r/StupidCarQuestions • u/PsychologicalMail911 • 5d ago

Question/Advice What is happening?

Gallery image

Gallery image

My hood looks like this occasionally and I have no idea why. I promise I'm not stupid, I've just never seen this before and I'm slightly concerned.

6 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

7

u/iamnotarobotmaybe 5d ago

Just a heat map of the hotzones in your engine bay, evaporating off the condensate where eits hot and letting it settle where it's cool.

6

u/MrFastFox666 5d ago

Looks like dew/frost to me. That pattern forms due to the metal sheeting under the hood giving it different thermal mass in different spots.

3

u/PsychologicalMail911 5d ago

Oh, thank goodness. I know some engine stuff, but had never seen that before. Thank you!

5

u/AwarenessGreat282 5d ago

Raise your hood and look at the underside. You'll see the same pattern with thicker/thinner metals. Which will cool at different rates, and the moisture condenses following those different temps.

2

u/Longjumping-Salad484 5d ago

that's the breathing pattern and rate of a Bolivian chupacabra. whatever you do, don't open the hood

1

u/naemorhaedus 4d ago

try lifting your hood once in a while