97 Deville Idle and Coolant
For the last year I have had problems with my coolant, always having to put it in. Almost a year ago I had a new radiator put in and that seemed to of solved the issue, recently my light to "check coolant level" has popped up. My other issue within the last week is my service engine soon light has came on and off and my car has been idling rough when I come to a light and whatnot. Today the SES light was flashing on and off and car is still idling. PLEASE help me if you have any advice.
Thnaks!
Erica
Thnaks!
Erica
0
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If so, you possibly have a bad head gasket. Which is a known problem with Cadillac Northstar motors. And, is very expensive to repair.
Of course, you might just have another simple leak of coolant somewhere.
You can 'pull the codes' yourself on your Cadillac. You can put the instrument panel into a 'diagnoistic' mode and it will display the error code/s that is causing the check engine light to flash. There are other online sites where you can get a 'basic' definition of what the error codes mean.
Or, many auto parts houses will hook up a 'scanner' and 'pull the codes' for no charge, and give you the basic descriptions for the codes.
If you want to attempt to pull the codes yourself, reply here and I will post a link to a site which has the instructions.
Cadillacs are great cars, until they break. Then they can be complex and expensive to repair.
The codes will have the prefix shown in the last paragraph below, plus a 4-digit number. Post any of the 'currect' codes back here, and I will try to look them up for you.
But, as I said in the first message, it is very important to know if your car is overheating!!!!
bolivar
HOW TO “ENTER” DIAGNOSTIC MODE
To enter diagnostic mode, proceed as follows:
1.Turn ignition “ON.” Engine can be either OFF or RUNNING.
For cars equipped with the Digital Instrument Panel Display (Digital
IPC):
2.Simultaneously press the “OFF and “WARMER” (red) buttons on climate control center (CCC) until all display segments (IPC and CCP) are illuminated
For cars equipped with the Analog Instrument Panel Display (Analog IPC):
3.Simultaneously press on the Climate Control Panel (CCP) the “OFF” and “PASS WARMER” (up arrow) button.
After the segment display test, the driver message center displays all set DTC, current and history, in the following order:
A. PCM DTC Power Control Module (?)
B. IPC DTC Instrument Panel Control
C. ACM DTC Air Conditioning
D. SDM DTC Air Bags
E. TCS DTC Traction Control System
F. PZM DTC Body Control Module
G. IRC DTC
H. RFA DTC Radio
I. CCP DTC Cell Phone
J. MSM DTC
K. MMM DTC Memory Control (The “Set 1, 2” Panel on Arm rest.)
L. PHN DTC
The RSS, CCP, MSM, MMM and PHN DTC’s appear only on vehicles equipped with these options. Press the FAN DOWN button in order to bypass the DTC display.
On the OBD II cars) the prefixes you’ll see are: “IP” for the IPC instrument panel; “AC” for air conditioning module; “TC” for traction control; “RS” for the road suspension system; “SD” for the air bags; “PZ” for the body control module~ “CC” for the cell phone; “RF” for the integrated radio system.
Anyone having a similar problem and related information?
I sure don't understand your 'no indication' of an overheating situation.
If a Northstar overheats, you will see it on the guage, there should be DIC messages, and you will get large amounts of coolant blown out of the surge tank.
Northstars blow head gaskets. This is a well known problem. And the water pump does not have to be failing for this to happen. It is a design problem, the gaskets fails, allowing combustion gas to get into the coolant passages, causing overheating.
sspeis
But, you other symptoms point to the early stages of a blown gasket - just not blown severely yet. If the coolant is not leaking, the only place it can be going is into the engine. A half gallon per 30 miles is a lot of coolant going somewhere. Northstars bad head gaskets do not put coolant into the oil. It goes into the combustion chamber. And, combustion gas goes into the coolant, causing overheating. Massive overheating as the gasket gets worse. And the higher temps when running hard is a usual symptom. If you drive up a steep hill, it will also overheat - basically the more you load the motor, the more it will overheat.
My guess - you've got a head gasket problem. It will get worse. No kind of 'Stop Leak' will seal it.
Repair will be $3,000 or more. The motor must be pulled. Heads removed. All 20 head bolt holes bored out. Then rethreaded. Then a special insert called a Timesert is screwed in. The motor is then reassembled, with new headbolts screwing into the Timesert inserts. New gaskets of course. Most of the cost is labor because the motor must be pulled, the rear head cannot be worked on in the car.
This is about 50% of what a 97 Deville is worth. There are a lot of Cadillacs scrapped because of a blown headgasket, and what the cost of repair is. But, if a Timesert operation is done, this usually fixes the headgasket for the remaining life of the car.
Where else?
Google is your friend.
Take the inside door panel off. You can then get to the bolts that hold the mirror to the door.
If the outside door skin has been badly dented up when the mirror pulled off, then you have a problem that only a body shop can fix.
By 2002, I think Cadillac may have stopped recommending the coolant tabs. On older models, there was a sticker on the motor/plastic fan cover/somewhere under there, that gave the part number for the tabs.
You only need to add tabs if you dump all the old coolant out. Since you can't get all of it out by opening the radiator or pulling a lower hose, I only put three in.
DON"T PUT THE TABS IN THE "OVERFLOW" TANK. (It really isn't an overflow tank, because it is pressurized and has the rad cap on it. It is correctly called the 'surge tank'.) PULL A RADIATOR HOSE AND PUT THE TABS IN THERE. There is not enough coolant flow thru the 'surge tank' to move the tab material out of there, and it is mainly useless if put in there.
The tabs are used mainly for very minor leaks - seepage type, or porisity opening in the block/head castings. The tabs were developed for the earlier 4.1 and 4.9 motors and carried over into the Northstar motors up until about 2001 where there were some redesigns made to the Northstar and I think GM no longer recommends their use.
If driving slowly does not overheat, but going to high speed (60mph+), or driving up a hill, does start an overheat - blown head gasket problem.
There might be a problem with the small belt that drives the water pump. This is driven off the rear of the left head cam. Which means it it near the front of the car on the driver's side. This belt is under a metal cover. Or might be a problem with a sticking thermostat or bad water pump. But these usually don't cause a problem.
I don't understand why this causes the heat to fail. I'm not going to get into whether or not the mechanic owe you anything for the problem continuing. This is between you and him.
Or, the cross over pipe is leaking. Much more involved to repair.
Both are on the left front on the motor area (Essentially the 'rear' of the motor since it sits in there cross-wise).
What aren't you fixing this leak? You are going to burn the motor up if you continue to run it while low on coolant. Or blow a head gasket - which is already a weak point of Northstar motors, and very, very expensive to repair.
I can't help with the disassembly of the cams.
But I CAN tell you about the head gasket (from long reading forums about CAdillac Northstar motors.)
You CANNOT just replace the head gaskets on a Northstar!!!!! The problem is that the heads have loosened up - steel headbolts into an alumium block. And, when you unbolt the heads, more bolts will probably strip out their threads.
You MUST put a Timesert kit into this car. This is a kit where you must drill out all the headbolts, rethread the holes, and then screw in a special insert, a Timesert. Then, new head bolts can be screwed into these inserts. This will 'fix' the head gasket problems.
Search for Timesert on the internet. If you just slap a new gasket on the head, it is not going to work!
The Timesert kit is about $400. This gives you a bolt-down jig to aid in the drilling and tapping, and one set (20, both heads) of the special inserts. You will have to pull the motor to get to the rear head