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If he truly has blown head gaskets on a Northstar, there is more to it than replacing the gaskets and using new head bolts.
He will have to have the motor pulled. This is the only way to make the following repair because you cannot reach the rear head to do this.
The heads have to be pulled. (If you do this, do both heads.) Just unscrewing the head bolts will many times damage more of the bolts, stripping the alumium threads. Then the motor has to be 'Timeserted'. This is a package which has a metal jig (which can be reused, shops that have done this before will already have this) which is bolted to the motor and all the bolt holes are drilled out. Then threads are re-tapped into the holes. Then a special Timesert insert is screwed in. Then the head can be put back on with a new gasket and new bolts, which screw into the new insert. The heads themselves usually are fine, they are almost bulletproof, there is no milling needed. Then the motor can be put back in.
This is usually around a $3,000 job. The main part is labor. Pulling the motor (and transmission together), drilling, tapping, assembly and then putting the motor back into the car. Parts are only something like $500-$750 or so, including a Timesert kit and the needed gaskets, etc.
When you are looking at a $6,000 car (1999 Deville), you really need to think about putting $3,000 into it. A lot of beautiful Cadillacs are scrapped because of the cost of a head job.
If it were mine, I would do:
-Plugs
-Plug wires (may not have these, may be coil-on-plug)
-Coolant
-Drain transmission fluid (don't flush. But be sure whoever does this knows there is a second plug after you pull the pan that need to be pulled.)
Rotate the air in the tires.
The liquid change should include the turn signal fluid.
Grease the muffler bearings.
What's so hard about looking at the service items in the owner's manual for the 100,000 service?
The list I previously gave should cover it.
I can't say much about the struts. Is the car banging when going over bumps? If so, there my be a need for struts, or other suspension components, such as sway bar linkages. If the struts are electronically controlled, there will be sensor in there that tell the computer if they are working ok. If they are not, there will be a check engine light turned on and/or a message displayed in your Display Information Condition (DIC) on your dash.
brendans
If so, you may have pushed this. It disables opening the trunk.
Thanks for any and all input!
If a crack in the bumper cover was actually found, and the underlying 5mph bumper guarding structure was damaged, and then the painting of a new bumper cover - easily $1,600 to cover repairing all of this.
Now there is another position as to the possibility that the damage could be repaired for less.......
I've seen repair estimates for the same damage vary by almost 100% of a lower estimate.
Are you somewhat 'handy' around the motor? It's pretty easy to check for a leak. The FPR is about $60, and can be replaced easily also.
Deville got an average of about 20 MPG in the city and 27 on the highway. Think your car may need some fine tuning. If you have a dealership you trust take the car in for your next oil change and bring this up to the service department, suspect they can put the car on computer diagnostic system and find out why your fuel economy is below average for your car.
But, it you accelerate quickly, or drive in mountainous roads, you may need to keep premium gas in to. When the motor is under heavy load is when premium is needed to eliminate pinging.
I think if you drop the grade, your milage will probably also drop.
And I agree, the 20mph should be what you can get with a mix of in-town and highway driving, and with constant highway driving, you should be able to get 25mgp or better. On premium.
-Oil
-Coolant (antifreeze)
-Power Steering
-Brake Fluid
-Transmission Fluid
-Gasoline
-Windshield Washer
-Battery Acid (the battery on your 2003 Deville is inside, under the rear seat)
-Condensation from the Air Conditioner
Each one of these has somewhat destinctive color and odour,But some are tough to determine.
The only 'rotten egg' smell from an auto usually comes from the exhaust, and usually isn't anything to worry about. Oh, wait a minute. Battery acid has an acidic, somewhat rotten smell. You better hope this isn't a burst battery under the rear seat.
Oh, I'm adding this in here. If you are running the Air Conditioner, it will condense water our of the inside air, and there is a drain where this comes out. All cars will drip water during the summer when it is condensing out. This is normal and nothing to worry about.
In the hot summer, the first next to check is if it is coolant. Coolant will be reddish, brownish, maybe green if someone has put non-standard coolant in there, and has a sweetish smell and is slightly oily in texture.
You are going to have to give us some help here. But really, if you can't determine what is leaking, you should get it to a repair shop pretty quickly.
Leaking coolant will cause cause an error message to display when it leakes so much it is low, and when it gets even lower, the motor will overheat, displaying even more error conditions. Continuing to run the auto will ruin the motor.
