Looking at Corollas, seeing oil 'spray' in engine bay

[dwalk51]

Hi
I've been looking for cars with my dad. Among the Toyotas we've seen, they've all had really nasty, oily engine bays. It looks like oil had been sputtering around inside somehow. Is this a common thing? What could be causing oil to spew all around the engine bay?

The cars literally had a fine coating of it around most everything. Like it was being misted around.

Thanks,
Dylan

[fishexpo101]

Could you tell what kind of oil spray? Motor oil, transaxle fluid, other fluid? What model year Corollas were you looking at.

Could just be road grime - can coat the whole underside and make it looks like something exploded in the engine bay.

As for that being common - not that I've seen. If it was due to neglect or accident (ie, left the oil fill cap off), that I could see spraying under the hood - but other than that, not much under there can pickup oil and spray it in that manner.

[dwalk51]

The cars were in the late 90's range, like 97, 98, and 99.

I'm not sure what kind of oil it was. But it was on nearly everything and you could visibly see where it had splattered on various components. It was like this on at least two of the corollas I've looked at with my dad.

We just thought it was very odd. When we saw it on the first car we thought it looked like something was malfunctioning and spraying/misting oil in the bay, but once we saw a second like it we began to think it may just be a regular corolla 'feature.'

Anyone else have that problem? Oily nasty looking engine bays? Or do they stay spick and span if cleaned?

Thanks!

[Clayton1984]

No offense, but I'm guessing you and your dad have never bought a pre-owned car from an owner. Dealers power wash or steam clean an engine bay before selling to make it look better. Most private owners do not clean their engine bays.

Most engine bays do not stay "spick and span." Road grime will dirty an engine bay after a year or so of regular driving. The cars you are looking have probably never had their engine bay cleaned. Your looking at old cars... grime builds up.

Grime enters the engine bay from beneath and through the grill. Most of it is kicked up by the car in front of you.

There isn't much benefit to cleaning your engine bay outside of appearances and you can mess up your car if you clean incorrectly.


What you should be looking for is something that looks like a leak or wet spots. Look both before and after you test drive. If its a manual make sure you can get into all gears easily. An early sign of a bad clutch in an 8th gen toyota will typically not stay in 5 gear.