Newby intro

[willowbilly3]

Hi, I haven't owned a Caddy since the 60 ragtop about 20 years ago. Now I have a chance to get a real clean 1996 CTS for real cheap. It has some electrical issues that I haven't dug into yet. I do have the diagnostic capabilities to do so. I am wondering if this model has any inherent problems or common troubles. I pretty much have shied away from the marque since I had to work on the 4100s back in the 90s.

[Bruce Nunnally]

Welcome to Caddyinfo.

Looks like a 96 STS; I really enjoyed the 96 STS I had prior to my CTS's. Keep in mind you are considering a car that is over 11 model years old now, so it will definitely need some love and care. The STS has onboard diagnostics, so that would be the place to start. I would also spend $100 or so and have a mechanic or the local Cadillac dealer go over the Cadillac and provide you with an evaluation of that particular vehicle. CarFAX can be very useful in evaluation of vehicle history also.

[clarkz71]

Sound advise.

[willowbilly3]

Sound advise.

You are correct, it is an STS. Shows how much I know. I just haven't had much interest in Detroits lastest offerings for a decade or so. The more a car is engineered to think for me, the more it bores me. While this car is anything but boring, it does kind of look like something I would expect to pull out in front of me and go real slow, or wait at least 3 turns at a 4 way stop. Just kidding, but mostly these are old peoples cars around here, albeit lacking the hideous fake convertable top that they seem to cherrish.

I have heard lots of good about the Northstar and I am anxious to get it insured and see what it's got.

I was kind of hoping someone here would tell me of some common electrical woes. I remember back when I was in the mainstream auto repair business I was getting all those horrid late 70s-early80s cars as 10 year olds and there would be parts needed that the dealership didn't service anymore. I still recall doing some interesting modifications on a certain lemon pie yellow 4-6-8

[Bruce Nunnally]

I would say some issues we hear online are:

+ water pump / water pump belt

+ fuel pressure regulator

+ fuel sender unit failure resulting in incorrect fuel gauge

+ A/C

+ Overheating

+ struts/shocks need replacement

+ transmission solenoids

It is a fun car, more so the better it has been maintained, and the more familiar you are with it.

[Cadillac Jim]

I would have the coolant tested for anti-corrosion capability (is it too old?) and combustion products (does the car have head gasket leakage?). Any good radiator shop or other serious car operation can do this in a few minutes. You can start with the anti-freeze -- is it at least 50-50? Then go on with the test strips. If it fails the combustion products test, you are looking at an expensive repar but you might negotiate that repair as part of the purchase, or part of the purchase price. If it is too old, there is a chance that you will have head gasket leakage in a year or two even if you change the coolant now.

To Bruce's excellent advice, I would add the battery cable to problems for 1990's Northstars. The positive cable is actually three cables, and they are separate at the battery. If corrosion gets between them, it's hard to clean and you can have intermittent, noisy, or just plain bad contacts to any or all of the starter, the alternator, or the car's main power fuse block.

If all of these check out and the price is right, and the car is as clean and nice as it looks in the photo, I would jump on it in a hearbeat. Something like that can become a fine car for many years with careful maintenance.

[Poobah]

While this car is anything but boring, it does kind of look like something I would expect to pull out in front of me and go real slow, or wait at least 3 turns at a 4 way stop. Just kidding, but mostly these are old peoples cars around here, albeit lacking the hideous fake convertable top that they seem to cherrish.

You might be interested in the poll that ran on this forum a while back: http://caddyinfo.ipbhost.com/index.php?sho...ic=5550&hl=

I suppose age depends on your point of view. If you are in your twenties, we probably look like a pretty old bunch. For a 62 year old such as myself, it looks like a young group. If you stay tuned for a while, you'll discover that a lot of our members drive their Cadillacs pretty aggressively.

The STS looks like a nice ride. All eleven year old cars have their quirks and foibles, even Cadillacs. If you keep an eye on this board, you'll soon become aware of what a great car the STS is. You'll also learn how to repair and maintain it at reasonable cost. If the STS has electrical or mechanical issues, I would strongly recommend you get a set of Factory Service Manuals. They will save you many times their cost. You should be able to find a set on E-bay for about $50 to $75.

Cadillacs are great cars (I've owned three of them) and yours looks like a nice one. Enjoy!