The 98 got about 27 MPG highway and around 20 in town. The 2004 around 29 MPG highway and 21 city.
You may have other issues and may want to try a complete fuel system cleaner (STP has one as do other additive companies). Have you checked your air filter or replaced recently. Your MPG stats sound low
so you may want to investigate further if my two suggestions don't improve your MPG performance. The 98 Deville had 39,000 miles on it at time of trade and the 2004 Deville had 36,000 miles on it. Both much lower mile cars than yours but still think you should be getting better results.
With that milage, i woujld be thinking about plug wires and plugs. Us only GM wires and the recommended plugs. The wires and plugs should be good up to 100,000, but expecially if you have had some mechanical work done near the wires, they could be messed up. If you live in extremely hot area, the wires might also have broked down early.
distance trip, it said: "service engine soon". A Cadillac dealership told me the computer points to transmission. After hearing the amount of $1250.- plus, just to find the problem, I have decided to drive home, hell or high water.
After another 800 mls , I am home now, DeVille sounds perfect and the %#&^*(@ light is off. What is going on?
Just in case: I did check my tr. oil and it is 100% full.
Thanks.
The check engine lights are usually pretty valid. One thing that will set false errors, and usually will set a whole slew of them, is a bad battery, one with low voltage. Caddys do not like low voltage (and most modern autos are the same here), and if the voltage drops to 10 or 11 volts, this might be enough to start the car, but it may set a mess of codes, make 'strange' things appear on your digital dash, make certain components do strange things, etc, etc, etc.
Your Cadillac has an extensive self diagnostic system which can easily be accessed by you. I'm not going into how to access or navigate thru this system. But, with the instructions, you can easily see the specific error 'codes' set. It will just be a number, but there are sites which will give you guidance as what general information is tied to each error code.
IF it happens again, here is a link to a site with error codes and info on how to 'get into' the diagnostic system on cadillacs
http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/dtcobd2.html
Hosts: Please do not slap my hands about this. You told me a ciuple years ago, that if a question needed additional info found on another site, it was ok to post the link. I'm hoping that is all that I've done here.
I will try the site. However since my confidence in DeVille is now big fat zero, I am thinking to replace it with Toyota or Subaru.
any ideas?
I have the same blower motor problem could you tell me if you resolved yours and how.
Thanks,
John
Not want to be mean, but are you aware you responded to a message 1 year and 7 months old?
I have changed the oil and the Trans. fluid doesn't seem to have any water. The power seats and windows do not work but it seems that everything else works O.K.
Can someone suggest what all I should look for?
Anyway, this guy took a 2001 Deville. After starting on it, he then bought a wrecked 2000 Deville just for parts to transfer to his 'water' car. He posted lots of pictures. He worked on this car for many months, I think at least 6 or more. He completely dis-assembled the interior, removing seats, carpets, the dash, steering column. I won't go into what it was that he did to the motor and tranny, but it was much more than one oil change. I think he put like 5 or more flushes and refills of the tranny fluid.
Things like alternator, power steering pump, etc were replaced. Basically if it was electronic, it had a large chance of not coming back to life. You've got sensors on the brake system for ABS, an ABS pump in the brake fluid system, etc, etc. You have modules in the doors for the electric windows, window motors, auto up, memory seats. Under the seats are power motors for the seats and a box driving the air bags. Every sensor in any part of the car could have water in it. You have dozens of connections in the electric system with each one having the possibility of future problems from the mud and corrosion.
After all this work, he still was getting check engine lights and could not get it inspected. I don't remember exactly what he did, but he had to do something snaky to get it titled and licensed.
If you have more than $500 in a 97 Deville that was under water, I think you have a problem. Nice running versions of this car should be able to be bought for four thousand dollars. I think a car like this should be scrapped for body parts. If the motor or tranny sits for any time at all with water in it (like 4 weeks), I would fear for the effects of rust.
If what you are saying is the car won't start after stalling, but will start later, that is a different thing. The starter might be bad - getting 'heat soaked' and then it will not start the car when it is hot. Letting the starter cool down, it then works.
A friend had a Cadillac of about this age that had a failure of the electrical connecter that goes thru the firewall into the inside of the car. It stalled and then was generally dead until they found where the problem was.
I would also look at both battery cables, and the connections where they screw on - the block for the ground, and the starter for the positive should be clean and tight. If there is corrision, the cables could be eaten up inside the rubber insulation.
Intermittent electrical problems are always difficult to find. Good luck.