Mitsubishi Repair: 99 mitsubishi died, head gasket, mitsubishi eclipse

Question
Hi, I bought a 99 Mitsubishi eclipse 2.0, no turbo last year. It died today when I was driving at about 35 mph. When I went to push the car it had a puddle of green fluid (think antifreeze) under the car. I have dropped off at a dealership but would appreciate any suggestions before I hear from them. I think it might be the head gasket because it did smell like anti freeze and had white smoke but when I took to a mechanic a few months ago he said it looked fine. It is expensive to tow the car to different dealers and it won't turn over so I'm sort of stuck before I have to make a decision. Thank you for your help.  

Answer
Michelle: Did you buy this car used or did at one time you got it very hot? I am trying to understand why the head gasket would go. The thing about head gaskets unless you could have been able to tell the mechanic that say the car was using water or that the temp was up. There would be no reason for this mechanic to check anything more than say the stark plugs, wires, the distributor cap, and the rotor. Did the car have white smoke when you took it to the mechanic? Did you hear a tick or a knock in the engine when you took the car to this mechanic. White smoke is a sign of that head gasket but the puddle of antifreeze under the car is the part that kind of messes with my head. I guess you will have to make a list on this car. Do you own it or does it have a loan on it? You will have to find out what the dealership will cost you to do this. And with their labor costs, it will hurt I am sure. With a head gasket you should have seen that the car was heating, before this gasket went and when you checked the oil there would have been water(antifreeze) in the oil as well as that smell. But if it is the head gasket that has gone, then you have to wonder about the head. It will have to be checked for warpage. Let me explain that it takes to replace this gasket... position the number one piston at the top dead center, disconnect the battery neg. cable, drain cooling system and remove stark plugs, remove the intake manifold, remove the exhaust manifold, remove ignition system components, remove the timing belt, remove valve cover, then they have to loosen the cylinder head bolts, 1/4 turn at a time, in the sequence shown for your car's engine, until they can be removed by hand, carefully lift the cylinder head straight up and place the head on wood blocks. Then the head should be checked for warpage, then remove all the old gasket. Then put on a new gasket and put everything back together. What will really be costly in this will be the labor. Not the parts, unless they find something else wrong with your engine. Now listen on this part of things, if they say there is another problem that they must fix. Make sure you get all the old parts back. So that keeps them honest and you will know for sure they did the work that they said they did. You could have also broke your timing belt too. But then they will remove that to get to the head gasket. Now if you had white smoke when you took it to the mechanic and he said everything was fine. Then he was not being honest to you and I get so tired of the way some mechanics treat people. Always get a second guy or gal to look at things like this, if you were getting the white smoke then. I do hope this helps you some and good luck! Linda :o)