[mmarinov]

Cadillacs are great cars (I've owned three of them) and yours looks like a nice one. Enjoy!

Indeed they are. I have a 94 Eldorado Touring Coupe (ETC) and I absolutely love it. With the help of this forum, I have no codes (see happiness!). I am getting my FSM in short order and agree with Poobah that you do the same. In addition to the info he posted, the Factory Service Manuals can be found at helminc.com for about $52 + S&H.

From my understading the Sevilles are the domesticated (4-door) version of the Eldo. The pic you included led me to believe that your potential purchase is a nice one. Make sure to post any maintenance records you have; this group is great at interpreting/translating them.

Good luck and nice looking vehicle:

MM

[PAUL T]

Welcome

To pull the diagnostic codes go here:

www.caddyinfo.com/readingcodes.html

Post them and we can get you started. The codes should tell what curcuit is giving you a problem.

[abad95]

Hey WillowBilly!

Hope you'll like the STS...

I have a '95 STS,and it does have a lot of miles.Maintaining the cooling system is probably the most important thing. I do love the ride. Average cost for me to keep it in tip top shape is around $ 1000 or less a year. It loves premium gas,so It costs a bit to ride around.It also likes oil when you punch it a few times,so I use less expensive kind from Walmart.(Supertech).

Good Luck with it!

Florin

[BodybyFisher]

Sound advise.

You are correct, it is an STS. Shows how much I know. I just haven't had much interest in Detroits lastest offerings for a decade or so. The more a car is engineered to think for me, the more it bores me. While this car is anything but boring, it does kind of look like something I would expect to pull out in front of me and go real slow, or wait at least 3 turns at a 4 way stop. Just kidding, but mostly these are old peoples cars around here, albeit lacking the hideous fake convertable top that they seem to cherrish.

I have heard lots of good about the Northstar and I am anxious to get it insured and see what it's got.

I was kind of hoping someone here would tell me of some common electrical woes. I remember back when I was in the mainstream auto repair business I was getting all those horrid late 70s-early80s cars as 10 year olds and there would be parts needed that the dealership didn't service anymore. I still recall doing some interesting modifications on a certain lemon pie yellow 4-6-8

Welcome aboard. First off, the STS is far from an old peoples car, I wish I owned an STS. The Northstar is a high-performance 32 valve engine that puts out 300 hp from a 279 cu in engine. I believe your red-line is about 5800 - 6000 RPM. Wait until you do your first WOT (wide open throttle)! I am curious about a few things, 1) how many miles are on it, 2) who has owned it and how did they drive it? These cars should not be babied.

You asked about common electrical problems. You have an on-board computer. The computer runs tests and polls the cars systems and when there is a problem an error code is set and saved. The first thing you should do is to dump any computer codes that may have been set. You can do that by pressing and holding the OFF and WARMER buttons simultaneously with the key on but not running, have a pencil ready, and write down the codes. Repeat as necessary to get the codes, they come fast. Report them in this thread and we will try to help you with any you might find.

I can't say that there are common electrical problems, the battery connections need cleaning a couple of times a year to maintain a good connection, that was covered above. Someone mentioned that the positive cable was hard to clean, I disagee, the positive cable is very easy to clean, when you are ready to do it do a search of the archives. But common electrical problems, not really. The HVAC blower is problematic. BE SURE to keep the ignition wires away from the blower circuit board under the hood, the high voltage transients from the ignition wires damages the circuit board.

Report any codes, we can help you quite a bit. Describle your electrical problems for us. There are a lot of things they need to be relearned on your car from previous Cadillacs/cast iron engines, etc. IF you decide to buy this car, you should purchase the FSM (factory service manual). Go to http://www.helminc.com they recently had a 50% off sale.

You can decipher your codes here:

http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/dtcobd2.html

You can get a PDF copy of your owners manual here (Adobe Acrobat allows you to search quickly through it):

https://www.mygmlink.com/pdf/go2content/man...1996seville.pdf

Here is the history of the 1996 Cadillac Seville:

http://100megsfree4.com/cadillac/cad1990/cad96s.htm

[willowbilly3]

Sound advise.

