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I have 108,000 miles on my STS and suddenly I am burning a +quart every 1,000 miles. No leak or smoke just disappearing. I don't want to put a lot of money into it, any thoughts as other wise it is a good ride.
Pretty sure that was a NorthStar engine that year......tons of trouble
First post from a thread on CadillacForums.com
I have an STS with 58,000 miles and the North Star engine has been nothing but a nightmare. Luckily I have an extended warranty. The engine uses oil, had to have the oil pan resealed, and now the head bolts pulled from the block and had to have inserts installed. My son, who has the same engine with 80,000 miles on his car and he had the identical problems. After talking with several mechanics from different dealerships and mechanics from privately owned repair shops, they all say the North Star engine is notorius for these problems. Why doesn't GM correct the problem? Aside from the instrument cluster going out, all problems have been with the engine. If the problems were something other than the engine, the car would be a winner but when you pay $55,000 plus for a car, you would expect something better. In my opinion, GM should correct this problem or quit selling any vehicle with a North Star. The engines are worthless when it comes to reliability and ongoing expenses. The cost of the inconveniences and repairs is not worth the performance. It's a repair money maker for the dealerships since the vehicle stays in the shop. I have owned a Porsche, Corvette, and now a Viper and the performance exceeds the North Star with virtually reliabilty problems - no oils leaks, high oil consumption, or fear of what's going to go next? I'll never own another North Star unless these problems are corrected. There are no excuses for these continued problems and this engine gives Cadillac a bad reputation!!!!
I inherited my mom's Deville '05 with 49K , I have had good luck so far. I have it serviced regularly and my indy mechanic has said to just watch it. I don't drive it that much but understood that the later Northstars were better than the earlier versions.
My 2007 SRX did the same (I had synthetic oil with me at all times), until one day started to have time chain faults/issues...it had around 60k miles on it...
Needless to say my Cadillac dealer & GM support were useless, hence my last Caddi I'll ever own...
It was the HFV6 3.5L engine which it is prone to leak since they use a sealant (not a gasket) which on certain blocks (due to lack of properly clean surface) the sealant does not adhere as well...
Thanks for the input. This was my first Caddy and I am a bit discouraged as I saw this as a +150,000 mile car. I will throw oil at it until I trade it in next month.
Had a beautiful used '99 Deville Concours with the bigger Northstar, loved that powerful car and cared for it religiously until it got the terminal head bolt/overheating problem at 89K miles and the dealer cost to repair it and all the related issues from the overheating were more than the car was worth. I can't believe that Cadillac is not recalling all the Northstar cars right now to do the headbolt insert kit thing at their cost, since it is a design flaw. Too bad you can get so many different Japanese luxury and economy cars that will run and last forever with minimal repairs, but our own big giant GM can't seem to figure it out.........or maybe they really never cared to begin with.....
OP,
I've seen this issue discussed on a couple of caddy boards over the years. The consensus seemed to be that the issue is caused by a gummed up oil control ring, that being caused by babying the NS too much. One reported cure was put the car into second gear, come up to 60 mph then let off the gas and coast back down. Repeat a couple of times. According to what I read, this freed up the oil control ring and helped with the consumption issue. Again, I have no first hand knowledge of this. I'm just passing along what I read for your consideration. My Eldo had the 4.9 which had its own issues.
FWIW
YMMV
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......or maybe they really never cared to begin with.....
