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Too good to be true!

5K views 24 replies 4 participants last post by  ExRPO1 
#1 ·
Well guys, I thought things were going exceptionally well with my Caddy, unfortunately, the car has died on me. No warning of anything wrong, went out in the morning, no problems, no misfires, fuel in the tank, gets home, decide to go shopping some 20 minutes later, car absolutely refuses to start. Oh starter motor turns over fantastically but the engine just wont fire up. Got fed up, call Cadilliac AA assist. AA man duly turns up to spend the next hour and 45 minutes trying to diagnose the problem on the drive. Finally discovered that it appears there is absolutely no fuel pressure although zero trouble codes show up. He had no choice but to give up. End result is, AA have informed me they will take the car the 60 odd miles to Birmingham so the Caddy dealer can hopefully sort it. Absolute pain in the you know what! It will be interesting to see what the Caddy dealer says on Monday when I tell them mine is on its way. Hopefullly it will be sorted under warranty. If anyone has had a similar problem, perhaps you could give me a clue?
 
#4 ·
Guys,

If someone can correct me if I am entirely wrong, but I was under the impression that only an appointed Cadillac Dealer was permitted to work on the car and carry out any warranty related work? Not only that, only those with Cadillac Tech2 equipment can diagnose faults? I checked on the Cadillac Europe website yesterday and unless there is something I am completely missing, they only appear to have five licenced dealers for service work in the following areas, Manchester, Lincolnshire, Reading, Milton Keynes and Southampton. Clearly Nottingham is closest to me, but if they ain't showin on the Cadiallac website (neither is Birmingham), then it seems Manchester is my only choice. If indeed Cadillac approve Stratstone Nottingham to do warranty work, then I would clearly go for it. In terms of a hire car etc, how do I go about sorting that out as part of the warranty work on my car? Any help would be appreciated. Oh, I didn't mention it on my first post, but the AA guy tried the whole reset thing with the vehicle. By his own admission, they have very little to assist them on their technical equipment. Basically, at the moment, I am stuffed!
 
#6 ·
Hi,I raised the issue of Stratstone as they offered to service my car when due.Quote from their letter"Our factory-trained technicians will take the very best care of your Cadillac using the latest diagnostic techniques and equipment".This is from 363 Haydn Road.I think I will ring them tomorrow regarding their status for warranty work.

By the way I just checked my "2007" service book which as S7ORP says ,refers to car hire after 2 hours.Maximum of 4 days though in my book.

Please keep us informed of developments.Might be me next!!!!


Letterhead is Saab......
 
#8 ·
Well, the car has been transported to Manchester. AA turned up within 20 minutes of me making the phone call from work this morning. A good neighbour oversaw the event and handed the recovery guy the key. Apparently the care taken putting my car on the back of the recovery wagon was done with painful precision. My neighbour was very impressed and a good thumbs up to the AA. Given hire car this afternoon, however I have been informed by the AA that the car hire is only for 48 hours, which is pretty useless if the car isn't fixed within that time. To be fair, the garage reckon they might have it fixed in time. I've taken the opportunity to have it serviced (which I will obviously have to pay for) at the same time, two and a half thousand miles early, but seeing as it is with them, they might as well do it and it will save me the expense two months before Christmas. I await with bated breath and an eventual trip to Manchester to pick up the car. Shame they won't bring it back for free. Oh well, can't have it all I suppose.
 
#10 ·
Yes, BM are doing the service. Quoted £285 + vat (ouch) but it would have had to have been done in a couple of months anyway and me getting over to Manc is a bit of a drag with full time work. Yes I know I could have got this done much cheaper at a good independant VAT registered garage, but it is highly likely they would not have the Tech2 equipment and they would not be able to do any software updates. Basically, for me, I'm taking zero chances whilst the car is under warranty for 3 years. I got the car at a ridiculously low price in the first instance, so I'll put up with the slight inconvenience. To be fair, today has been completely trouble free in terms of getting the car away to Manchester, I didn't even have to be at home and the car hire place is only a mile and a half from my work place. Ok, so I have to go and get it back when it's fixed, but I will still (hopefully) have the hire car. If not, it's the train.
 
#12 ·
I`ve just been quoted £350 inc VAT for a 36000 mile Mazda6 MPS service.Main dealer prices!Nottingham Stratstone cannot carry out Cadillac Warranty work but referred me to Stratstone Birmingham who could.Now need confirmation from Stratstone Birmingham.If the car hire period needs to be challenged I could scan the service book reference and try and post on the forum.
 
#13 ·
Well I had the phone call today from BM, all is now well. Evidently some electrical connection to the secondary fuel pump melted and that is what became the show stopper. I was informed this is not a common problem. An explanation was given to me and I think I concur with what was said. Necessarily, I cannot state what was said, but it was nothing to do with me and BM agreed that the issue was there probably before I bought the car and was literally waiting to happen. From the description given to me, not a painful fix, but very necessary because the car just wouldn't have run again without it. In short, fixed under warranty.
To S70RMP, thank you for the offer of pickup, it would have been much appreciated. In terms of your thoughts on expense of servicing, yes it ain't cheap, but as has been explained to me, the car has also received the benefit of a multitude of software updates to the Engine Management Control Unit, which you won't get outside of a Caddy dealership. The car now apparently locks on vehicle move off, which is a feature I wanted from the start but which wasn't available without it going into a Cadillac dealer. For info, this feature is only available on certain models, you would have to check if it applied to your own car.
Back to my earlier posts, whilst the vehicle is under warranty, BM will get the work because ultimately, they will provide everything which conforms to the letter of the warranty. Their advice and assistance over the telephone, has been excellent.
 