You are correct, it is an STS. Shows how much I know. I just haven't had much interest in Detroits lastest offerings for a decade or so. The more a car is engineered to think for me, the more it bores me. While this car is anything but boring, it does kind of look like something I would expect to pull out in front of me and go real slow, or wait at least 3 turns at a 4 way stop. Just kidding, but mostly these are old peoples cars around here, albeit lacking the hideous fake convertable top that they seem to cherrish.

I have heard lots of good about the Northstar and I am anxious to get it insured and see what it's got.

I was kind of hoping someone here would tell me of some common electrical woes. I remember back when I was in the mainstream auto repair business I was getting all those horrid late 70s-early80s cars as 10 year olds and there would be parts needed that the dealership didn't service anymore. I still recall doing some interesting modifications on a certain lemon pie yellow 4-6-8

Welcome aboard. First off, the STS is far from an old peoples car, I wish I owned an STS. The Northstar is a high-performance 32 valve engine that puts out 300 hp from a 279 cu in engine. I believe your red-line is about 5800 - 6000 RPM. Wait until you do your first WOT (wide open throttle)! I am curious about a few things, 1) how many miles are on it, 2) who has owned it and how did they drive it? These cars should not be babied.

You asked about common electrical problems. You have an on-board computer. The computer runs tests and polls the cars systems and when there is a problem an error code is set and saved. The first thing you should do is to dump any computer codes that may have been set. You can do that by pressing and holding the OFF and WARMER buttons simultaneously with the key on but not running, have a pencil ready, and write down the codes. Repeat as necessary to get the codes, they come fast. Report them in this thread and we will try to help you with any you might find.

I can't say that there are common electrical problems, the battery connections need cleaning a couple of times a year to maintain a good connection, that was covered above. Someone mentioned that the positive cable was hard to clean, I disagee, the positive cable is very easy to clean, when you are ready to do it do a search of the archives. But common electrical problems, not really. The HVAC blower is problematic. BE SURE to keep the ignition wires away from the blower circuit board under the hood, the high voltage transients from the ignition wires damages the circuit board.

Report any codes, we can help you quite a bit. Describle your electrical problems for us. There are a lot of things they need to be relearned on your car from previous Cadillacs/cast iron engines, etc. IF you decide to buy this car, you should purchase the FSM (factory service manual). Go to http://www.helminc.com they recently had a 50% off sale.

You can decipher your codes here:

http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/dtcobd2.html

You can get a PDF copy of your owners manual here (Adobe Acrobat allows you to search quickly through it):

https://www.mygmlink.com/pdf/go2content/man...1996seville.pdf

Here is the history of the 1996 Cadillac Seville:

http://100megsfree4.com/cadillac/cad1990/cad96s.htm

Update: We finally got it in the shop, got all the sound system and power windows working (I think) and I did get to go ronk on it a little, faily impressive midrange for a front driver. The check engine light has now come on so we will hook up and see what that's all about. Anyway, I can get this car for $1200. I think wholesale is over 5 grand.

FWIW I am 53 and my first car was a one owner 56 caddy with 28,000 actual miles.

[billybob]

at $1,200 for that car only a dam fool would wait more than a minute to open his wallet and buy it. you cant even get a good escort for that money never mind a sts. If I would have found it first it would be in my driveway by now. by the way how many miles.

[mmarinov]

Update: We finally got it in the shop, got all the sound system and power windows working (I think) and I did get to go ronk on it a little, faily impressive midrange for a front driver. The check engine light has now come on so we will hook up and see what that's all about. Anyway, I can get this car for $1200. I think wholesale is over 5 grand.

FWIW I am 53 and my first car was a one owner 56 caddy with 28,000 actual miles.

$1,200? Congratulations on a great find! Where are you located

[willowbilly3]

East Texas, 109,000 miles, well cared for, garaged.

[PAUL T]

Update: We finally got it in the shop, got all the sound system and power windows working (I think) and I did get to go ronk on it a little, faily impressive midrange for a front driver. The check engine light has now come on so we will hook up and see what that's all about. Anyway, I can get this car for $1200. I think wholesale is over 5 grand.

FWIW I am 53 and my first car was a one owner 56 caddy with 28,000 actual miles.

You do not have to hook up a code reader to check the codes. It is built in and will display in the message center. Turn the key on (engine off) and hit and hold the "off" and "warmer" buttons on the climate control until the dash lights up and the codes will be displayed in the message center. You will get current codes if the check engine light is on.