Yeah the problem with these engines was the head studs/bolts that held the heads to the engine block were too small and had weak threads, so they would fail and cause head gaskets to blow prematurely. Around 2005 or so GM fixed the issue, and there is a company that makes a kit to fix the older engines, but too little too late. These pre-2005 Cadillac's with 4.6 Northstars are worth maybe $2000, and to fix the engine studs is like a $4000 job.
This was a good car, we never had problems with it and drove it 304.000 KM in Germany. This was an enjoyable car. It made less trouble than the BMW we had later!
Drove my friends 2002 STS through the Rockies when I was in Canada in '07. The Northstar is a true masterpiece of a engine, the brakes however created quite a few 'code brown' moments!
+cowmilky Its not unreliable. It is a decent engine that is IMPOSSIBLE to work with prohibitively expensive parts. However, people buy them used for dirt cheap, change the fluids and drive them until they crap out. They rack up mileage but you need to be a real hobbyist to own one a GM from that era.
+Pedro Dorantes No its not! That is what makes Cadillac and Lincoln a nice variety over all the other same cars. FWD is excellent and is NOT a bad thing what so ever!
Lord Apophis I'm not crazy. Its a matter of personal taste. FWD is great. I have both FWD and RWD Cadillac's and I much prefer FWD Cadillac's like this Seville. They drive and handle excellent.
And it was Cadillac that first came out with that option back in 1959. Cadillac is still the world leader when it comes to automotive engineering. Cadillac all the way for me. I will always be driving an older Cadillac for the rest of my life. Thanks for your response!!
Although its been a few years i have a question? Would any of you happen to know what that knob to the left of the headlamp switch does when pulled out? Is that what your talking about?
The thing that makes Caddys popular all over the world is their bold American-ness. The Northstar V8 is utterly bonkers in design and packaging, but it delivers power in "big lazy yawns," as James May says. And it does transmit a powerful noise to the otherwise whisper-quiet cabin. Its big and plush, but understatedly elegant. And front wheel drive gives it a huge interior with a flat floor, plus rain and snow prowess. Don't underestimate the Caddy "thing." Owning one just makes a person feel special.
I've owned a '99 Seville STS and currently own a '03 Seville SLS and couldn't be happier. The 99 took me 150k without issues and just got the 03 with 56k.
I will agree with one thing, it seriously bugs me that all of these big cadillacs with the northstar v8 are front wheel drive. what the crap is up with that?
+AsTheSeasonsGray What is wrong with FWD??? FWD first came out in the 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado. It was car of the year and FWD is still very popular and wanted to this day. I'm glad these Cadillac's were FWD.
After losing the small-car market to FWD Japanese cars, clueless top management at GM proclaimed that ALL their new cars would be front wheel drive. That silly attitude took Cadillac completely out of the running in the luxury sedan market.
@@johntechwriter Nah. The majority of Cadillac buyers preferred FWD back in those days and they never stopped offering a RWD model. Back then it was the Catera.
@@TeeroyHammermill so you put a fwd in a big car and a rwd in a smaller opel derived Catera (not saying it is smaller than the Seville but smaller then big cadillacs) how smart is that? Does that even make any sense from the design and space using perspective? And to the buyer,what sense does it make? No wonder GM kept loosing market share year after year.
+David Topchiev Wow! The 90's was the era for 32 Valve DOHC V8 engines as every top luxury brand made one. They really are some impressive powerplants. I have one and love them!!
BEST car ever made from Cadillac!!!! and best looking car of the 90s!! Cadillac did a great job with the styling, options, and the powertrain. This is the car that won me over from lexus and the other imports. The seville is such a great car in so many ways and different from the others which is nice for a change.
David Topchiev I like the 92-97 Seville but I also love the 98-04 Seville. I have a 2000 sts and been driving it for over 10 years now. Best car I ever had. Also theres a ton of options in this car that I love and cannot fond on the newer cars. But i always loved the looks of these cars. Being boxy looking is not a bad thing at all. Cadillacs were always boxy and really look great with more squared off edges and looks.
The STS was a very nice car. Yes, it was flawed; it was a GM product, and that means bean counters battling designers and engineers, but it was still a very good car. Strong engine with smooth delivery, good ride quality, quiet interior, tasteful interior, and all of the latest electronic gadgets. FWD was a drawback for what it was trying to be, but honestly not a real issue for actual sports/luxury car buyers, whether they know it or not. Brakes and transmission were also not what they should have been. Clarkson is always entertaining though.
