I looked at this car and it ran pretty much perfectly. But the stains lead me to believe the seller was trying to hide something. thoughts?

 

Looks like a poor attempt at washing the engine bay imo.

 

Spilled oil? Pull the valve cover and run a compression test.

 

dirty

 

Agree

 

Thanks for your opinions!

 

you say you saw the car and it ran fine, did you ask the seller what the stain was about. Did he recently have a valve adjustment or gasket replaced, send him an email and tell him you are concerned about a stain on the valve cover you noticed in the picture.

 

The car ran fine. When I asked about the stains he didn't really know. He always had the vehicle professionally maintained and the only real time he opened the hood was to add oil every few hundred miles.

My first concern was the it was just dirt. I did wonder if this stain meant something else that the community could attest to.

 

i just checked my car as well and it has the same stain. btw my car is an 03 with 30000 miles

 

"Every few hundred miles", eh? Hmm...

I know some early S2000s burn oil, but I might be careful about this. I have an 07 and the level is pretty much exactly the same after over 7K miles with synthetic. Obviously dirty though.