Matthew Horne
G’day Allan,
I was hoping you’d be able to give me some advice based on your experience. I’m 18 and just bought my first 4WD, a Mitsubishi Triton. I have a slight oil leak from the rocker cover gasket and I was wondering when an oil leak becomes a concern?
I’ve heard that unless you’re dripping oil on the driveway, it’s not leaking fast enough to warrant fixing. I’m probably losing around 100ml per 24hour time period. What do you think? Should I get it fixed ASAP or will it be ok for a little while?
My next question is more of a ‘how does it work?”. When my truck’s rolling backwards and I put it in 1st gear, it goes in smoothly. But when I’m rolling forwards and go to put it in reverse, it grinds. Why is this so?
Thanks for your time Allan, it’s much appreciated.
Allan
Matthew, fix the fool of a thing. It’s not a big job. You’ll have oil from one end of the motor to the other, up the back and everywhere else, you could end up having a fire, and why risk it? It’s got to be done anyway. Give the motor a good wash down, get a new rocker cover gasket, be careful fitting it and you won’t have to worry about oil on the driveway and you’ll keep your motor clean. You’ll be very pleased you did it.
As for your second question, your vehicle probably has synchro-mesh on first, which prevents it from grinding by allowing the gears to engage smoothly, but reverse doesn’t have synchro so it grates so avoid using it if you can. But that’s the reason, thanks mate.
