Dasher Posted February 18, 2004 Report Share Posted February 18, 2004 Service Manager told me today that Caddy has designed new piston rings for the Northstar to stop the cold carbon rap and to improve oil useage. I have an appointment to have mine replaced a week from today. Though I have drive a million and a quarter miles in nearly 62 years and have driven all my cars between 90k and 193k (my 93 STS), I have never had any work done on the engine itself. I sort of feel like, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I have given the car lots of the WOT treatment and it has improved the oil consumption but it still uses more than any other car I have owned and I do get some of the cold carbon rap. It's all being done under the Ext. Warranty. Should I do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bentham Posted February 18, 2004 Report Share Posted February 18, 2004 The dealer wants to do the work.. even though there's nothing wrong? AND it's not costing you anything because it's under warranty? He must be bored -Eric Eric 93 Cad Seville 100K 95 Chev Blazer 143K [garaged summers] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger Posted February 18, 2004 Report Share Posted February 18, 2004 Personally I would not tear open a good 2000 engine with 48Kfor no real reason. Too many mistakes can be made and problems arise that can last for years. A little oil is cheap and probably the reason these Northstars last so darn long. Unless you are REALLY burning a LOT of oil. Just my $0.02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIMDTS Posted February 18, 2004 Report Share Posted February 18, 2004 Hi Dasher I don't know what you should do but I may be going down the same road as you are on now.I was told it's a new skirted piston with rings to stop the cold rap and oil comsumption.. Don't know about this maybe it's a dealers way of making a quick buck but I was told they do a lot of them..Shoot I looked at 2 of them in the shop today while I was at the dealer there was 2 cars with the engines torn down sitting in one of the techs bays and I was told they were getting the pistons and rings for the cold rap and oil consumption. but I asked how many miles on them and one was in the mid 70,000 I don't know about the other one..If the tech is good it should not be a problem but there is a whole lot of margin for errors doing that job. Who knows maybe Guru will read this or someone else with some knowlwdge will chime in too Shoot mine runs real good I would hate to have that done.. Thanks for the update. Good Luck Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Nunnally Posted February 19, 2004 Report Share Posted February 19, 2004 Ask what their plan is on time-serting the heads. After my dealer NS rebuild, the threads pulled out of the head at month 11, within the normal 12 month 12K mile dealer warranty on work. The tech writer recommended I junk the car (!) I ended up having to pay $1500 of the original dealer quote of $3K+ to have the engine removed, timeserted, and reinstalled because the dealer did not have the forethought to do it to begin with. Their argument was that Cadillac only says to do it as a repair procedure, not as a preventitive or common sense procedure. But I have become convinced from discussion that even then they knew that in the field they all need timeserts. If they don't understand that all the bolt holes need to be time-serted anytime the heads come off, don't let them work on it. Or establish in advance what the warranty on the engine work will be for problems with the heads. Bruce 2023 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing Follow me on: Twitter Instagram Youtube Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dasher Posted February 19, 2004 Author Report Share Posted February 19, 2004 Hi Jim: They only mentioned piston rings, not pistons to me. I'm gong to check with him tomorrow on the time serts and will probably pass on the job if they are not doing them after what Bruce had to say. Never having had an engine touched in all those miles I'm just a little leery anyway. And it sort of goes against my own three rules for taking care of my cars, especially rule 1. 1. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 2. If it is broke, get it fixed before the sun goes down. 3. Never let anybody touch it but the dealer. I'm always surprised by what I read about dealers on this site. I'll admit they are expensive but I've had nothing but good experiences with mine. I bought my 93 with 55k miles on it and at 78k, the two front struts and a right rear accelerometer went bad - a $1,650 job. I didn't even complain and they called Caddy and I only paid $250! I don't know where you can beat that. Dasher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JIMDTS Posted February 19, 2004 Report Share Posted February 19, 2004 Hi Dasher Looking foward to what you find out. I asked the service mgr. if they did the time serts when they change the pistons and rings he told me mostly on the high mileage ones they did them on the lower milage ones was a no unless they need too if a bolt stips or something Go figure I would think they should do the time serts any time the heads come off.Bruce mentioned a very good point I can live with some consumption as long as it does not get out of hand like 1qt every hundred miles or some crap like that. I'm on the oil consumption monitoring plan as of today..Just to caver my A-- in case it turns out to be an impending failure down the road. Good Luck Cheers Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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