i have the same damn problem!!! great car but wtf! my car only has 37000 klms!!!!

Check your LIM gaskets, this is a some what common problem

Seems to be a common problem. There are coolant crossovers on the back of the motor, the gaskets tend to leak, had mine replaced at 45K miles. Symptoms, coolant lite would come on occassionally, then more often, then more often, over a span of probably 15K miles. Smell of antifreeze sometimes when getting out of the car.

Dean

Where do I start looking. Is the "back of the engine" towards the firewall or the driver side?

The directions of the engine and compartment are set up from the drivers seat perspective. So yes, the back is the firewall side, left is drivers side, and so on.

I had the coolant problem when I bought mine about a year ago but they fixed it. Now I have around 50k miles on it and low oil light comes on every few months, not a drop on the ground and nothing out of the exhaust.....what the hell? Also my power steering went dry a few months back, again nothing on the ground. After some Lucas PS fluid it seems to be holding out ok, level stays where it should. I am thinking either a new pump or rack in the near future, I would imagine. Replaced both bearings in front @ 40k. I saw lots of ideas about the coolant problems but any ideas about the PS fluid or oil??

The low oil light seems to be a computer anomaly, I get it once in awhile myself, since the car was new. The car has never shown low oil pressure or low on the stick. I have also got the same with the coolant when in fact, everything was fine. The front wheel bearing have been mentioned a few times by members. Mine seem fine but starting to think @ 41k miles of just replacing anyway. Not a hard job and I have a knack of getting a wild hair and Nitrousing in 4th to well beyond responsible limits of speed.

I've never heard of a PS fluid problem before yours.

I remember 2 people having problems with an external oil line, one had it twice and I figure his second one was an installation error. Might be that all were the factory not aligning the seals on the connections right to begin with. Mine ate oil in the beginning and had the blue smoke that is inherent in new Northstars, but that has stopped and it has never dripped as much as a drop of oil.

The PS fluid problem seems to be ok for now. As far as the oil light coming on, when it does its usually about 2 quarts low! Thats alot of oil to be vanishing into space with no signs. Something has to be wrong there IMO.

With Northstars it bleeds through the rings. It may be yours never seated. They will never seat right if you dont "exercise them" Make sure your oil is topped off and blast her WOT throttle threw the gears a couple times. She'll run better and should help seat things. Alot of Cadillac Forums see this problem and recommend what they call the "Italian Tuneup" which is to take the car on the highway, then cram it into 2nd and full throttle. It may be effective for seating the rings, but I value my tranny and the cost to replace it. Try WOT through the gears a couple times. The engine will scream before it goes for 2nd, and a bit less to 3rd. But dont let off. The TCM knows when it has to shift.

I had the same issue with the coolant crossover. 50,000 miles and my coolant light would come on intermittently and I would consistantly smell antifreeze when engine was hot, but couldn't find or see a leak - neither could the dealer'* mechanic. So, they put the flourescant stuff in it and checked it the next week and found where it was leaking with a flourescant finding light.

Be careful WHERE you take it. After I found out the problem, I got some quotes. I had one GM/Cadillac dealer quote me over $1000 for the crossover replacement and and the other quote me $300. Guess where I took it? $300 to get it fixed by a Northstar certified mechanic. Not really even sure if that is a good deal - it didn't seem to good to me to pay $300 to replace a couple pieces of plastic that a guy "should" be able to do on his own in his garage - but compared to the other quote - it was a hell of a savings!!!


Wouldn't it be nice if they would just recall some of these "common" and "reocurring" issues so that Northstar engine owners didn't have to keep getting "gouged" at the local GM/Cadillac dealership to have a Northstar certified technician fix and replace parts that we should be able to fix on our own?