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Another Oil Leak


BUICK11

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Last October I located a 2011 Platinum DTS certified pre owned with 29K on it. I looked long and hard to find a platinum DTS since I do not care for the Platinum XTS. Well I thought the oil leak and head gaskets problems were corrected on the newer Northstar's .Well today I found out the Half case problem was not corrected since I have oil on the garage floor. Only a few drops but that is not acceptable to me. So now it will go in the shop next week for about 3 days while they tear into the half case.

I can only hope the head gasket issues were resolved along with the TSCC in the transmission.

The car is still under the bumper to bumper warranty so it will be repaired free of charge.

I am disappointed BUT still like the car!

I kicked around the XTS and the Lincoln along with a Lexus BUT I STILL prefer the DTS so I will just extend the warranty and hope for the best until Cadillac redesigns the full size flagship car .

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I had to have my half case seal done at about 90,000 miles.

It wasn't leaking.. there was never a drip on the floor, but it was starting to seep and they pulled the engine and fixed it under the GMPP warranty.

Been dry ever since... that was 3 years and almost 50,000 miles ago.

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My 2001 was sealed and lasted 10 years until I traded the car. I purchased this car because I thought some of these issues were corrected.

I read that Cadillac is going to redesign the flagship full size car in about 5 years to a bigger car with RWD.

5 years is a bit long to wait for a car that may have a market now some of us do not even buy green bananas.

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My 2001 was sealed and lasted 10 years until I traded the car. I purchased this car because I thought some of these issues were corrected.

I read that Cadillac is going to redesign the flagship full size car in about 5 years to a bigger car with RWD.

5 years is a bit long to wait for a car that may have a market now some of us do not even buy green bananas.

The GM eingne sealant is great stuff - It really works well and the engine will not leak when sealed.

I wouldn't hold your breath on the larger car. GM will most likely price it so high that it won't sell and then drop it after a few years.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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Yes I read it may be over $100K which is a bit much for me. I have owned to many Cadillac's to list since my first Coupe De Ville in 1969. may be time to move on once the Major Guard expires on this 2011 DTS Platinum.

End of an era for me.

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I had a dealer tech tell me that I had half-case seepage on my Jasper once (1997 ETC). I slid a mirror under the car and, yes, there was oil on the pan, even though the garage floor was dry. I bought a new oil pressure switch from Rock Auto and asked my mechanic to put it on at the next oil change. Later, everything was dry as a bone.

The oil pressure sending unit was not old; it had been put on new with the Jasper a couple of years earlier. It's easy to ding it when you are changing the oil filter. My mechanic had no clue that it was spraying a tiny bit of oil mist when the engine was running and was the source of the oil slick on the oil pan.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Thanks Jim for a tip. Just placed it up on ramps and checked the oil pressure sensor and it is dry. On the way to the dealer to drop it off I stopped by the Lincoln dealer to look at the MKS AWD Eco Boost. List is only about $56K for a fully loaded vehicle. About $10K less than a Platinum XTS.

They gave me a very good price on my 2011 Platinum DTS with 31K on it.

I do not like either one and do not consider them full size luxury cars. (

I continued on to the dealer to have it sealed up.

Hoping for the best.

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I had the case half sealed on my Eldorado under warranty eleven years ago I believe. No leak from the case half, byt I think I have a slight leak from the rear main seal. I use Mobil 1 High Mileage oil which contains seal conditioners, and the occasional bottle of STP Engine Stop Leak which both seem to minimize the leak. Regarding the Cadillac flagship, I believe it is slated for introduction in 2015 as a 2016 model. It might debut at Pebble Beach this August. I'm sure it will be stunning, and it will surely be priced well above where the DTS was positioned. It will be a fitting flagship for the brand, but get ready to pay the price if you want one.

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Yes I read it may be over $100K which is a bit much for me. I have owned to many Cadillac's to list since my first Coupe De Ville in 1969. may be time to move on once the Major Guard expires on this 2011 DTS Platinum.

End of an era for me.

$100,000??? Just what would make that car worth that kind of money. They obviously do not want to sell them. Someone at GM marketing needs to have their head examined. At that price, the sales volume would be so low that body parts would be off prototype/low volume tooling. Good luck findng parts down the road if the car is in a collision.

