Northstar engine

[covetsthesun]

DH & I have been thinking of buying a Caddy DTS. A good friend of ours just got slammed with a $5800.00 repair bill to replace "the seal" in his Caddy.

He was told it wasn't a matter of if the seal would fail... only when. So.. the cream puff we were looking at could have a ticking time bomb. I've heard that the Northstar engines did have a seal issue. But didn't know it was this big of a deal.

I'd like to know more about this. Just what exactly is the problem with the Northstar seals? Should I avoid this engine and find a different vehicle? Those DTS seats are very comfy...

cts

[azrving]

That was supposed to be their super duper engine that could sustain coolant loss and still go xx number of miles blah blah blah. Run away from that. Did you ever hear about their nifty diesel /gas engine in the 80's. I was looking at some nice ones years ago but they had the customary rear wheel drive V8. At that time it seemed like everyone was saying it was basically non repairable. Well not practical anyway.

[turbojimmy]

If it's '05 and up you're okay. There are 2 major points of failure on the pre-2005s. One has been mentioned several times here: the head gaskets. You're pretty much rolling the dice. We had a '95, '99 and an '01. The '99 popped its head gaskets. The other 2 were fine.

The other major point of failure is the torque converter control (TCC) solenoid. It's a $20 part that requires $2,000 in labor to replace. Funny thing is that they fail with frightening regularity. On a RWD car, it's a 30-minute job to pop out and replace. On the Northstar Caddies the trans has to come out the bottom of the car, requiring removal of the subframe and a ton of other ****. I did mine myself - I'll never do it again.



Oh yeah - all that oil on the engine? The rear main seals leak too. Drips oil directly on the hot exhaust crossover and blows it directly into the cabin. Going to want to replace that while the transmission is out.

All told, that was among my top 3 favorite cars and I've owned a lot of them. I just wouldn't buy another one.

[Winged_One]

A few years back were looking for a used car for my DW parents. They could not afford one so I thought we would get something low priced to replace their very aging Plymouth van. Looked at a lot of garbage people wanted way too much.

Then saw some Cadillac's on CL. Excellent looking cars, early 2000's Deville's, great prices. Found out why online. The Northstar. Still, checked several, drove one that the dealer said, hey take down the street, try it out. Beautiful car. They didn't expect us to take it on the highway.

All was good till then, then I watched the temp peg just getting up to 60mph. Took it back, told them to check it out and if they can fix it, give me a call. Never heard from them. Probably sold it to some poor sot that didn't take it on the highway.

Happened across 2 others with blown gaskets, at least the owners were honest. Then found one, by chance nearby. A 2000. Very nice car. No head unit yet. Great price. Ok, bought it. Still running without issue several years later.

It probably is just a matter of time, but honestly, didn't expect them to still be driving now. Sure is pretty and comfortable. And the DW parents are thrilled. They only drive it in town. They never thought they would own a Cadillac. 🙂

[Perrysburg_Dodg]

Dadoffourgirls wrote:

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
Yep a good friend bought their daughter an STS Coupe and within 8 months the engine was junk. More her fault for not keeping oil in it but than if you have to have two gallon jugs of oil in the trunk to keep your engine full that's a problem. It had about 130k when it tied up.

Don

That STS Coupe must have been something special. Since the STS did not come in a Coupe. Maybe they needed a RV water pump to pump the oil from the two gallon jugs to the engine.

Not sure what the three letters were on her Caddy or if it even had any. Was not my daughters car but a friends daughter. May bad if it was not a STS but it did leak oil like the Valdez.

Not attacking Mama GM there my friend.

Don

[Dadoffourgirls]

covetsthesun - I know you like the big Cadillac's. You may also want to search for a Buick Lucerne. I drove both a DTS and a Buick Lucerne in the 2008-2010 time frame. The Lucerne had a great ride, and came with the 3.9 engine.

I also love the 2014 CTS Sedan. Not so plush, but a great driving/riding car. (I could give you a great deal if you can convince my wife to drive a 2016 Colorado CC long-box diesel!)

[Dadoffourgirls]

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
Yep a good friend bought their daughter an STS Coupe and within 8 months the engine was junk. More her fault for not keeping oil in it but than if you have to have two gallon jugs of oil in the trunk to keep your engine full that's a problem. It had about 130k when it tied up.

Don

That STS Coupe must have been something special. Since the STS did not come in a Coupe. Maybe they needed a RV water pump to pump the oil from the two gallon jugs to the engine.

[Big_Katuna]

Another example; When I bought my 99 in 2003, I checked for recalls, which I always do.

There was one in red, all caps, no time limit urgent, etc. to replace the EFI fuel rail which could fail resulting in engine fires.

Here is the thought process at Cadillac at that time.

"Oh lets save a few dollars, lets make the high pressure EFI fuel rail OUT OF PLASTIC!!

The replacement was stainless steel, which had already been done on mine.

[Ozlander]

These people don't seem to worried about seals leaking.
http://www.cadillacforums.com/
Cadillac Forum

[Ozlander]

Some day Cadillac will figure out how to get the engine to run without any oil.
There is a low oil light.
It might mean something.

[George_H]

Yes my 06 DTS drips some oil. However, it's such a good road car that we keep it for that. Engine does have to be pulled to fix leaks.

[Perrysburg_Dodg]

Yep a good friend bought their daughter an STS Coupe and within 8 months the engine was junk. More her fault for not keeping oil in it but than if you have to have two gallon jugs of oil in the trunk to keep your engine full that's a problem. It had about 130k when it tied up.

Don

[jtfcons]

Northstar V8 engines were aluminum heads and block. The head bolts over time would loose their torque causing head gaskets to fail. This issue could also affect other mating joints which made leaks in general an issue, but head gaskets were the big thing.

Repairs are done by installing steel thread inserts for the head bolts.

I've seen ads for shops that do the complete job for $1500ish, but also involves the cost of getting the auto to them. Google it!

JMHO

[covetsthesun]

Big Katuna wrote:
Head gaskets. Not all fail, but like Clint Eastwood said
"Do you feel lucky. punk?"

The 2005 and ups are supposed to be better, but if you read the forums (Google is great) people are still having problems.

I had a 99 DeVille. Loved it, lost sleep over its reliability.

Dash blower went south. Sometimes it would blow, other times not.

$1000 to replace. Had to lower the engine cradle down to remove blower from firewall. Motor alone was like $600.

Cadillacs are just too complicated to keep longer than 3-4 years.

Thats why used ones are so cheap.

Sigh. And they are such nice comfy cars too. The creampuff we looked at is a 2011 Luxury II. 45k miles and $24k price tag. I'd hate to spend $$ and then get socked with a big repair bill. I was hoping for some good news here. But... want the truth warts and all.

[Big_Katuna]

Head gaskets. Not all fail, but like Clint Eastwood said
"Do you feel lucky. punk?"

The 2005 and ups are supposed to be better, but if you read the forums (Google is great) people are still having problems.

I had a 99 DeVille. Loved it, lost sleep over its reliability.

Dash blower went south. Sometimes it would blow, other times not.

$1000 to replace. Had to lower the engine cradle down to remove blower from firewall. Motor alone was like $600.

Cadillacs are just too complicated to keep longer than 3-4 years.

Thats why used ones are so cheap.

[MegaCab_PL]

You would probably get more responses if you asked that question in some Caddy forum. But from the times my wife used to work in an auto shop back in college years, I recall they brought an STS with 4.6 motor, and to replace something, they actually dropped the entire sub frame with the wheels, tranny and motor bolted together. It looked cool actually, and it was not that complex, I think they are made that way for service purposes. Maybe the shop wants to do it some different way ?