In January of this year, a very close friend of mine passed away. I purchased his '99 Seville STS from his daughter ($1500) only a few weeks ago. I was well aware that it had a few unknown mechanical issues. My friend, Mike, who owned the car was an older gentleman with bad eyesight at night. Because of this, he strattled one too many center islands, parking dividers, and curbs. To make a long story short, I knew the car leaked power stearing fluid and a slight overheating issue. It also gurggled whenever turning a corner, the sounds came from behind the dash I think. I've been driving it for a couple of months without any problems at all. I work from home, so I don't commute or drive long distances ever. Well, the car had been running like a champ, until now. Last week I drove it on the freeway on a warm day and had a very large friend riding with me. The car's temperature gauge spiked nearly to the red zone after about 20 minutes of driving. I quickly exited and pulled into the first parking lot. There was no visual sign of my engine overheating. I quickly opened the hood but there was no steam, no sounds, nothing leaking. Just normal heat radiating from the engine compartment. To be on the safe side, I had the car towed home. I was able to start the engine and drive it into my driveway after the tow truck dropped us off. It ran like a champ. I drove it one last time to the DMV (about 5 miles away via freeway) and it nearly did the same thing again. I made it home just as it started to spike. The next day, there was a huge oil leak stain under the car (very center directly below where you fill the oil. I haven't driven the car since, nor have I tempted to try and start it up. I am so afraid that its a blown head gasket or cracked head. Is this car worth trying to fix, or should I just count my losses and sell it for parts? I would greatly appreciate any advice that anyone would be willing to give. Thanks for your time.

 

well, what have you done to the car, other than drive it? did you check fluids? have oil, and coolant changed?... anything? now, have you check oil, coolant? .... whats up with that? let us know.
rickyd

 

Just from personal experience if you got it more than 3/4 hot on the temp gage than you may need gaskets. these engines don't like heat what so ever. I had replaced water pump and thermostat and new coolant and thought i fixed the problem then found out that it smoked like a steam engine when i started it. Check the oil to see if its got water in it and see if coolant is low.

Let us know what you find and if the gaskets need replaced it may cost $1200-$2000 depending where you take it and what they charge for parts. i bought my gaskets at a parts store since the dealership wanted to charge me tripple the price. If you look at it this way if you fork out the money to fix it you still got a good deal since these cars run between $4000-$8000 used in good shape.

 

Hi guys, thank you for your responses. I'll start with my fluids - yes, I always check them before starting this car. I never have to worry about the tranny fluid, but I do check it regularly (when idleling of course). Surprisingly, the coolant has never dropped below the fill (cold) line, nor does it leak. I'm confident that the cap is still pressurized as well. I do have a power stearing fluid leak so I top that off regularly. There appears to be alot of sludge (almost like garage door grease) at the bottom of the resevouir, I don't think that's normal.

This car has been a part of my life for the last 5 yrs, so I do know that it requires engine oil quite often. However, this last month I noticed that it consumed much more oil than normal. I added 2 quarts just a couple of days before it majorly overheated. I'm not exactly sure how to check if the engine oil has water in it. I do know that the coolant does not have engine oil in it, though.

When the overheating incident happened, I quickly parked it in the nearest parking lot. Like I mentioned before, not once did it show any visual signs of overheating (no smoke, steam, etc.). While I sat there with the hood up there were a couple different guys that came to see if I needed some help. One of them proceeded to remove the coolant resevouir's cap. Before I could stop him, there was coolant erupting out of it. I had a full container of coolant in the trunk. After waiting a bit, I proceeded to try and fill up the coolant resev. but I was being told from everyone there that it was just coming straight out at the bottom. So, I got towed home. The next day a buddy of mine wanted to see if it was just a hose that had disconnected that maybe he could easily fix. I got the garden hose and let it the water slowly fow into the expansion tank while he was under there. There was no leak at all. It quickly filled and gut reaction was to cap off the expansion tank. So, the car has water not dexcool in it right now. BTW, my coolant has always appeared green (not orange) since I aquired the car, not sure if that makes a difference.

