21st May 2006, 22:17
May 20, 2006
I also purchased a 97 deville with 66000 miles. Have been driving 8 months now. Current mileage is 95000. Same oil consumption problem you all are having. Don't feel it's a serious one though. Add oil as necessary, and change when the dash readout says to. Lets face it, two quarts between oil changes only amounts to about 4 bucks. A hair over a gallon of gas. But you all need to find a decent mechanic.
Do not take to the local Caddy Dealer. The rip off is obvious. Luckily, I have a son in law who owns a repair shop. New water pump installed 65 dollars. New rack and pinion 285 dollars. Keep in mind also, that the North Star engine was designed to take 7.5 quarts of oil with a filter change.
Standard V8's only hold a little over 5 quarts. Does that engineering info tell you anything? Beautiful car to drive. Made several trips from California to Virginia and back moving along 85 to 90 where ever I could. 25.2 miles per gallon, big car, extremely comfortable ride. I love mine.
But do find a good independent mechanic.
19th Aug 2006, 20:11
I've owned a 1998 Deville since 2000. I bought the car with 26,000 miles, and now it has 130,000.
If you are not mechanically inclined, or you do not have a mechanic competent to work on Cadillacs, DO NOT BUY ONE.
In my experience, the dealer techs are not competent to work on these cars. The car was consuming coolant, and I supposedly suffered from the infamous "head bolt failure" at 83,000 miles. The dealer charged me $2000 after getting them to knock off $1000 and GM to kick in another $1000. I now believe I only needed to add the coolant system sealing tablets into the radiator hose to fix the leak. That would have been a $5 fix.
I've replaced the shocks ($1000), strut links ($250), headlight ($150), and other parts. These are expensive cars to own and maintain, but they are cheaper than BMW and Mercedes. What's nice about Cadillac is they depreciate so rapidly, you can buy a lot of car for very little money. The parts are cheaper than luxury imports. www.rockauto.com is a good place for parts.
Make sure you have a competent mechanic your you can do the work yourself. If you don't/aren't, YOU'LL BE VERY SORRY.
10th Mar 2007, 08:21
Hello fellow Cadillac owners,
I have a 1999 Deville Concours with the 300hp Northstar engine. I must add coolant almost every time I drive it. I put in Bars Leak sealant, K&W Block sealer and next I will try the Pellets. No puddles on the ground. You cannot see the rear side of the engine from underneath. I believe after researching I must have a head bolt failure. Coolant is possibly leaking between head and block on the outside of the engine. It must evaporate before it hits the ground.
Oil consumtion is on the low side of everyone else's. I did the acceleration and deceleration driving method to keep the rings free.
I have only put 7000 miles on it since purchasing it. It has 76000 miles on it to date. Are ther any alternative ways to get the manufacturer to repair these problems? We should not have to have such high out of pocket expenses to repair a poorly designed product. I should know this being a Mechanical Engineer. Designers and manufacturers should be held responsible for their products.
10th Apr 2007, 22:32
I just bought a 1997 contours, beautiful car, but... thank God that I bought an extended warranty, climate control sensor, over $1000.00 needed replaced, blower motor over $500.00 and stabilizer bar and bushings over $500.00 all covered by warranty with $100.00 deductible. What was not covered was fuel gauge sensor $250.00, now the leveler compressor isn't working and the air conditioning compressor just shut down as being low on refrigerant. What next!
The car has only 63,000 miles on it less than 9,000 miles per year driven. The defrost vents on the dash board keep popping up and I'm told that the dash padding needs replaced to fix, so I just glued the thing down. Now at times in daylight when the day time running lights are on the entire headlight system turns on.
I'm using over 3 quarts of oil for each 1,000 miles.
It's a beauty to drive, but with so many sensors etc too many problems. Quality is not Job one here.
11th May 2007, 13:29
I recently purchased a ’97 De Ville Concours with 72,000 miles from a small family owned car lot. The car is in good shape and apparently well-maintained. I have no oil burning problems to report and the car rides fantastic with no little road noise and no rattles. With all of the negative comments regarding the reliability of the De Ville, I’m wondering if there are more success stories that haven’t been shared. Or perhaps the previous owners coughed up the repair bills?
15th May 2007, 16:18
I have a 1997 deville since new, Air compresser was only problem. Out side of that, it runs like a watch. The car only has 51,000 and I keep it garaged. Just love the car.
1st Jun 2007, 19:10
I owned a 96 DeVille Concours about 4 years ago and put about 20000 miles on it after buying it with 60,000 miles on it. The only thing that had to be done during that time was the air compressor.
Following the 96, I bought a 2002 DTS and it has been great, although it does use about 1 quart of oil inbetween 3,000 mile oil changes. The dealer did check for oil consumption and did a 'cleaning'. Since then, the check oil level light no longer comes on inbetween oil changes.
I also just purchased another 96 DeVille Concours with 47,000 miles and so far have not had any oil consumption issues. I did however have to change the oil pressure sensor because the oil light blinked at idle once it warmed up to operating temperature.
Overall, I would and will continue to purchase the full size Caddy with the Northstar engine. Anyone who does have one definitely needs to have a reliable mechanic/dealer that you can trust. I personally take mine to a local dealer in NJ and they have been honest and my out of pocket costs have not exceeded 1,500 dollars over the past 6 years with 3 Cadillacs.
Good luck to you all and don't give up hope, they are great cars!!!
Dfabbo@comcast.net - New Jersey.
13th Mar 2006, 21:45
I own a '97 Deville with 95,000 miles on it. I had problems with it until I found a competent dealer/mechanic that has saved me time and trouble. The stalling you may get after someone replaces plug wires is due to them not following the original wire guides. Other routes take the wires too close to a sensor affected by induction. Proper diagnositics are vital. My car uses a quart between oil changes, and I change the oil about every 7500 miles. Everything works well and it averages 25 mpg. The first dealer I went to wanted $4000 for a steering rack and oil pump. The dealer I used fixed my oil light problem with a new oil filter adapter and my steering rack was a bad tire. The oil filter adapter was $35. Get a good mechanic!