresh, and just general wear and tear

To me, an CLEAN engine bay says more than a dirty one ??????????????

At least it obviously hasn't been jet washed...

It may be just the design of some cars the wife's Tiguan always gets very dusty under the bonnet no off road use just local town driving and motorway use.

Most if not all tin tops these days have engine undertrays don't they.

Shouldn't that keep most crud out of the engine bay?