I have a friend who is interested in purchasing a late 80'* early 90'* Cadillac Fleetwood or Deville, and I was just wondering if anyone knows how reliable these cars are and if there is anything to watch out for. I beleive one of them has a 4.5L V8 and the other a 4.9L.

Any thoughts?

Coincidental topic. I was just wondering the same thing last night. My wife wants a CTS. I started looking for them on ebay. I don't know much about the Northstar, but I see many with 150K+. IMO, the engine bay doesn't look too "shadetree mechanic friendly".

the CTS uses the 3.2 or 3.5

You dont see to many on the road nowaday, hence steer clear. The new Caddys with the Northstar powerplant is far more reliable, albeit expensive and tough to work with...go Caddy! ha!

The 4.5 is notorious for blowing head gaskets, don't know why. The 4.9 is just an updated version of the same motor and was used from 91-95. The cars are very comfortable though.

At least a few of the years of Fleetwood though were on the Caprice/Roadmaster platform though, right? I'd assume that they'd use the same chevy powertrain. Those would be easy to work on, and pretty reliable.

And huge. Longest car in the USA for a while, IIRC.

Sorry, I meant STS. I don't like the CTS.

Head gaskets galore, yep. Apparently the head bolts like to stretch out way beyond they should also, thus mucking up the threads in the block. Can't be re-tapped or anything, the block is then junk...

Is the Northstar considered a 4.5?

I've heard that the Northstar is notorious for the rear main seals leaking.

The Northstar replaced the 4.9 v8 in 1996 and they still run N** in many cars. The N* that is in 1996+ Devilles is a 4.6 litre, 300hp. The N* originally came out in 1993 in Cadillacs, then 1994 in Auroras, but didn't hit 300 hp until 1996. Currently you can get the N* in 275 and 300 hp configurations.