The politicians/EPA killed the full size luxury car with their ridiculous MPG fleet average requirement. There was a 5.0 liter Northstar planned that was dropped. The automakers can't meet the MPG requirements and the safety requirements. My advice is to hold on to your Deville as long as you can.

In 1998-1999, Cadillac had a stretched Deville they called the Fleetwood Limited that was intended to fill the market void left when they discontinued the Fleetwood Brougham. I checked into them and the Fleetwood Limited was a $12,000 option above the base Deville. The rear quarter panels were produced by a prototype metal stamper in the Detroit area. In the end, I couldn't justify the cost and I was concerned that trim pieces, body panels, etc. would not be available. The Fleetwood Limited did not sell well at all and the concept was not carried over to the 2000 model year. Today, they are scarce as hen's teeth.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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Perhaps the XTS will fit in the $100K price range niche. The Corvette ZR-1 is about $120K list price with all the options. To me this means that Cadillac has noticed that this niche is large enough to be worthwhile for the US or world market. I agree that for people looking in the $40K to $60K range that cars in the $100K price range won't draw browsers or buyers from many of us, but neither does Rolls Royce, Bently, or Lamborghini.

What would you think if Corvette or Cadillac came out with a halo model that out-performed the Veyron? Audi never did think that this was going to be available for a long production run, although Honda did something like that with the NSX, which never did make money but is a whale of a car. I would love that - a unique chassis 200++ mph GM halo car.

Rolls Royce produces a Bentley Flying Spur, which, properly configured, competes in races over frozen lakes in the Arctic. It's over $200K. They will make money with this model; indeed, they have been making money with this model since about 2005, when it was launched as a variation of their Continental models.

I'm happy with my Cadillac and will look for another Cadillac when it has run its course, which apparently will be some years from now. I will look in the price range appropriate to the situation at the time.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Saw a lease for a new Bentley. $10k down, $2500/mo. After 3 yrs u have dropped 100k in value. A lease is depreciation, plain and simple. I look at is an easy way to measure any cars loss in value. Or 1% per month.

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The Lincoln's are a heck of a buy for the $50K range. You can get a nice Hybrid for under $40K. Of course the depreciation is like a rock.

I just extended the warranty on my Platinum DTS until 2021. (Talk about not buying green bananas!)

Hope Cadillac gets it's act together with a reasonable priced full size car.

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I checked the mileage rating on the XTS and it is rated 17 city/28 highway which is what the Deville/DTS was rated. With a much smaller car and a V6, etc in the XTS, I would expected it to get much better fuel economy than what it does.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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What would you think if Corvette or Cadillac came out with a halo model that out-performed the Veyron? Audi never did think that this was going to be available for a long production run, although Honda did something like that with the NSX, which never did make money but is a whale of a car. I would love that - a unique chassis 200++ mph GM halo car.

Rolls Royce produces a Bentley Flying Spur, which, properly configured, competes in races over frozen lakes in the Arctic. It's over $200K. They will make money with this model; indeed, they have been making money with this model since about 2005, when it was launched as a variation of their Continental models.

I'm happy with my Cadillac and will look for another Cadillac when it has run its course, which apparently will be some years from now. I will look in the price range appropriate to the situation at the time.

Personally, I think the whole idea of a GM halo car is not a good one. Who really needs to out-perform the Bugatti Veyron? The Veyron cannot be a money-maker even at what they're asking for it. The production numbers are just miniscule (for obvious reasons). Of course, I'm not and never have been "the target market" for that type of car. I have never understood the appeal of a car that is not particularly comfortable under typical driving conditions and whose "upper range" is so far outside what one can legally or safely do on public roads as to be ridiculous.

Just for the sake of clarity, it is Bentley Motors Limited that produces all Bentley motorcars introduced from the 2003 model year onward. This was when Rolls-Royce and Bentley parted ways with their sales to BMW and VW, respectively. They definitely do make money on their cars, and market share has been ever increasing since they've become the "bling car" for an entirely different clientele than had been Bentley's bread and butter. Rolls-Royce has actually been doing well, too, but are taking the tack of making smaller cars (relatively speaking). The Phantom is a huge vehicle by any standard and not particularly driver friendly, particularly for in-city driving. The new Ghost and Wraith were created so that the owner-driver market was being covered again.

I'm loving my new-to-me, but antique to the world, 1989 Sedan de Ville which is in virtually new condition. I bought it to be my daily driver and suspect that it will fulfill that role for a number of years to come. With less than 100K on it there's still plenty of life in the old girl!

Brian

Brian

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Bri the Tech Guy   http://britechguy.com
britechguy@gmail.com   (540) 324-5032
"If it's got you screaming, I'll help you stop!!"
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Please understand if I disagree as to the advisability of a halo car. Examples:

  • When GM came out with a series of concept cars in 1952, including the Corvette, the performance and home-built hot rod scene and the performance image was all Ford and Mercury, even though some noticed the remarkable Oldsmobile V8 and the truly knowledgeable were stunned by the Cadillac V8, and Cad-Allards were mopping up in open GT class races. GM brought out the Corvette in late 1953, and a V8 in 1955, and Chevrolet finally pulled away from Ford in sales after many decades of trying. The Corvette never has made money.
  • The Dodge Viper put Chrysler back in the ring. It never made money either.
  • The BMW Z3 exploded BMW's popularity in the mid 1990's. Although sales of the Z series is tiny, just 15,000 in 1996, the volume does not justify its production as a revenue-generating model.
  • Audi never really recovered from the 1983-1987 "sudden acceleration" urban legends, and their flagship, called the Audi 5000 in the US, was discontinued in 1988. The Veyron has brought credibility to Audi for larger luxury cars in the US again, and this is reflected in sales.
  • Ford recovered some of their credibility in 1955 with the introduction of the Thunderbird, which, although wildly outselling the Corvette at 15,000 to 700 for 1953, was not a sports car and although popular as an everyman's fun car, lost its luster as a performance halo car, in spite of a 300 hp 312 cid supercharged special offered for 1957 that was notoriously unreliable. For 1958, the Thunderbird became a re-skinned Lincoln convertible.
  • Ford introduced a retro Thunderbird in 2002 but didn't offer a V8 for it until mid-year, and then only at 3.9 liters, 252 hp. They increased it to 280 hp for 2003 by adding VVT and a supercharged version may have been available for 2005, the last year. This car was based on the Lincoln LS sedan and also shared its platform with the Jaguar S-Type, and although it handles quite well, it is not a sports car. This car helped Ford balance its image as a producer of jelly-bean cars and commodity grocery-fetters (except the remarkable SHO Taurus models) and, I believe, would have held onto a niche market like the Taurus SHO and the Corvette if Ford had chosen to remain committed to it.
  • Ford introduced the GT40 in 1965 because Ferrari spurned Ford in an ownership auction, picking Fiat as its new owner at less favorable terms, apparently to keep ownership in Italy. Henry Ford II, known informally inside Ford as "Il Duce," directed his firm to build a car to drive Ferrari out of the GT business. And they did. But suddenly Ford performance became recognized for something entirely within Ford, not a creation of Carroll Shelby using first the AC Ace platform, then a model-unique AC-build tube-frame chassis for big-block Fords in the Cobra 427.
  • Ford introduced an updated car similar in many ways to the GT40 in 2005, the Ford GT, produced as a halo car at a loss for only two years. This may have been an adjustment to get a better halo car than the New Thunderbird.

There are many others, like the surprisingly popular Mazda Miata, Saturn Sky, Honda 2000, Datsun 240Z/280Z, etc., all of which produced an improvement in image and overall sales for their respective marques. And, I didn't even mention the BMW M series and Mercedes AMG cars, both of which sold surprisingly well and produced a new class of high performance luxury cars, into which Cadillac jumped in with the 2004 CTS-V.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Please understand if I disagree as to the advisability of a halo car. Examples:

  • When GM came out with a series of concept cars in 1952, including the Corvette, the performance and home-built hot rod scene and the performance image was all Ford and Mercury, even though some noticed the remarkable Oldsmobile V8 and the truly knowledgeable were stunned by the Cadillac V8, and Cad-Allards were mopping up in open GT class races. GM brought out the Corvette in late 1953, and a V8 in 1955, and Chevrolet finally pulled away from Ford in sales after many decades of trying. The Corvette never has made money.
  • The Dodge Viper put Chrysler back in the ring. It never made money either.
  • The BMW Z3 exploded BMW's popularity in the mid 1990's. Although sales of the Z series is tiny, just 15,000 in 1996, the volume does not justify its production as a revenue-generating model.
  • Audi never really recovered from the 1983-1987 "sudden acceleration" urban legends, and their flagship, called the Audi 5000 in the US, was discontinued in 1988. The Veyron has brought credibility to Audi for larger luxury cars in the US again, and this is reflected in sales.
  • Ford recovered some of their credibility in 1955 with the introduction of the Thunderbird, which, although wildly outselling the Corvette at 15,000 to 700 for 1953, was not a sports car and although popular as an everyman's fun car, lost its luster as a performance halo car, in spite of a 300 hp 312 cid supercharged special offered for 1957 that was notoriously unreliable. For 1958, the Thunderbird became a re-skinned Lincoln convertible.
  • Ford introduced a retro Thunderbird in 2002 but didn't offer a V8 for it until mid-year, and then only at 3.9 liters, 252 hp. They increased it to 280 hp for 2003 by adding VVT and a supercharged version may have been available for 2005, the last year. This car was based on the Lincoln LS sedan and also shared its platform with the Jaguar S-Type, and although it handles quite well, it is not a sports car. This car helped Ford balance its image as a producer of jelly-bean cars and commodity grocery-fetters (except the remarkable SHO Taurus models) and, I believe, would have held onto a niche market like the Taurus SHO and the Corvette if Ford had chosen to remain committed to it.
  • Ford introduced the GT40 in 1965 because Ferrari spurned Ford in an ownership auction, picking Fiat as its new owner at less favorable terms, apparently to keep ownership in Italy. Henry Ford II, known informally inside Ford as "Il Duce," directed his firm to build a car to drive Ferrari out of the GT business. And they did. But suddenly Ford performance became recognized for something entirely within Ford, not a creation of Carroll Shelby using first the AC Ace platform, then a model-unique AC-build tube-frame chassis for big-block Fords in the Cobra 427.
  • Ford introduced an updated car similar in many ways to the GT40 in 2005, the Ford GT, produced as a halo car at a loss for only two years. This may have been an adjustment to get a better halo car than the New Thunderbird.

There are many others, like the surprisingly popular Mazda Miata, Saturn Sky, Honda 2000, Datsun 240Z/280Z, etc., all of which produced an improvement in image and overall sales for their respective marques. And, I didn't even mention the BMW M series and Mercedes AMG cars, both of which sold surprisingly well and produced a new class of high performance luxury cars, into which Cadillac jumped in with the 2004 CTS-V.

If the Cadillac "flagship" car has a $100,000 price tag, it won't last long on the market. The new Ford Thunderbird that was styled after the "porthole coupe" of the early 50's was a very nice looking car in my opinion but Ford priced it so high that a Corvette was a better value. I believe the high price of the Thunderbird was why it didn't sell well and was dropped after a few years.

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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I never considered the Thunderbird myself, although I have had my eye on the possibility of another Corvette since I had my first one in 1966-1968, and I occasionally read Car & Driver for entertainment value and also Road and Track. I thought that it was a pretty nice car. But, in point of fact, the suspension is really in between something like an STS or ETC and a Corvette. I have a relative that has one and he runs the same tires I had on my ETC when I sold it early last year, Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus, and they may have been the same size. That's really great for a street car and probably handles better than an ETC or STS because of the smaller, lower car, but it's no Corvette.

Another problem I had with the new Thunderbird is that it was underpowered with the 3.9 liter V8 at 252/280 hp. Ford sold a 320 hp version of their four-valve 4.6 liter Modular V8 to MG Rover over the same period that they produced the new Thunderbird, and they had even more powerful engines available for special editions. The 320 hp engine seems like a better base engine for the Thunderbird to me.

