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Oh, Crap, Bought Another STS


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:D

Well, I guess its time to become a subrscribing member again ... I'll be needing people's advice once again.

I haven't owned a Cadillac since 2006, so I haven't been around much.

I've owned 4 STS', and I've always told myself I wanted one last STS from the FWD generation.

Just not as my only mode of transportation.

A 2003 Diamond White with Magnaride and Navigation came up, so I picked it up tonight.

Long story short, but the car had an issue with the stability system.

I walked away from it, but the dealership addressed the issue to my satisfaction, so I drove the car home tonight.

The car was at an import dealership (Kia), and they didn't really know how to market a 7yr old domestic luxury sedan.

The car was traded in back in late November.

Basically, I got through to the GM of the dealeship, and told him that I had an 05 Civic which was worth about $1 to 2k more than his

STS at auction. I also suggested that his staff would likely be more comfortable moving a fresh piece of import stock than a used Cadillac.

I disclosed that my Civic wasn't accident free .. it has a $4k accident claim showing on Carproof.

The dealer GM called the dealership's owner in Florida, received approval, and asked for my Civic plus $1k.

In the end, I showed the dealer all the codes I pulled from the DIC (nothing major), told him I would have to address a few

small issues at my own expense, and they ageed to trade even.

The STS has new rotors and pads all around, and I had them change out the coolant.

The car drives smoother than my 2001 ... its the first 98-03 STS I've driven that is dead smooth right through the 60-80mph shimmy range.

The Navigation was fun to play with on my 2.5hr ride home.

I'm really picky about the finish of my cars ... I spend hours detailing them.

This car really is in beautiful condition, as good as I could as for ... it really does look as good in person as the pictures suggest.

The STS has about 80000 miles on her, and I bought it for the equivalent of about $6.5 USD.

Its so much car for so little money ... as well, I was bored silly with the Civic.

Its a secondary car for us ... I might drive 50 to 75 miles a week, so the risk of major repair is minimal.

If a HG issue appears, off to Jake at Northstar Performance it goes, and I'll just drive one of our other cars.

Really nice car to drive ... I sure hope I keep this one around longer than the past STS' I've owned.

04f05b107f00000101e64a3b4b8d4937.jpg

sts.jpg

04efe3497f00000101e64a3bfe087a99.jpg

1989 FWD Fleetwood, Silver

1995 STS Crimson Pearl on Black leather

1997 STS Diamond White

1999 STS Crimson Pearl

2001 STS Silver

2003 STS, Crimson Pearl

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I stopped by the local dealer today to run the VIN for previous warranty work and open recalls.

I wanted to see as much warranty work as possible on the common failure items.

The service girl was shocked at how extensive the warranty repairs were ... she obviously hasn't been around this generation STS!

From memory, I recall her showing me: Battery, intermediate steering shaft 4 times, lots of crank position sensors, battery, radio/nav unit,

yaw control sensor, HVAC repairs with blend doors and stuff, fuel tank sensor, water pump, headlight ballast 2 times, seat heaters front and rear, tons of routine

fluid changes and inspections, plus lots of traditional brake related repairs.

Two different warranty recall service issues were addressed as well.

Here's hoping the water pump necessitated a coolant change ... although I did see lots of fluid service maintenance in the records,

so I hope so.

These warranty repairs were extensive, so much so that the service person kind of gasped

If someone had to pay out of pocket, I would think the overall cost would be well north of $10,000 ... yikes!

Me ... I was all too happy to see these chronic, documented part failures addressed and serviced.

Doesn't mean they won't fail again, but at least the odds are more in my favour.

Time to wash the crap off my car.

I christened the outside driver's door with a cup of coffee this morning, so off I go to handwash in freeeezing temperatures:)

1989 FWD Fleetwood, Silver

1995 STS Crimson Pearl on Black leather

1997 STS Diamond White

1999 STS Crimson Pearl

2001 STS Silver

2003 STS, Crimson Pearl

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Congratulations, it looks like a great looking car. I am kind of shocked at the warranty repairs also, I don't believe that is the norm. Its amazing that they cant get that intermediate steering shaft problem resolved.

