Northstar Headgasket/Bolt Failure? Please let us know - Page 2

dwight.j.carter · #16 (**permalink**) 10-30-07, 02:06 PM

This should be stickied

BIG ERN · #17 (**permalink**) 10-30-07, 05:01 PM

I think i bought someone else's problem, bought it from a dealer real cheap 4 months later at 96k had a boneyard motor put in out of a 99 with 98K on the clock still running strong 18K later

misfit6794 · #18 (**permalink**) 10-30-07, 05:15 PM

Where's destroyer when you need him?

Eldo1953 · #19 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwight.j.carter

This should be stickied

**Playdrv4me** · #20 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 03:31 AM

Done.

Eldo, I changed title of the post to garner more responses from new members.

Urb, if you want to un-sticky this or simply move it to the actual Northstar Technical forum, please be my guest. For now, I'll leave it here.

jholland · #21 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 02:00 PM

Mine is a 97 @ 89,000. I bought it with the bad HG and fixed it. I had a 96 that started acting up at 145,000. Did a K&W job and it was holding fine for over 15,000 miles until a soccer mom broadsided me.

**Playdrv4me** · #22 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jholland

Mine is a 97 @ 89,000. I bought it with the bad HG and fixed it. I had a 96 that started acting up at 145,000. Did a K&W job and it was holding fine for over 15,000 miles until a soccer mom broadsided me.

What's a "K&W" job?

dwight.j.carter · #23 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 08:25 PM

So far it looks like my prediction is correct. The problem years being 97-99. Looks like it started to pan out in 99 except of course mine lol.

allccf · #24 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 09:02 PM

96 Eldorado 150,000

**Playdrv4me** · #25 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 09:03 PM

I know of one other member who definitely had an 02 with a HG failure at 40k miles. But it stands to reason the newer motors may just not be showing failure yet because they just arent quite as old. Remember the first coolant change interval isnt even due until 4 years from the in-service date of the car. It seems that the swath of years affected has steadily crept forward as the cars got older. First we saw it on 93-96s, then 97-99s etc, and now every so often, post 2000 motors are beginning to crop up here and there. I dont know of a single solitary report of an 04+ RWD configuration N* failing yet except the isolated case of the STS-V at 500 miles. Keep in mind however that the RWD N* has been significantly revised over the previous generation, not just for the drive gear, but the inner workings of the motor as well. One report published an 80% difference between the "old" Northstar, and the new one.

I am hoping this solves the problem once and for all. I am also hoping and wondering whether it is possible to somehow convert a RWD N* for FWD use.

Ur7x · #26 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 11:08 PM

Cool poll

And so far this poll is confirming something that I first observed about 3 years ago...

Still it makes me wonder
1) Is there something wrong with the 97/98 head gaskets
2) Is this just the amount of time it takes the head gaskets to fail with Dexcool issues
3) Are the older cars not worth fixing so the owners aren't here to "vote"...

All interesting stuff... Not sure you will ever see a RWD post about head gaskets... I would bet they are significantly easier to get to.

If they were like the head gaskets in my 1991 F150, I replaced those in my driveway in a week end with basic hand tools for $50... If North* head gaskets could be fixed for $50....or even $500 most people wouldn't mind (so much) the main issue is that you basically have to take the whole car apart to get to them...

Eldo1953 · #27 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ur7x

Cool poll

the main issue is that you basically have to take the whole car apart to get to them...

Exactly!

Eldo1953 · #28 (**permalink**) 11-05-07, 11:28 PM

What about the Northstar in the 2006+ DTS. Has that been revised? Do you think we will see the same problems with that model?

dwight.j.carter · #29 (**permalink**) 11-06-07, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eldo1953

What about the Northstar in the 2006+ DTS. Has that been revised? Do you think we will see the same problems with that model?

I would think it has been revised some. However it is still FWD so it probably has many of the same characteristics of our FWD cars.

**Playdrv4me** · #30 (**permalink**) 11-06-07, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ur7x

All interesting stuff... Not sure you will ever see a RWD post about head gaskets... I would bet they are significantly easier to get to.

If they were like the head gaskets in my 1991 F150, I replaced those in my driveway in a week end with basic hand tools for $50... If North* head gaskets could be fixed for $50....or even $500 most people wouldn't mind (so much) the main issue is that you basically have to take the whole car apart to get to them...

Excellent point.

I have asked only one other person that very question you just posed... "Is working on the RWD's substantially easier due to the longitudinal layout". The person I asked was one of our Cadillac techs "Stoneagecaddy" (and as typically happens in the internet world, Stoney's REAL name completely slipped my mind just now) when we had a Tampa meet last year.

His answer was that it was NOT much easier, only that it seemed to be of course much less common.

Except for that, I would tend to agree with you that it SHOULD be easier.