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Comments
but no reward.
CR is a good source of this type of information, and has helped me make wise car buying choices for decades. The on-line subscription is particularly helpful, as it provides detailed information on reliability, road tests, etc. Note that I am just a long time CR subscriber, and have no relationship with CR.
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I'm sorry to hear about this oil concern you've encountered with your new CTS. Have you had an oil consumption test performed by your servicing dealership?
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I've been alerted to this discussion, and it is of great concern to me.
I bought a 2004 CTS (new-in 2004), and now have 14,600 miles on it. Yes, 14 THOUSAND 6 HUNDRED. The car has never seen snow. It's been in the rain only a few times.
I do change oil after 2,000-3,000 miles, ignoring what the instument panal tells me regarding oil life (it usually has 50+% oil left remaining when I do change oil).
I did have to have the computer changed, as the security system would not disable, not allowing car to start.
My concern now is this oil issue I am hearing more ansd more about. My friend had an issue with her 2005, and it has less than 30,000 miles.
Am I to expect the same issues that I've been reading about? I'd like to know the view Cadillac is taking on this.
Thanks-
NAD
All engines require oil to lubricate and protect the load bearing and internal moving parts from wear including cylinder walls, pistons and piston rings. When a piston moves down its cylinder, a thin film of oil is left on the cylinder wall. During the power stroke, part of this oil layer is consumed in the combustion process. As a result, varying rates of oil consumption are accepted as normal in all engines.
The accepted rate of oil consumption for engines used in the vehicles referenced is 0.946 liter (1 qt) in 3200 km (2000 mi).
Our dealerships will evaluate the consumption of a vehicle based on a variety of factors to determine whether or not the consumption is abnormal. If you should have further inquiries on your specific vehicle, please get in touch via email (please include the last 8 digits of your VIN).
Regards,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Something is seriously wrong with the design of this engine. The rest of the car appears to be wonderful, but this engine thing is killing it.
The real cherry on the sundae is that the oil consumption increases exponentially before "the event," after which the engine is toast. Checking your oil weekly, even in between gas fills, won't help if it's your time. Even if it used <1 qt in 2K miles, in the next 200 it may use 3, after which. . .
Regards,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Last summer, I purchased a 1994 Pontiac Grand Prix with 125k miles for $3k. I keep the car at our summer home down south. The car sits 2 to 3 months at a time without being used. Every time we visit our summer home, I start it up and the car fires up right of way, does not burn oil, and gets 28 MPG on the highway. GM really needs to get back to basics.
Good luck with that.
The KISS concept is lost on most manufacturers these days. Some are still reliable, but they're not well thought of.
All the best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
I was coming back from a 3500 mile trip when the car started missing. Immediately went to the nearest Cadillac dealership. The checked the car out and informed me the oil was "low"...As in NO OIL showing on the dipstick!!
I had the oil changed before the trip. Maybe the mechanic didn't put enough back in?
NOPE, he did!
Seems "the car is supposed to use oil", according to the manual and the service rep. Well, when they looked up the service records for my car they saw it never went more than 3-5K miles between oil changes, and always at the delership, it had never been serviced anywhere else outside of a cadillac dealer!
I thought this was going to be the car I kept for a long time! Looks like I was wrong.
Oh yeah, the car is out of warranty! (and with only 57k on the engine!)
I am willing to join a class action lawsuit if comes down to it also!
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Is there really anything that YOU can do about this?
Are you affiliated or do you work for GM?
Thanks
What we do through Customer Service is make sure that everything is being done that can be done, and evaluate each situation on a case-by-case basis. This is done through Service Requests, that can be escalated to district specialists for further evaluation.
Regards,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
After local driving we set out on a trip fom Halifax to Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, and on the way home we heard the same metalic engine noise. We went to the GM dealer in Miramichi NB where the dealer added 4 litres of oil. We had driven a total of 3,500 KM since the cadillac service was done.
Posting here in the forums it was apparent that 4 litres of oil in less than 3,500 km was a problem so we took the car into the Cadillac dealer when we got home. In December 2011 they did some research and kept the car for 3-4 days . The service slip indicates :replaced bank 1 cam cover gasket with updated part" and then "LT CAMSHAFT COV RPL" and then "Part number 12641261". As soon as the car has put on 3200km (next week I think) I will take the car back to the Cadillac Dealer, and according to Sarah's posts here there better be less that 1 litre of oil consumed. If there is more oil missing than that I will be asking the Cadillac dealer what they plan to do to fix the problem. We purchased the car second hand from the Cadillac dealer and got a 4 year extended warranty plan ($4,000 CND) at that time. I will note that the replace bank 1 cam cover gasket" was done under the warranty plan.