Good luck with it, glad you are back

:hatsoff:

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

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I bought the same car 4 months ago. Unfortunately I'm in DIC code hell at the moment, good luck!

How so, what's happening, lots of warnings?

1989 FWD Fleetwood, Silver

1995 STS Crimson Pearl on Black leather

1997 STS Diamond White

1999 STS Crimson Pearl

2001 STS Silver

2003 STS, Crimson Pearl

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Welcome back to the front wheel drive Seville world, Ted.

But your post has a negative tone that you might want to clarify.

....common failure items.

Common to what percentage of production numbers?

From memory, I recall her showing me: Battery, intermediate steering shaft 4 times, lots of crank position sensors, battery, radio/nav unit,

yaw control sensor, HVAC repairs with blend doors and stuff, fuel tank sensor, water pump, headlight ballast 2 times, seat heaters front and rear, tons of routine fluid changes and inspections....

Battery replacement can be expected at any time. Four times replacing a steering shaft and mutliple crankshaft positions sensor replacements

puts my mind in the "these faults were not properly diagnosed" mode.

.... plus lots of traditional brake related repairs.

This one disturbs me most of all on several levels. "Traditional" is not statistically sustainable (my brakes have not required service in more than 80,000 miles). The driver is the dominant variable with respect to brakes and that is not GM/Cadillac's problem.

Me ... I was all too happy to see these chronic, documented part failures addressed and serviced.

"Chronic" has to be based on what is reported on car forums (like this one), or 'word of mouth', which is too small a sample to be meaningful.

Jim

Drive your car.

Use your cell phone.

CHOOSE ONE !

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I have to agree with JimD about the brakes.

in the last 50 years of driving mostly GM cars...I can't remember one that had a lot of brake trouble.

My current car (the one in my sig pic) has 74,000 on it and when the oil was last changed, they told me it still had around 40 percent of the pads remaining.

I will probably change them and put all new rotors on somewhere around 100,000 just to be on the pro-active side.

My van that burned in my garage fire, had it's first set of brakes at 140,000 miles.

It had almost 250,000 on it when it burned.

Maybe I have just been really lucky... I don't know.

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JimD, by common failue items, I meant just that.

When the service mgr typed in the VIN, I figured I would see seat heaters, headlight ballasts, CPS, intermediate steering shaft,

steering module, and possibly fuel sending unit.

Why ... because these things have all failed on some of my previous 4 STS', so I was speaking from my own previous experience.

All of these items showed up ... I don't possess psychic abilities, and I'm not a lucky person, so it would seem I had some basis for

my prediction on what may appear on the service report.

Certainly things like batteries, wheel hubs, and similar wear items will fail ... I was happy to see that someone replaced the battery with an

OEM unit, not a discount one. I was also pleased to see regular maintenance performed at the dealer, which doesn't always happen.

My intent isn't to bash the brand ... I'm just being realistic, going into my fifth STS knowing I will enjoy this car as much as my others,

but a complicated luxury car will have many nuisance issues that will need to be repaired over time. I'm happy that many of these issues

have been addressed already under warranty.

Intermediate steering shaft X 4 isn't actually that unusual ... others have gone through the same thing. The initial fix was a needle and grease injection method, and later on, Cadillac developed an improved steering shaft. I've gone down that road with my 2001 STS.

When the dealer did the grease injection, I won't even go into the damage he caused with my electronics ... yikes, I picked up my car to find every

instrument was giving crazy readouts. Thankfully, they agreed to fix whatever was dislodged at that time.

Crankshaft Position Sensors ... I thought the bad CPS units were finished with by about 2000-01, so I was surprised to see these appear in various

dates on the service history. Is it possible that the dealer would replace just the defective CPS, and six months later, replace another one when it failed?

By " lots of traditional brake service", I saw pads, rotors, brake service lubrication, parking brake adjustment, and so on.

If someone is heavy on brakes, I'm glad that they entrusted their vehicle to the dealer. I haven't spent more than $500 on brakes in the past 10 years,

so I know where you're coming from on that one.