It's things like that, that make me wonder if they were really committed to the car. The design point shows schizophrenia in that it looked like a retro-styled 21st Century GT roadster but had more like a sport sedan suspension, like a modernized 1955-1957 Thunderbird, a known failed concept that never sold much more than 20,000 units a year. A big, expensive Miata-type car is not going anywhere. If they had committed to a real 21st century street roadster, they could have had a niche following like the Corvette, and Ford would own that niche.

The CTS-V, introduced in 2004 as a 405 hp 6.0 liter pushrod V8 with six speed manual (no automatic transmission), had no real niche at first. But commitment and development made it a pretty good car long before the end of its production run for the 2007 model year. And, Cadillac developed a new generation around Nuremberg; it wasn't ready for the 2008 model year (the new generation isn't ready for the 2014 model year, either!) and the product dropped on the world for the 2009 model year still holds the record for a Nuremburg lap time for production four-door sedans at 7:28. Focus and commitment produce great cars that improve with time and build a customer base. Designs that don't quite focus on anybody's idea of what they want, and lack of commitment, produce short-run cars with little or no improvement over their short lives.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Back to the oil leak. I was over at the dealer every day last week to watch the progress. I do not like to see a car with only 30K on it taken apart like that. I had the top technician working on it. I gave him a tip to treat it like his own car and I believe he did a first class job.

Now I was wrong when I thought that Cadillac improved the oil leak situation on the newer models, I can only hope the head gasket has been corrected on the 2011.

Thanks to all for comments

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A 2011 DTS should be under warranty. If BUICK11 is getting this job under warranty, the Goodwrench warranty is pretty impressive. Ask the dealer about it.

IMHO, neither the case-half leak or the head gasket problem are serious issues for an owner, any more than the sludge issue for four-cylinder Toyotas, DFI problems for middle-aged BMWs and Porshes, and certainly not for long term maintenance costs for most of the popular European cars. This may be inflammatory for some, but please note that in my 1997 ETC, at about 120,000 miles I had a head gasket failure and did not push hard on a Timesert job because I had oil seepage and figured that I would be doing a case half job in another year or two, and got a Jasper remanufactured engine instead. The car's down time was just two days, another reason that I went with a remanufactured engine.

The case half leak is not really just a leak. There is a high-pressure oil manifold machined into the lower case half and the bottom of the block. These oil passages are sealed by ridges in the case half, very much like the oil passages through the head gasket are sealed by ridges in the head gasket around those passages. If those leak, oil will be forced out of the case half junction when the engine is running. If the leak is really bad, there may be oil pressure issues in the areas fed buy the oil manifold or even the oil pressure in the whole engine. Seepage can be ignored or treated with gasket sealant on the outside of the engine. Failure of the case half gasket in sealing the oil passages requires replacement of the gasket, the dreaded case half repair.

My information is that this is a rare problem, with most of them "infant mortatlity" cases taken care of under warranty. In older engines, they do happen sometimes at high mileage, particularly if the engine has been overheated extensively, as in a long-postponed head gasket problem.

The head gasket problem is similar in history but more common in older engines. I find that a high percentage of them happen in seven-year-old cars; check the posts about them here on Caddyinfo over the years. That's five years for the coolant to go acid, and another two years for this to cause a head bolt to pull out. Mine went because I went seven years without a coolant change. Other than the "infant mortality" cases fixed on warranty, most of them happen in cars with well over 100,000 miles on them. A few happen in low mileage cars that are stored for many years with old coolant in them, and then are driven without a change in coolant. A very few in older cars are idiopathic - no known cause. As I pointed out in an earlier post, a survey here on Caddyinfo shows 15% of respondents having had Timesert jobs on their cars, and since Caddyinfo is a go-to place for problems, particularly out-of-warranty Cadillacs, that will be very high compared to the population of all Northstars.

So, if you get the manufacturing defects handled under warranty, and take good care of your Cadillac, you can expect well over 100,000 miles of trouble-free high-performance service from your Cadillac.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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My bumper to bumper expires 10/06/2015. I extended a GMPP with a $100 deductible until 2021 or 106K miles.

Picked it us today before the major snow storm. Paid ZERO. Just the tip I gave to the Tech who worked on the car.

Thanks for the input. Hope for the best

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A 2011 DTS should be under warranty. If BUICK11 is getting this job under warranty, the Goodwrench warranty is pretty impressive. Ask the dealer about it.

