I have been looking for a used vehicle and saw one today I really liked. However, on close examination of the rear axle/suspension, I noticed a small spot of orange paint on the sway bar, a few of the diff bolts, and the diff itself. Can't imagine why??? Does this possibly mean that these parts have been replaced with salvage yard items? Thanks. PCM

 

I do not think that they are salvage yard parts unless they appear to be new. Some times they put marks like that on at the factory. It might be in your interest to run a carfax on it though.

 

X2!^^^ I've seen all kinds of wierd stuff under brand new trucks/cars. White paint marks, yellow, red, orange. Stickers are on some, not on others. Unless it has year make model written on the part, I wouldn't get too concerned, but a carfax would definately not hurt!

 

we have orange "torque paint" it's used on hardware so you can see if it has come loose or backed off a little...could be the same stuff?it should only be on hardware so since you have it on the axle, who knows???

 

Torque seal! Not a whole lot of people know what that's for! LOL The stuff I usually use is puffy. Not exactly thin like paint. Maybe that could be? Don't know why though.

 

Actually, the paint was yellow. One spot of it was right in the middle of the sway bar. I can't imagine. The car has a clean carFax record. Makes me leary.

 

There are some unusual paint marking underneath my truck. In fact, there appears to be something like a smiley face on the transmission crossmember.

MikeyB

 

the different factories have all sorts of different paint markings to identify parts on the racks or in different assembly stages on the manufacturing lines, like 53_willys suggested above. The yellow paint you see could be a marking that was made to differentiate that swaybar from one of a different length, diameter, etc. or something entirely different. The smiley face mikeyb saw is probably someone who got bored in between shifts or something, but so that should make u feel better mikeyb since at least the workers were happy when they put in your transmission crossmember ...hehe

 

I used to work for a Ford, GM, and Toyota Supplier and the paint marks normally indicate the part was inspected. If a problem is found in a run of parts or on some parts all are inspected they get marked with a paint pen to show that it was inspected and passed. If you look under any new vehicle you will see all kinds of paint marks and numbers.

If you see numbers stamped into a metal part its normally the part number and Julian date (3 digit number stating day of the year part was produced).