Very big problem

There's a sudden rattling, grating noise on the passenger side of our 94- it almost sounds to me as if something has come loose and is being rattled around, and a dark greasy liquid has sprayed all over the inside of the hood and the various components on that side. We thought at first it was oil, but we're thinking perhaps it might be brake fluid, judging on where the noise is coming from. It seems to let up a bit the faster the car moves, but it doesn't ever go away. The noise first occurred on the road, I thought maybe we had picked up a pebble and it was hitting the inside of the hood, kind of the sound that a moth makes hitting a screen door repeatedly? It got worse, became a grinding noise as we pulled into a parking lot, stalled but got her started again, and when we opened the hood there we had a lot of white smoke coming up from what looked to be some place underneath. We stalled a total of three times on the way home, and threatened to over heat.

Help?

[QUOTE=Ceenny]There's a sudden rattling, grating noise on the passenger side of our 94- it almost sounds to me as if something has come loose and is being rattled around, and a dark greasy liquid has sprayed all over the inside of the hood and the various components on that side. We thought at first it was oil, but we're thinking perhaps it might be brake fluid, judging on where the noise is coming from. It seems to let up a bit the faster the car moves, but it doesn't ever go away. The noise first occurred on the road, I thought maybe we had picked up a pebble and it was hitting the inside of the hood, kind of the sound that a moth makes hitting a screen door repeatedly? It got worse, became a grinding noise as we pulled into a parking lot, stalled but got her started again, and when we opened the hood there we had a lot of white smoke coming up from what looked to be some place underneath. We stalled a total of three times on the way home, and threatened to over heat.

Ceeny--I think I would start by looking at all the fluids. Power Steering, Brake Fluid, Radiator Coolant, Engine Oil and Transmission Fluid(follow the owners manual on how to check that). At least one of those should be low if you have stuff sprayed all over the inside of the hood. The overheating could be caused by several things, make sure the serpentine drive belt is moving, if something is freezing up and stopping the belt, it will overheat. I would not drive it till you get it resolved, possible to ruin the engine if you overheat it.
Best Of Luck
Stretch

white smoke is the coolant leaking from somewhere.My bet would be on the water pump,because you described hearing a rattling noise from the passenger side,and the fact that it threatened to overheat,means loss of coolant.

Take a close look at your belts you may have a partially shredded belt or completely missing which has hit something underneath like a power steeing component . This type problem seems to be more prevalent on the 3.0 liter mitsu engine... This would also account for the overheating because nothing is turning the water pump....