1998 Mitsubishi Mirage Oil leak

BELLS

MEMBER
1998 MITSUBISHI MIRAGE
49,000 MILES

Hello
I recently bought a 1998 mirage. Before purchase, I was concerned about old and new oil seeping from the front of the rocker cover mostly on passenger side. This was repaired with new rocker cover and seals.
I test drove the car twice and it drives really well & only has 79000kms on it. I crawled underneath & besides the old, caked oil from the rocker seal, it was clean.
Yesterday morning (1 day after picking it up), I noticed drops of oil on driveway and upon inspection, saw oil seeping down from the back & front of engine block on drivers side; a lot more at the back. It isn't coming from rocker cover or the top of the block that the rocker screws into. It's the lower half of the block where I think the cylinder head is. I'm not sure of the name of the exact part, but from researching, I gathered this is right. I think it coming from the join where the two halves meet. The timing cover is clean, oil filter seems ok but it's streaked with oil too. The oil doesn't look milky, I have no exhaust smoking. It strange because it wasn't present before. Perhaps the pieces weren't put back correctly.
The car had a roadworthy check which is a very thorough selling requirement here in Victoria, Australia. The check outlines that no oil must be leaking out so I'm hoping I can take it back & have it sorted without forking out more cash. But just in case, I wanted to go back a bit more informed; I have only basic knowledge of motors and I don't know this mechanic. Thanks :)

3 Replies

HMAC300

MECHANIC
48,601 POSTS

What engine?

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Sunday, August 25th, 2013 AT 10:37 AM

BELLS

MEMBER
2 POSTS

It's a mirage CE hatchback, 5 gears. I don't know where to find engine model, my handbook says two models, 4G15 & 4G93, but I don't know which one, it hasn't specified. Sorry I couldn't tell you. It's standard model, hand roll windows, no central locking.
I actually took it down this morning to same mechanic, at first he said it could be the head gasket damaged or warped. I felt sick when he said that! But after cleaning the oil away, he seems to think it could be a seal, behind all the covers, I think he said crank something seal. Oil looks like its flicking & splattering down the sides so he said perhaps its behind timing cover & the belt is flicking it everywhere. I had no smoke or weird smells this morning. Sorry for lack of specification, I'll have another look under the hood.