By the way, the mere fact that the service writer was shocked at how extensive this list was indicated to me that GM is building better cars today

than they did 10 years ago. My car may be a 2003, but many items on it are shared with the 1998, which was designed in the mid nineties.

I am disturbed by your post ... I didn't think I had to hedge my comments around political correctness ... GM didn't always hit a home run everytime

at bat, plain and simple.

The title of my thread was tongue in cheek ... if I didn't appreciate the beauty of these cars, I wouldn't continue to purchase them.

I have driven these cars for many years, and I've never been stranded or had a powertrain failure.

But, come on .... did I just get lucky and name 6 or 7 items that rarely fail on cars during the first 50k?

I'm just a guy who puchased an inexpensive STS .... so no, I cannot quantify the exact number of failed crankshaft position sensors,

the exact number of failed fuel sending units, the exact number of failed steering shafts, the exact number of steering modules throwing

"Service Stability System" messages ... I cannot nor care to qualify these failures as a percentage of cars produced.

I called it like I saw it, and I stand by my observations that certain parts on these cars should've been redesigned.

Its not unique to GM ... Acura's bean counters found it cheaper to replace the 1998-03 TL transmissions with more of the same,

rather than redesign a new tranny with proper oil passages for a car that was nearing the end of its production life cycle.

Jim, I hope you're one of the few who found my post unfairly negative.

Over at the other forum, at least one other longtime member chimed in saying his 2002 STS service record virtually mirrored mine,

with all the same issues, plus more.

To sum it up, I inflected my personal opinion on items that have failed on my previous cars at premature mileage, and have historical threads

dedicated to said issues. I know this because I researched said threads when the items failed on my own STS' ... and I was thankful

for this knowledge, because it put me on an even playing field with the service writers.

That is also why I was a contributing supporter, because this wonderful site saved me money when I owned those cars.

I don't know if the mood has become defensive/protective around here ... I've read my thread over and over, and I just don't see where I was being negative. I never would've guessed that someone would ask me to substantiate my personal observations with quantified data.

So much for sharing my experience.

I will not visit this thread topic again.

1989 FWD Fleetwood, Silver

1995 STS Crimson Pearl on Black leather

1997 STS Diamond White

1999 STS Crimson Pearl

2001 STS Silver

2003 STS, Crimson Pearl

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I bought the same car 4 months ago. Unfortunately I'm in DIC code hell at the moment, good luck!

Post your codes, rather than come in an rain on a members parade on your first post. You get codes for a reason, not because they are common. These cars need maintenance and break down

Do you know the history of your car, do you know the maintenance, do you know who worked on it, has ANY work been done, how many miles. At this age depending upon the mileage and type and severity of use, things like struts, hubs. brakes, crank sensors, suspension can begin to need attention but not all of the time. A weak battery or bad connections can throw codes. Aftermarket alternators create problems. Dirty throttle bodies, throw codes.

Extract the codes and post them

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

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I had written a really really long reply to the friction in this thread and deleted it.

We all have points of view on every issue. Differences of opinion, point of view, style will occur.

Some of us have even differed with the guru on some issues, and we know who you are and your IP address, :lol:

It pains me to see long term members clash, I hope I dont make you guys feel badly when I clash with other members let me know if I do.

Everyone adds their own experience good and bad, right or wrong, raw or couched as long as its not bashing. To me that is what brainstorming is about

:grouphug:

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

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sidenote:

I owned a '90 Lumina for 10 years and lived through the bad GM rear brake design on those W-Body cars. They were even recalled for it. I got a whole $200 back for my multiple $600 complete brake replacements over the years <_< So once again, GM isnt perfect even with brake design B)

Nice STS Ted, by chance does it have black interior? :D Im partial, my DTS is silver with black interior, IMO I think its one of the best color combos available :D

* 1966 Deville Convertible

* 2007 Escalade ESV Black on Black

* 1996 Fleetwood Brougham Black on Black V4P -Gone
* 1983 Coupe Deville Street/Show Lowrider -Gone

* 1970 Calais 4dr Hardtop GONE
* 2000 Deville DTS - Silver with Black Leather and SE grille GONE
* 1999 Seville STS - Pearl Red GONE

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