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A guy at the Springfield swap meet told me my engine bay looked "too clean to trust" and honestly he had a point
I used to pressure wash everything under the hood before every show, and he said that just hides leaks and makes buyers think you're covering something up, which I never even thought about. Now I wipe it down by hand and leave the little oil seep alone, and I've had two people tell me they trust the car more because of it. Anyone else run into that, where cleaning less actually helped you sell?
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hayden_rivera7d ago
The "too clean to trust" thing is real. I bought a truck years ago where the guy had scrubbed the frame until it looked brand new, and I spent the whole test drive looking for what he was hiding. Turned out the rear main leaked like a faucet once it warmed up, and the shiny frame just made me more mad about it. Sold my old Chevy with grease caked on the bell housing and the buyer actually pointed at it and said good, that means it has oil in it. Funny how a little grime reads as honest these days.
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michael_bennett117d ago
Not sure this is as big a deal as people make it. Clean or dirty, the truck either runs right or it doesnt, and you should be checking the same stuff no matter what the frame looks like. @hayden_rivera makes a fair point about grime reading as honest, but thats just as much of a head fake as a shiny frame when you think about it. Plenty of guys leave the underside greasy on purpose so you assume it gets maintained, then the trans is toast. End of the day a leak is a leak and a scrubbed frame is a scrubbed frame, neither one tells you much on its own. Get a guy who actually knows motors to look it over before you hand over cash and you wont have to play detective on a test drive.
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