Well, if it was going to happen to anybody it would happen to me.
Took the car in today for a valve/bearing noise.
Heard under slow acceleration or slow cruise.

They just called me and said they were ordering a camshaft.
Said I could come pick up the car.

I have a call into the Service Manager to get more details
and to discuss my concerns about driving the car.

I am inclined to leave the car there and drive the Camaro until it is fixed.

Update:

Talked to the Service Manager and they have ordered both camshafts for the left bank.
Evidently there is a coating on the camshaft and this coating has come off.
Hence the valve noise.
He said he has seen this one other time on an engine that higher miles and had grooves where the cam followers had rubbed.
He told me it was okay to drive but I have declined.
I told him that I thought the oil was very dirty and he said part of it was the coating that came off.
He has already changed the oil and found no metal shavings in the filter.
The camshafts are supposedly easy to change. They have a tool that holds the proper timing position so that that the front cover does not need to be taken off when the chains are reinstalled.

this coating sounds like a pending disaster down the road, hope it works out for you

Well, if it was going to happen to anybody it would happen to me.
Took the car in today for a valve/bearing noise.
Heard under slow acceleration or slow cruise.

They just called me and said they were ordering a camshaft.
Said I could come pick up the car.

I have a call into the Service Manager to get more details
and to discuss my concerns about driving the car.

I am inclined to leave the car there and drive the Camaro until it is fixed.

Which engine is this...????

3.6L V6 with 1400 miles.

Oh man, I hope this does not become a trend.

So far, no TSB on this one...

I doubt it, lots of people already have the 3.6 in the CTS and never has anything like this come up that im aware of. I agree though a "coating" being necessary for a part to operate within spec is a little odd, but then we do have another major coating thats kind of necessary... its called Oil.

Another Update:

Went by and looked at my car today and he already had the valve cover back on so i couldn't see what the cam looked like.

My car should be ready tomorrow afternoon.

Unfortunately i found out that the vehicle that had the previous problem was not a CTS, but another SRX. And it happened about a week and half ago.

Needless to say i am a little concerned.

They also told me that the problems they are having with the CTS have been
from coolant leaks with one car having a blown headgasket.
This problem has been on cars with the 3.2L engine not the 3.6L.
I never did like the 3.2L.

Got my car back today.

I now have a quiet engine again.

Missed my SRX.

I wouldn't worry about the noise that you heard or any future problems with the engine.

The cams are "coated" with a phosphate coating that holds oil to prevent any rusting of the steel cam if moisture is present in the oil during cold weather cold starts (when there is a lot of moisture in the oil from blowby....) It really has nothing to do with wear or actual operation of the cam lobe/roller follower. The situation was likely due to the surface finish of the coating causing a noise as the roller went over it. Nothing to do with the coating "failing" or anything nor is there anything to fall off or contaminate the oil. Just an annoyance that would probably have gone by the wayside with more miles/more cam revolutions. Lots of parts in engines have been or are phosphate coated to hold lube and help breakin in some situations. If you look at a lot of hot rod cams for pushrod engines the black coating on them that is there for proper breakin of the lobes is what is being described.

The replacement cams are exactly the same part as there is no TSB or anything about this from the factory at the moment.

I wouldn't worry about the noise that you heard or any future problems with the engine.

The cams are "coated" with a phosphate coating that holds oil to prevent any rusting of the steel cam if moisture is present in the oil during cold weather cold starts (when there is a lot of moisture in the oil from blowby....) It really has nothing to do with wear or actual operation of the cam lobe/roller follower. The situation was likely due to the surface finish of the coating causing a noise as the roller went over it. Nothing to do with the coating "failing" or anything nor is there anything to fall off or contaminate the oil. Just an annoyance that would probably have gone by the wayside with more miles/more cam revolutions. Lots of parts in engines have been or are phosphate coated to hold lube and help breakin in some situations. If you look at a lot of hot rod cams for pushrod engines the black coating on them that is there for proper breakin of the lobes is what is being described.

The replacement cams are exactly the same part as there is no TSB or anything about this from the factory at the moment.Thanks for the great explanations on both the cams and the TC/Stabilitrak threads! Are you a Cadillac service technician by any chance? :)

Here is the descripton of what they did.
QTY./// FP NUMBER /// DESCRIPTION
1 /// 12566670 /// Camshaft
1 /// 12566669 /// Camshaft
1 /// 12585067 /// Gasket
12 /// 24100294 /// Arm

Don't know if the 12 Arms were rocker arms or what.

Here is the descripton of what they did.
QTY./// FP NUMBER /// DESCRIPTION
1 /// 12566670 /// Camshaft
1 /// 12566669 /// Camshaft
1 /// 12585067 /// Gasket
12 /// 24100294 /// Arm

Don't know if the 12 Arms were rocker arms or what.


Yea, looks like a conscientious dealer service department replaced all items related to the cams and roller followers (rocker arms) to make sure the noise was fixed and didn't come back.

Actaully, the noise is really random and effected/caused somewhat by the surface finish from the phosphating process. It is just a nuisance and would probably go away with more miles. It is the breakin characteristics of the coating that cause the noise to show up. Proabably a detailed analysis would have shown the noise to be at only one of the 12 cam lobes on that side of the engine...but they just replaced both cams to be sure....they did the correct thing for customer service to make the problem go away in one trip back to the service department.

The problem is very random and is really not a "problem" per se...just that annoying noise. It isn't a sign that the engine is faulty or going to fail or anything. Just a resonance of the roller follower against the phosphated surface of the lobe...that doesn't really need to phosphated surface to function.

Thanks for your insight.

It started out not making noise when the car was cold then getting louder after 15-20 minutes.
Then it started making the noise when the car was cold and I decided to take it in.
It did get louder the longer i drove the car.

The other SRX they had in there actually had a groove/grooves in the camshaft lobe.