Last but not least... a couple of days ago I noticed that the silver finish on sides of the engine (on the side, to the left the OIL cap area) has started bubbling. Yep, I know that's not a good sign.

 

Oh, one more thing - the temperature gauge got all the way to the red zone, but not in the red zone.

 

The guy that pull the cap off is lucky that he is not in a BURN UNIT. Very foolish action.

There is no such thing as overheating a little .. these engines run by spec or not at all.

Go and read our FAQ on overheating and go through the various processes as you think they apply to your case. At 10 years old, the engine may well be suffering from the classic COOLANT protection used up and who knows what the effects may be by now. Take a look at our FAQ on overheating, coolant, flush, coolant system testing, etc.

Forget the check for water in oil .. that can be a useless test unless you truly understand the science involved with condensation and engine starts or you can clearly see colored coolant.

Since you now have WATER instead of coolant, it will be easy to perform a EXHAUST GAS TEST .. do it quickly. I highly advice that you do not run on water for long as each day it sits there, more and more metal internals are being oxidized

The PS needs a new pump .. simply.

Never ever let anyone pull a cap off an overheating engine .. the instant drop in pressure reduces the boiling point and you will get a superheated geyser that can and will send someone to the hospital. Super heated at 270F, the coolant will remove human skin instantaneously. Remember, water boils at 212F.





.

 

Does temp gage stay at 12o'clock and after awhile moves fairly quickly towards the red? Or does it get there pretty slowly?There are three now of us including me on this forum that are having over heating problems Me and the other guy had replaced water pump and thermostat and still i kept over heating and now mines in the shop his is intermittenly overheating but i think his gaskets are going bad aswell. If i was you do as stomper said and get you coolant tested for exhaust gases. dont bother buying parts till you figure out what the test results are. My guess is since it got that hot you may have got the engine too hot and most likely have failing gaskets since mine got about as hot as you said yours did and i later spent $60 on a new pump and t-stat and still kept getting hot.

Now that mines in the shop and already apart, i had talk to one of the cadillac techs and he said its not worth replacing the gaskets. since when taking the engine apart then puting it all back together the rubber orings that sit on top of the cylinder sleeves between the head and the block will wear out due to the sleeve movement while engine is running and cause coolant to get into the cylinder. He said that there is a 40% chance the engine wont have any problems. thanks for telling me this after his shop has it apart. Also its costing me roughly $2500-$2800 with 3yr/12,000mile waranty is it worth it for me? Not sure after having been told that by the tech.

 

THAT translates to a 60% chance of a consequent failure, soon.
When it comes to headgaskets on Nortstars, MY standing and CONTROVERSIAL advice remains.

Dont bother fixing it .. buy a low mileage engine (under 75,000 miles) from a wreck, compression test, drop it in, and forget it ever happened. Well cared for, such an engine should run another 200,000 miles.

Then change the coolant every 2 years.

KEEP IN MIND that I said "ENGINE FROM WRECK" .. then you know for sure that the car was not send to a yard for engine failures of any kind.

I am a high believer of recycling good engines from yards or even private sales from cars that been T-Boned or REAR-ended, not from serious front collisions.



.

 

it moved quickly, within about 1-2 miles on freeway it went from 12 oclock to nearly 3 oclock

 

Thats the thing that got me was that this engine was a replacement engine that had passed the compression test had 60,000mi when put in and now has about 65,000mi then has headgasket issues and for this to happen is crazy. obviously these engine will have problems reguardless of miles just depends on how the owner maintained them and thats like using a public bathroom you'll never know who was there before you when they used it. I figured i will just get it fixed and trade it off for something else if this is possibly going to happen again. Seems that if these engines are babied they last longer and just build up carbon but if you are supose to drive these engines "Like you stole it" to keep them in good shape then why are problems more likely to show up? I didnt drive this car like i stole it and i didnt baby it i just drove the car 4 miles or so a day.