#15 ·
I wonder if BM read this forum ?
I do think Main Service is over priced at all makes.

I phoned the Local Ford Dealer to book the missues Focus in forit's 3rd service and got quoted
£248 which I questioned as I had a quote from another dealer near by and they wanted £181
he said that I must not have been quoted for the Convenience add on which I asked what that was
he said they check the water levels and tyre wear and make sure you have enough screen wash in !
which i told him that for £70 they could get stuffed as I check that myself !
to which he said they could do the service for £181 as well.
Juist goes to show they will rip you off if your not carefull
 
#16 ·
I completely appreciate that we are all driven by the cost of how much something is, especially in these difficult times, but as I stated earlier, I'm prepared to pay the dealer cost during the warranty phase because I know that outside of a Caddy dealer, you just will not get the support required for the whole package. It's one of those things, just under 15 grand new for a car infinately better (imo) than a lot of the current rubbish out there, deserves the proper support, otherwise it appears we could go to dealers whinging that they can't do this and they can't do that because they don't have the tech stuff to support the car but are still happy to take the money off you for half a job.
In terms of the lock down when driving off, I must state again that I was informed that only certain models of the BLS are capable of having this activated. Might be worth checking with BM again. I suppose it might depend on whether you have had the software updates?
 
#18 ·
Ok, so I have the car back. It has been a long day. leaving home at 0515 to miss the traffic for the trip to Manchester. Get there, drop off the hire car only 2 miles from BM. One of the guys from BM even picked me up from the hire car place. I'm than happy with their service, I ought to be, I got the car back within 48 hours. A problem fixed that anyone outside a Caddy dealership (and we know just how rare they are in the UK) would have had problems rectifying in such a short space of time. Software updates all done, auto locking of doors a new toy for me. The cost of the service which I paid for because it was my choice to have it done earlier than it needed, was £344 inc VAT which I agree is expensive, but not much more than it costs to get my wife's car done at a well known Japanese dealership. My only criticism of BM, is that they didn't valet the vehicle, which for the money I paid for the service, is disappointing. I couldn't be bothered to mention it, I was just chuffed to get the motor back and the trip back home was, well, brilliant, far better than the Korean hire car I had for two days. Anyway, I cleaned the car myself this evening, inside and out. Looks sweet!
 
#20 ·
Do you know if the software updates improve anything like the turbo lag when pulling off at a roundabout which sometimes leaves me looking at oncoming traffic when i wouldnt be in other cars I've driven? If so, tghen I am toying with the idea of taking mine to dealer even though its not due a service fro a lomg time (1.9TiD estate auto, only done 7500 miles, got car in Feb).
 
#21 ·
Ref the 'turbo lag'. I'm so sorry, I don't wish you to take offence at this, or feel as though I'm patronising you, but driving a diesel car in my opinion, is just a tiny bit different to say the expectations of a petrol unit. I learnt my trade as a diesel fuel injection engineer, long before common rail diesels were invented. I've learnt to ensure I have the right revs on at the right time and so far, I haven't suffered any embarrassing moments at roundabouts. Sure, the turbo doesn't kick in immediately you whack the revs on but I've not noticed anything really different to any other diesel models I have driven recently. I have to say, my car feels no different to how it was before its service and software updates, though I'm sure they must have done something or why bother updating the EMCU? The car continues to be as smooth as the day I first drove it in March. The breakdown was a result of the car having a bad day, undoubtedly due to it being sat around somewhere on tarmac for about 15 months before I bought it as a 'new car'. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when the car had its Pre Delivery Inspection almost 12 months after it arrived in the country from Sweden - if you get my drift!
 
#22 ·
To amend my last post, when I said before common rail diesels were invented, I actually meant to say, before they were commonly used in passenger cars (mid 1990's) because they were actually used in submarine engines way back in 1916 and indeed have been in use in marine and locomotive applications for many years.

Sorry for my mistake.
 
#23 ·
ExRP01,

Thanks for the reply, no offence taken. I know what you mean about the differences between petrol and diesel and the different way they should be driven. I havent driven many diesels in the past but always treated them like I would driving a van, and just accepted I'd drive in a more leisurely fashion, look for bigger gaps in traffic at junctions, and pull off slowly. I love my Cadillac but when I drive my wife's 3.0d X5, despite it's heavy weight it just seems to have a much more immediate response than the Caddy whether from standing start or having slowed right down approaching a junction or roundabout and then accelerating off having made that decision in a microsecond that it is safe to go. There just seems to be a lot more hesitation from the Caddy than the heavy X5 which just picks its skirts up and shoots off like an elephant shot in the backside.

I have been considering the various aftermarket tuning companies which tweak the ECU mappings for extra power and better fuel consumption, but I won't bother until I've first had the latest Cadillac software updates to see what improvement those might bring. I'd quite happily pay to have them do the updates before I need a service. I also wonder whether they have any updates to the Bluetooth software in the car as it just won't work properly with my Nokia 5800, but does work perfectly with my work Blackberry.
 
#25 ·
To be honest, you are probably better leaving remapping alone, unless you get a really reputable company to do it. I've been looking into it and there are companies that will remap our motors, but I'll be leaving that one well alone. I've got the manual box, so I can't appreciate your auto box issues. Funny thing about the 'we don't do American motors'. These people are so ignorant, they, unlike ourselves, seem completely unaware that there is nothing American about the BLS except the name. Like it or not, our Caddy's are technically Swedish, built there, SAAB Vin plates etc, etc. Even my air filter has a SAAB part number on it. I'm going to find out how much the SAAB Pollen filter is, because I bet it's cheaper than the Caddy one that was just put in! We've already seen in another post that coil springs are cheaper from SAAB.
 
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