IMHO, neither the case-half leak or the head gasket problem are serious issues for an owner, any more than the sludge issue for four-cylinder Toyotas, DFI problems for middle-aged BMWs and Porshes, and certainly not for long term maintenance costs for most of the popular European cars. This may be inflammatory for some, but please note that in my 1997 ETC, at about 120,000 miles I had a head gasket failure and did not push hard on a Timesert job because I had oil seepage and figured that I would be doing a case half job in another year or two, and got a Jasper remanufactured engine instead. The car's down time was just two days, another reason that I went with a remanufactured engine.

The case half leak is not really just a leak. There is a high-pressure oil manifold machined into the lower case half and the bottom of the block. These oil passages are sealed by ridges in the case half, very much like the oil passages through the head gasket are sealed by ridges in the head gasket around those passages. If those leak, oil will be forced out of the case half junction when the engine is running. If the leak is really bad, there may be oil pressure issues in the areas fed buy the oil manifold or even the oil pressure in the whole engine. Seepage can be ignored or treated with gasket sealant on the outside of the engine. Failure of the case half gasket in sealing the oil passages requires replacement of the gasket, the dreaded case half repair.

My information is that this is a rare problem, with most of them "infant mortatlity" cases taken care of under warranty. In older engines, they do happen sometimes at high mileage, particularly if the engine has been overheated extensively, as in a long-postponed head gasket problem.

The head gasket problem is similar in history but more common in older engines. I find that a high percentage of them happen in seven-year-old cars; check the posts about them here on Caddyinfo over the years. That's five years for the coolant to go acid, and another two years for this to cause a head bolt to pull out. Mine went because I went seven years without a coolant change. Other than the "infant mortality" cases fixed on warranty, most of them happen in cars with well over 100,000 miles on them. A few happen in low mileage cars that are stored for many years with old coolant in them, and then are driven without a change in coolant. A very few in older cars are idiopathic - no known cause. As I pointed out in an earlier post, a survey here on Caddyinfo shows 15% of respondents having had Timesert jobs on their cars, and since Caddyinfo is a go-to place for problems, particularly out-of-warranty Cadillacs, that will be very high compared to the population of all Northstars.

So, if you get the manufacturing defects handled under warranty, and take good care of your Cadillac, you can expect well over 100,000 miles of trouble-free high-performance service from your Cadillac.

The case half leak is actually seepage and is harmless. Most owners never realize the case half is seeping until some dealer tech points it out to them ( a greasy/dirty engine block) in hopes of generating revenue for the dealership. The case half joint is 3-4 inches above the oil manifild plate which is between the oil pan and the lower case half.

The oil manifold plate can leak and it will leak to the ground. It too us usually harmless other than a nuisance leak to the ground or a leak on the exhaust syetem which will smell. I would not tear into an engine to seal a case half leak unless I had the engine out for other repairs such as a head gasket job. If the GM Engine Sealant is used per the service bulletins, the engine won't leak after the repair - period. That sealant is great stuff and there is NO aftermarket equivalent.

The oil manifold plate leak is another story - if my car were leaking there, I'd fix it because I hate cars that leak oil to the driveway or my garage floor...

Kevin
'93 Fleetwood Brougham
'05 Deville
'04 Deville
2013 Silverado Z71

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Well, I learned something today. And, now I understand the confusion I felt when looking at the engine casting drawings in the FSM in the thread repair section. If the oil manifold is in the oil pan, it can be repaired with the engine in the car. And, it's rare. The oil passages in the case half are simple feed-throughs, like those in the head gaskets, and like those in the head gaskets, very rarely fail. In addition, the high pressure passages usually aren't the problem, it's just seepage.

I did discover in the last couple of years I had my 1997 ETC that a common problem is damage to the oil sending unit that isn't visible, but which results in a tiny leak that puts out a fine spray when the engine is running. It can look dry but it will leave an oil film on the oil pan that looks like a seepage leak in the oil pan gasket. I had someone tell me I had a case half leak and all that, changed the oil pressure switch, and the oil pan dried up like magic.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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  • 1 month later...

more or less the root of the problems are always the oil manifold and the rear main seals. 93-2011

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