"Hoopty" the Caddy hits 200,000 miles!!!

[mwilson]

Magic 200,000 rolled up on the odometer coming home last night. This has been the best used car I have ever owned....

Bought it almost 4 years ago with 93,000 miles on the clock, had some issues from neglect of prior owner.......

Averages 22 mpg on a daily commute of 120 miles, higher some other days when I travel to the other locations. Low as 19.5 mpg in sub-zero temps and most of that can be attributed to using the remote start function (twice)...but it's worth it. Highs of 24 mpg during summer running 75 mph on the big road.

Oil usage remains at 1 pint using the suggested oil change of the GM algorithm at 12,000 miles...

Items replaced or repaired....

Front struts, rear shocks (Auto Level), Spark Plugs, Water Pump, Oil Filter adapter gasket, Secondary Air Injection Valve, Both HID headlight bulbs, (2) Batteries (one was a warranty failure) , two sets of tires, C/V shafts (L & R), several front calipers until I learned to only use new GM calipers, rear brake pads, and I believe (3) wheel bearing / hub assemblies....

I call that pretty damn good......for a $7500.00 used car...

 

[The patriot]

No head gasket?
My little brother had one, liked it until about 150K miles. Then the head gasket sprung a leak.
Much googling and cadillac forums research led him to sell it rather than to open a can of worms on a car he felt he got good service out of for the $$$ .

 

[mwilson]

Knock on wood, head gaskets are still solid. GM changed the thread pitch on the head bolts finally which cut way down on failures. If GM had changed to studs right off the bat things would have gone a lot better for the Northstar. They had things pretty solid from 2006 - 2011 and then stopped production.

Cadillac DTS reliability rates pretty high.

Gutsy little powerplant, roughly 1 HP per Cubic Inch..

 

[jgillott]

Congrats Mike.

 

[DavidC]

Now that you have that mile stone covered, how is the rocker panel repair holding up.

Dave

 

[DonFitzwater]

What’s the story with the Northstar V8 and head gasket replacement. Is there something about them that makes changing head gaskets harder?

 

[mwilson]

It's labor intensive as the correct way to do it is to remove the cradle. If you have a lift it really isn't that bad.

Some claim to be able to change them in the car BUT if you install head studs (which is the right way to do it) you can't get the rear head on over the studs when in the vehicle...

The cradle is made to come out, just have to adjust your thinking a little...

 

[mwilson]

Can't find a real good shot but these will give you some idea....

Complete cradle assembly less C/V shafts and related stuff

Engine removed from cradle and transmission

Cradle less engine..

 

[mwilson]

Found this one, kinda' liked it....

 

[crispyboy]

You are much luckier than my mother and her Cadillacs. All three have been NorthStar engines and seem to be nothing but a constant trouble - head gaskets, blocks cracking etc.... and she keeps up with the maintenance. With her poor experience I would personally be gun shy. I'm glad you have had good luck as they are a nice looking ride.

 

[DonFitzwater]

That cradle assembly seems to be what everyone has gone to. I remember seeing a Chrysler Pacifica with that setup..........and a Ford Taurus that needed a transmission. I also watched a video of a couple goobers on youtube changing head gaskets on a Northstar V8 in the Caddy.............That was painful to watch. They did everything the hard way. I'm sure that by the time you need head gaskets, that engine could use a ton of love including starter, oil pan gasket, etc. Just knock it all out at once is what I do. Buy once, cry once. I'm sure happy thats what I did with my CRD Liberty. Yank the engine/transmission out and start fixing.