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Has your Northstar been Timeserted?


JasonA

Has your Northstar been Timeserted? Please post mileage and answer.  

214 members have voted

  1. 1. Has your Northstar been Timeserted? Please post mileage and answer.

    • Yes
      33
    • No
      150
    • I don't know
      31


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Yenko, to add to what Scotty said, your car will need Timeserting only if you don't perform regular maintenance on the cooling system. Certainly, there are cars that have needed head gasket replacements earlier than "normal", but for the most part, if you take part in regular maintenance, you shouldn't lose a head gasket. And again, for the most part, the head bolts aren't the cause of head gasket problems...they're a problem when you REMOVE them to change the gasket...at which time you need to use the Timeserts for a proper repair.

So, you probably won't ever need a Timesert repair just because the head bolt threads pulled. You'll need one if you lose a head gasket and remove the head to replace it (how else would you do it). Changing the coolant every 2 years or 24,000 miles is very important. If you don't have records of when it was last changed, do it tomorrow.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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Cool -- as Scotty stated, it's real easy (and cheap) to just drain and refill every spring or something like that. Dump a tube or two of Bars Leaks Golden Seal into the lower hose when you take it off to drain and you'll be good to go. It'll take you all of about 10 minutes to drain the coolant and clean off the undercarriage afterwards, and you're way overprotected by doing it every season. If the car's earlier history was unknown (when did it come into your family), a coolant change every season would probably be prudent.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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All I know is that in the Maintenance Guide it was marked down at the end of the book that coolant was flushed at 134k miles! I have had the car for like almost a year now!

Edited by yenko

IMPORT CRUSHER

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All I know is that in the Maintenace Guide it was marked down at the end of the book that coolant was flushed at 134k miles! I have had the car for like almost a year now!

I myself am a little MORE fanatical and while I know every two years is OK, I said every YEAR! :lol:

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Were do you get your coolent flushed?

I "get" mine flushed in my garage. A driveway or parking lot also works fine. I changed the water pump at the apartment I used to live in when I lived in Virginia. Don't even need jack stands or ramps.

Tools needed: 10mm wrench, drain pan.

Procedure:

1) Unbolt the lower radiator hose neck from the water pump housing.

2) Let coolant drain.

3) Add three cooling system tabs or a tube or two of Bars Leaks to lower hose.

4) Bolt the lower hose neck back up to the water pump housing.

5) Fill with a 50/50 mix of coolant and distilled water. Use green coolant for '95 and older models. Use Dexcool for '96 and newer.

The procedure should take you about 10 minutes, including letting the coolant drain out.

You can do "extras". For example, the ABS controller is just below the water pump area (at least on my '97), so I take the time to "wrap" that electrical box as best as I can with plastic cling wrap to keep the gross of the water off it. That takes an extra 2 minutes.

Note: if you can get to your radiator petcock, that would be the easiest, cleanest, and most thorough. I don't know why they made them practically inaccessible on these cars, but they did. I can't get to my radiator drain, no how, no way. Unbolting the lower hose will release about a gallon of fluid, give or take, in my experience. That's obviously not the WHOLE system, but if you start changing the coolant at least every 2 years, you'll get lots of new fresh coolant cycling through there.

Jason(2001 STS, White Diamond)

"When you turn your car on...does it return the favor?"

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10.53%, about 1 out of 10, I still think we can do better. Keep Voting!

Here an interesting tid bit, since we were at 22.5%, we have gotten 51 NO-TIMESERT and 1 YES TIMESERT..... I think we will end up at 5%, basically saying that 5 out of 100 need it. Those are pretty good odds given the performance we experience. I smile everytime I drive it!

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Mike,

You are having way too much fun with this poll...

My wife doesn't use them any more :(

So I'm sending you these: :lol::lol:

Enjoy :lol::lol:

Edited by OynxSTS

caddy.jpg

Easin' down the highway in a new Cadillac,

I had a fine fox in front, I had three more in the back

ZZTOP, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

Greg

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Yes! I am having fun as 22% was being presented as GOSPEL for the failure rate on the NORTHSTAR. I am out there with my pompoms making sure we get a GOOD sample so that we can have an idea of exactly what the failure rate actually is.... Given that this site is a site that owner's come to that are typically having problems I suspect that our failure rate will be higher than the actual... There are however many variables...

Cool I like LAKERS colors!

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