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Cadillac Northstar Problems


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This is the second Cadillac Northstar and third engine I have owned. Is this indicative of them? The coolant gets low. Then the engine goes bad. This happened to two engines on my 94 Concord Deville.

Now my 97 Cadillac Deville with140K is has done the same thing. The check engine light went on. The engine went hot. He put antifreeze in it. Then while I was driving it over heated. I could see oil through the cover.

What should I do? I can't afford to dump this car. I have to much in it.

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Did you own these cars since they were new? Do you know if the scheduled maintenance was done on the cooling systems? It is important that the coolant is changed at 50,000 miles or 5 years as it looses it ability to prevent corrosion after that. At 140,000 miles you are almost due for the third coolant change. If the green coolant was ever used that requirement drops to every two years. I don't believe that the failure you have occurs to frequently and for you to have 3, I wonder what the odds are for that. I can see why you might ask is this indicative but I don't think so. Mike

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I just got this car and I did not add the pills because I did not know about them. It would have saved me returning the first one to the auction. (my son purchased the car at a dealers auction with 130K) Now the car has no oil computer says it no oil either. I think the engine is terminal or at a grave

status.

Thanks for your reply.

This is a photo of the Caddy:

http://img62.photobucket.com/albums/v190/m...tt/IMG_0123.jpg

Shalom,

---Prof. Leland Milton Goldblatt, Ph.D. ®

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It is very important to know the maintenance and ownership history of these cars before you buy one in my humble opinion. If you don't I would purchase a warranty, or buy a GM Certified car. As with any high performance vehicle, they are sensitive to timely and proper maintenance. These are highly advanced, techincal and complicated cars and even taking them to the dealer can be a harrowing experience as we have seen here a few times. While some may disagree with me here regular checking of fluids say at fill up or every other fill up should be followed. In the old days when they checked oil that was no big deal doing it yourself is a PIA without the pump nozzles that you could click to keep on so you didn't need to stand there like a putz wasting time.

There has been some discussion regarding 'topping off' the crankcase with oil regularly, I hope someone chimes in, in that regard, as I am unclear about topping off.

High performace engines tend to use oil. If you find you are using oil you may find that doing a few WOT launches a week from 20 mph up to 80 or so will remedy the problem. Highway entrance ramps are perfect for this 'maintenance' but be careful and don't do it in the rain or obviously with bad tires, or your wife in the passenger seat as she may remove you from the insurance! And if you have never done it before the torque steer will surprise you so hold on. The first time you do it, look in your rear view mirror at night and see how much you obscure the car behind you with smoke, you are doing good when you don't get a lot of smoke.

Obviously this all may be a moot point if you are getting rid of the car. If you do decide to keep it and get it fixed, assuming that it is a head gasket (could be a water pump or hose still), have the engine time-serted NO EXCEPTIONS, NONE! Your engine would be near bullet proof then. The job is about $2200 I think. Then change the coolant every two years. Good Luck to you!

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