Faults:

The head gasket blew at 131000. We replaced the water pump at that time, along with all new hoses and belts.

Now 1000 miles later we thought the starter went, but we replaced the starter. It still is not working. They think it might be a relay or a censer.

General Comments:

Car looks and runs great other than the above.

Has anyone had this problem and know how to fix it?

Faults:

Had to replace the anti-theif VATS system (the little resistor chip in the keys), which was about $300 at the dealer. Or you can bypass it somehow.

Needs a new water pump, because of slight coolant leak. Still to be done, should be about $800 at the dealer.

Has a very slight oil leak. Just a drop hear and there. Not going to fix it.

General Comments:

I love this car. This is my first car, and I plan to only buy Cadillacs from now on. Out of all the Cadillac Devilles/Fleetwoods, I like the body style of the 94-99s best. Car handles great, and has good performance.

Faults:

Uses 1 quart of oil per 678 miles and the dealer won't honor the service contract.

General Comments:

I purchased my 1997 Cadillac Sedan De Ville with 89K+ miles a few months ago. It now has 94K+ miles and it if it wasn’t for the high oil consumption, it would be a great car. But it does have a major oil consumption problem and that has just ruined my experience of buying a car I thought was really special. Cadillac has put all their money into commercials, not cars.

After buying my 97 Cadillac I drove it normally and then 3-4 weeks after the purchase, the ‘check engine oil’ warning came on. It had just been serviced at the dealer! I checked and found it to be over two quarts low. The car had been a one owner purchased at the Salem, Oregon Cadillac dealer and serviced there regularly according to the salesman so they must have known about it’s problems. A week or so later I had the car serviced (lube, oil, filter, etc.) and put in Valvoline 10-30. I’ve always had a lot of faith in Valvoline. A couple days later I went back to the dealer’s service department and started getting the ‘oh, you’ll have to let us do an oil consumption test’…we can’t take your word or anyone elses….blah blah blah.

So I said, ‘OK, do it. Change the oil and start your test’ and they did. At 90,334 miles they started the test. At a week or two later they added ½ quart (looked lower than that to me, but it’s their test). At 92,281 they added 1 ¾ quarts. At 93,390 they added 1 ¾ quarts again. The last (4th) check was at 94,579 and they added 2 ¼ quarts. That’s 6 ¼ quarts of oil in 4242 miles. Looked at another way, that’s 678.72 miles per quart of oil. Basically the car is in town and freeway (I-5) driven to and from work 70 miles each week day.

I asked what were they going to do about it and was told they could do the ring decarbonizing for $500 (I pay, not covered in the extended service contract) or they could tear down the engine (15 hours just to take it apart) and if something was BROKE, the 24 month/24,000 miles service contract would pay. But if it was WARE (worn out) that caused the oil loss, I would have to pay! As they service manager representative explained, that is $1500 just to tear the motor apart to find out what is wrong. What would you do?

The service contract states ….

“Coverage is limited to the parts described below for the plan selected on the schedule…..” (24 month, 24,000 miles)

“Engine---All internal lubricated parts; manifolds; expansion plugs: harmonic balancer; pulleys, engine mounts; oil pan, rotary engine rotor housing; supercharger/turbocharger (factory installed) housing, internal parts, vanes: timing belt/chain and tensioner; timing chain cover; valve cover (s) ; water pump; seals and gaskets within component group. Cases, housings, engine block and cylinder heads are covered only if damaged by the failure of an internally lubricated part.”

That’s what it says and my car that I bought with a 24month/24,000 miles extended service contract the dealer sold me at 89,000 plus miles uses more oil than any car or truck I’ve owned since 1969. And the 4.6 liter Cadillac V-8 isn’t going to get fixed because the Chevy/Cadillac dealer and the service contract they sold to me for $1997.00 isn’t worth a damn!

I really have had good luck with the 83 Firebird, 94 Blazer, 90 Chevy S-10, 96 Chevy S-10 and one or two others. Their V-6 engines held up great and used very little if any oil. But this Northstar V-8 4.6 liter is a the worst oil burning engine I’ve ever seen or heard of since my 1964 Ford Galaxy 390. And that’s General Motors premier top of the line engine!!! Damn, I really like the car! But the engine is horrible. It doesn’t leak the oil, it burns it out the exhaust pipes.

Terry.