I have not asked for Sarah's assistance at this point, but I sure appreciate the information she is providing the forum, and glad she is here as a GM contact. I will make sure I update the forum with the results of my taking the car into the dealer after 3,200 km has passed.
I see that you are located in Canada. As much as I would like to assist if/when the need arises, I am only able to work with U.S. customers at this time. GM of Canada serves the same function as I do, and they can be reached at 800-263-3777. Their hours are: M-F 7:30am - 11:30pm, Sat 7:30am - 6:00 EST.
All the best,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
At this time i am experimenting with Castrol Gtx 5-30 and it definitely seems to last longer then synthetic.
Synthetic oil is too loww vicosity and goes into every nook and cranny inside the engine and where it is not supposed to go the darn thing just
gets burnt up and out the rear and polluting our clean air.
I think we should be complaining to the EPA that through no fault of ours
GM is polluting the clean air and collectively GM should be fined not Millions but Billions of Dollars for doing such a ghastly thing.
A car made in America to kill Americans through Burnt-oil filled air
I hope the excessive oil consumption problem is gone for good now.
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Well flash forward to a few weeks ago when I had put on about 2900 kilometers and checked the dipstick and it was almost dry. No oil was in the hashed section of the dipstick. I immediately took the car into the Cadillac dealer. They started me on an oil consumption monitoring routine where I have to take the car into them (no appointment required) every 1000 kilometers. They will measure and record how much oil is needed.
Well today my car was at 920 km, so I dropped by the dealer. He added half a litre of oil, and recorded the numbers on my oil consumption chart. The mechanic also confirmed that GM Canada also sees more than 0.946 litres of oil per 3200 kilometers as excessive oil consumption. So I have to have at least one and perhaps two more 1000 kilometer "readings" before a decision is made. My vehicle is a 2005 CTS with 99,700 kilometers on it (about 62k miles). I asked what the remedy would be, and the tech said there were a number of possibles including dismantling the engine to gauge the piston clearances, or possible replacing the entire engine.
If we can be of any assistance as you work with your dealership towards addressing this, please send us an email to sarah_grace@gmexpert.com with more information (include your name/Edmunds username, address and phone, last 8 of your VIN and approximate mileage, and name of your dealership).
Regards,
Sarah
GM Customer Service
Also, would like to know if anyone else has tried this.
Note: I have a 2007 2.6 V6 and have received a 10 year warranty from GM on the timing chain, also did the recall which consisted of re-calibrating the oil change intervals system.
I am experiencing similar problems with going through 1.3 quarts every 2000 miles.
If you live near the U.S. border, buy the synthetic oil in the U.S . and bring it to the dealership when you have the oil changed. It will save you some $. Four U.S. quarts of Mobil 1 costs about $35 U.S. at Walmart.
My wife and I have a 2009 CTS4 with the base V6 engine. We bought the car new in August 2009. It currently has approximately 24,000 miles on it. It has been about 6,000 miles since the last oil change (always synthetic). While driving the car Wednesday, it felt like it had a problem with the transmission or torque converter. It felt like the trans was slipping and there was a decent amount of noise. The next day I called Cadillac they said to bring it in. We stopped driving the car and brought it in today. Since it was coming up for an oil change IMO (OLM said 49% remaining), I agreed to have them do an oil change while the car was there. This afternoon we got a call that the engine was 3.5 - 4 quarts low on oil. Note that the previous oil changes did not indicate abnormal consumption (at least it was not noted to me). The noise was assigned to the timing chain and the timing chain will be replaced. I was told that actually low oil sometimes voids the warranty but that the dealer will fix the timing chain. Nothing else has been noted yet as an issue. I'm concerned about several things now. Mainly that the dealer is fixing the timing chain but also voiding the warranty for the engine. Although I'm not having issues with the dealer yet, I can almost smell it coming. My wife and I sold 2 BMW's and picked up two GM cars during the recession - mainly to support the American economy. I really hope not to regret this decision. Has anyone here had issues with the warranty being voided after bringing the car into the dealership with low oil?
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
Dump the Caddy NOW! I will never by another GM! I actually love the looks of the new Camaro....but despise the customer service or lack of customer service.
Read all the comments in this thread, it will help you understand why CTS owners are so upset! :sick: :lemon: