I'm not very good with cars, let alone this Cadillac. I'm a 20 year old college student who happened to be in need of a car when my grandfather wanted to sell one of his. With a deep discount on the price to sweeten the deal, I acquired this 1996 Cadillac Deville in the summer of 2011, with 58,000 miles on it.
Fast-forward 10k miles, and here I am now. I've had a persistant oil leak for the past few weeks and after a few trips back and forth to figure out what it could be, my mechanic (who I've been with since I bought the car and is someone that I feel pretty confident with) says that there is a lot of oil at the bottom area of the engine and he says that he thinks that it really couldn't be any other part other than the head gaskets.
I obviously know how big of a repair job this is, and my mechanic says that he's done these jobs before but they take at the very least 20 hours of labour to complete. I'm not in the position financially to pay for this to be done. To add insult to injury, the water pump needs to be replaced as it is giving up and the rack for the steering is slowly leaking.
My mechanic says that one thing that he can do that may or may not help anything is add some additives to the oil (?) to try and block up the leak in the head gasket. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I should do.
Is it worth spending the money on the waterpump and using these additives or should I just sell the car? I honestly cannot afford another car and I doubt I'll get much for this car despite the great condition it is otherwise (only has seen 1 winter, 68k miles, no rust, leather is in good condition, etc.) which is a shame but I guess a sign of the times.
Thanks for your help.
Fast-forward 10k miles, and here I am now. I've had a persistant oil leak for the past few weeks and after a few trips back and forth to figure out what it could be, my mechanic (who I've been with since I bought the car and is someone that I feel pretty confident with) says that there is a lot of oil at the bottom area of the engine and he says that he thinks that it really couldn't be any other part other than the head gaskets.
I obviously know how big of a repair job this is, and my mechanic says that he's done these jobs before but they take at the very least 20 hours of labour to complete. I'm not in the position financially to pay for this to be done. To add insult to injury, the water pump needs to be replaced as it is giving up and the rack for the steering is slowly leaking.
My mechanic says that one thing that he can do that may or may not help anything is add some additives to the oil (?) to try and block up the leak in the head gasket. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I should do.
Is it worth spending the money on the waterpump and using these additives or should I just sell the car? I honestly cannot afford another car and I doubt I'll get much for this car despite the great condition it is otherwise (only has seen 1 winter, 68k miles, no rust, leather is in good condition, etc.) which is a shame but I guess a sign of the times.
Thanks for your help.