Mitsubishi Repair: Mitsubishi Eclipse, oil drain plug, valve cover gasket

Question
My daughter has a 1998 Eclipse RS and there is an oil leak that we cannot find.The car smokes from underneath, but not out of the tailpipe. We have to put a couple of quarts of oil in it every few weeks. The valve cover gasket needed replaced so we thought that is where the leak was from, but we replaced it and the leak and smoke seem to be under the car. Do you have any idea where this is coming from??

Answer
Kim: Might check to see of the oil pan seal is leaking, the oil drain plug sometimes does not fit tight after years of use. Could be the oil is leaking out of the oil sending unit. Have your ever replaced the timing belt on this car? Could be one of those gaskets has got old enought to leak, does the car have over 60,000 miles on? Again if you have never replaced the timing belt and the car has over 100,000 miles on it I would be thinking about doing that. If the belt breaks then the engine is running, it will take the valves which will mean a rebuild of the engine or a new one. I have to say these little cars have a lot of odd things about them, some do just leak oil. Almost like they are marking their area or something. I had a guy write in a while back, his car leaked oil and he could not find from where. It was driving him nuts, I told him he might have to learn to live with it. You could replace that oil drain plug, get the oil pan gasket replaced and please if the car's timing belt has never been replaced do that if the car has a lot of miles on it. Could be while the shop works on replacing the timing belt they will find your problem.  God bless: Linda