KHE Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 If I were interested in the car, I'd get rid of those wheels and put the factory wheels back on it. It would be interesting to see what codes are set and if it passed or failed the block test. It would take a fair amount of money to repair and clean the car up. Kevin '93 Fleetwood Brougham '05 Deville '04 Deville 2013 Silverado Z71 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgrice53 Posted August 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 i can't remember if the "SERVICE ENGINE SOON" light was on or not...but i don't think it was. will it only be on if there are trouble codes or could there be trouble codes and the " SERVICE ENGINE SOON" not be on? also, are the normal head gasket quick checks of bubbles in the overflow tank or excess liquid out the tail pipe reliable indicators on a northstar or do they not apply? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Jim Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 It can have MULTIPLE codes and never turn on the SERVICE ENGINE SOON light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donandmax Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 Run dont walk, away from this "Deal" You'll be sorry later as it sounds like a huge money pit Keep looking. I personally wouldnt touch this car if it were free... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgrice53 Posted August 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 the biggest turn-off for me was that after it had been running maybe 2 minutes, the "check coolant level" came up when i scrolled through the info. even though i check after again it had running maybe 10 minutes and the "check coolant level" was no longer there, along with the guy saying that 8 or 10 people had test drove the car and no one complained about it running hot. then he added that it was okay because he had added water to it. the first thing i thought was there would be no need to add water to it if there wasn't some kind of leak. i had the head gasket leak test kit with me but i'm kinda glad that i didn't use it, because i did not know that topping off the water level could give a false reading when you do the test. i could have done the test and gotten a false reading of no exhaust gases and bought the car based on that to only find out later that it in fact does have leaking head gaskets. that's why i asked if bubbles in the coolant overflow tank or excessive water out of the tail pipe were reliable indicators on a northstar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Jim Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 Bubbles in the coolant tank... Probably... But if there are any bubbles in the coolant tank... you can probably put your nose close to the top of the tank and SMELL exhaust fumes. But you can also have head gasket problems and NOT see bubbles in the tank. Water out the exhaust... NO... You can get a good bit of water out the exhaust if it is a fairly cool and humid day. That could be an indicator of problems... but not a RELIABLE one The definitive test for exhaust in the coolant is the test kit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgrice53 Posted August 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 i've only recently found out about the problems with the pre-2004 head bolt problems on northstar engines. and it has me very skiddish about buying anything with a northstar engine before 2004. am i being overly concerned, how likely is it that a 2003 or earlier northstar will have or develop head gasket problems? is the milage on the car any indicator, like if it has over a hundred thousand its not likely to have a problem, or anything like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgrice53 Posted August 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 thanks texas jim, that help clear it up a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Jim Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 i've only recently found out about the problems with the pre-2004 head bolt problems on northstar engines. and it has me very skiddish about buying anything with a northstar engine before 2004. am i being overly concerned, how likely is it that a 2003 or earlier northstar will have or develop head gasket problems? is the milage on the car any indicator, like if it has over a hundred thousand its not likely to have a problem, or anything like that? This is just my own opinion... But if I was looking for one... I would "START" at 2004... no older... just because of the head bolt re-design in 2004. Maintenence of the cooling system seems to be the most important thing in 2003 and older. If the coolant isn't shanged regularly... it leads to problems. The older the car is... the more likely the cooling system was neglected. Most people do not maintain an older car as well as they do a newer car. A 2003 is now 9 years old...soon to be 10 years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgrice53 Posted August 17, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 thanks rexas jim, that's what i was thinking but i wasn't sure...there are a lot of 2000 thru 2003 devilles for sale around here, most go for big money too. a local used car dealer has a 2000 with 140,000 asking $4800, another has a 03 for $6995. i just don't understand how they are handling the head gasket issue. i don't know if they just sell them "as is" thinking the customer will not know or if they have had them tested. i have another question...if you have a car lets say between a 2000 and 03 with a northstar engine, you do the test and it passes the test, is there anything to prevent the head gaskets from giving problems later on? from what i have read it isn't the gaskets that fail, its the head bolts with the fine threads pulling out of the soft aluminum block that cause the problem, correct? so, do you just have to keep your fingers crossed and hope that yours is not going to be one of the bad ones, are all the pre 04's subject to the problem or after passing the exhaust gas in the coolant test can you just keep the coolant changed properly and generally that will prevent future problems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Jim Posted August 17, 2012 Report Share Posted August 17, 2012 thanks rexas jim, that's what i was thinking but i wasn't sure...there are a lot of 2000 thru 2003 devilles for sale around here, most go for big money too. a local used car dealer has a 2000 with 140,000 asking $4800, another has a 03 for $6995. i just don't understand how they are handling the head gasket issue. i don't know if they just sell them "as is" thinking the customer will not know or if they have had them tested. i have another question...if you have a car lets say between a 2000 and 03 with a northstar engine, you do the test and it passes the test, is there anything to prevent the head gaskets from giving problems later on? from what i have read it isn't the gaskets that fail, its the head bolts with the fine threads pulling out of the soft aluminum block that cause the problem, correct? so, do you just have to keep your fingers crossed and hope that yours is not going to be one of the bad ones, are all the pre 04's subject to the problem or after passing the exhaust gas in the coolant test can you just keep the coolant changed properly and generally that will prevent future problems? I will try to answer the questions one at a time... Most car dealers just clean the car up and sell it. There would be very few that would ever do a byproducts test.... unless the buying customer REALLY INSISTED on it. They are in the business of selling cars... not trying to find something wrong with it. It is not in their interest to find something WRONG with the car... that would hurt their chances of selling it with a huge markup. Probably close to 99 percent of used car dealers sell a used car "AS IS...WHERE IS"... If you are lucky, you will get a 30/30 guarantee.... that's 30 feet past the driveway as you leave or 30 minutes... whichever comes first... If I had one older than '03 that passed the test... I would do a complete coolant change AT LEAST every two years... and maybe yearly. In fact I am going to a 2 year change on my 2006... just because... There are discussions that go on for pages and pages about if it is the bolts that pull first or is it the gaskets leaked a little bit and caused galvanic corrosion that weakened the threads and THAT caused the bolts to pull. I don't know if you can absolutely prevent future problems, but keeping fresh coolant in it is probably the best and smartest thing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sts03 Posted August 18, 2012 Report Share Posted August 18, 2012 From what I've read on northstar performance 2002+ northstars are nowhere as bad as the pervious northstars for head gaskets.another way to check is to go on the highway and do a few wide open throttles to 70 mph take foot off of gas and let rev down to around 30 mph then wot to 70 again.then see how much the temp rises.go on www.northstarperformance.com. sts03 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgrice53 Posted August 19, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2012 thanks, that is great info on northstar engines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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