+Frank Burns I am Canadian and have driven american cars till 2000. planned obsolesence, chep products, poor quality, all crapcans. Purchased a toyota and still driving it , no leaks 480,000 mi. dosent burn oil, not rusted out, and you wonder why gm went broke?
+bob lanz the STS was a comfortable car with an awesome V8 engine...yeah it wasn't a masterpiece, but it wasn't bad. Most toyotas are indistinguishable from a refrigerator, so I couldn't care less how many miles they last...if you have a camry or corolla, you are basically telling me you hate driving.
+bob lanz Must be newer. I remember when Toyota's were notorious for oil leaks and the bodies would start to rust by the third years. Like my '88 Pick up did. The eighties were a terrible time for most makes but most Japanese cars were just throw-a-ways back then. I still work on cars and Toyota definitely stepped up their game but no more than every one else at this point in time.
i have four Cadillacs Seville, Deville, DHS, and Eldorado..The Northstar is a beast plenty of power..these cars can move and they sound great. they main problem with the Northstar engine is over heating due to the head bolts pulling out over time due to torque.but that problem was corrected eventually..But the are luxurious and gorgeous cars and look timeless lol it is true alot of people wont know what a Seville is mine has been mistaken for a Camry... A 300 HP Camry with a caddy reef
At the time, the Northstar V8 was lauded for it's performance and smoothness---little did they know it also had a penchant for devouring head gaskets and warping cylinder heads.
AMCNorthstar 93. An acquaintance I know bought one of the modern Cadillac's, front wheel drive job....burned more oil than an old clunker with no piston rings. The darned thing went through more than a quart of oil in several hundred miles. That put me right off them. The oil problem got so bad that she sold the car. The '61 Fleetwood Special was a great car. 390 with HydraMatic, if I remember right.
Richard Hammond had a north star engine in one of the latest grand tour episode..it blow up half way true 200 mile trip...lol..yeah Jeremy a great engine...
Did you hear about the solicitor who was upset about losing a client? The solicitor's foot slipped off of the bumper of the ambulance before he could get the victim's name.
My mom’s ‘93 STS went 100,000+ miles without mechanical incident or so much as a sputter or untoward flinch from the engine room. Now the TRANSMISSION, on the other hand . . . Yeah, that f******g thing packed up it’s shit & went out not long after that 100,000k milestone. Still a great looking car designed/styled/penned by the legendary (to the CAR-OBSESSED-GEEK in me, anyway...) Wayne Cherry ! #NorthstarSuccessStory #BaddyCaddy P.s. It it had been driven by the rear wheels...man, oh, man...how sweet they woulda/coulda/SHOULDA been...
As reliable as a Mercedes? Well, "Mercs" must run better in Europe than they do in North America, because they are as shitty as every other European car for reliability on this side of the pond. I think the decline began in the 1990's, the earlier ones had a much better reputation.
It's cos the boss at Mercedes though they were making losses for over-engineering their cars, so they started making them for about 10 quid each. They may be reliable, but good quality? Nope! They might be a bit better in Europe and here in the UK, but probably not much
I've got a 300 SD turbo diesel with 1.2 million miles, not km, miles on it...an 06 s430, 98k mi, absolutely flawless in every respect. I've bought my last new American car. piece of shit. the distract you from the shittyness of these new cars with a bunch of useless, cheap, unreliable, heavy gadgets. why the hell do I even want a Wi-Fi hotspot built into my car? or a power ass wiper or electric jerker off-er built into the seat?
fadingbeleifs "Useless, cheap, unreliable, heavy gadgets." That's a good description for what the Germans are pumping out these days. I remember watching a couple of preview videos for the new 7-series a few months ago and the first thing they talked about was how the car would park itself. I remember when BMW's were "The Ultimate Driving Machine," not the ultimate computer on wheels.
These were decent cars for what they were, but the biggest issue was with that 4.6 Northstar V8 Clarkson raved about. The problem with these engines was the head studs/bolts that held the heads to the engine block were too small and had weak threads, so they would fail and cause head gaskets to blow prematurely. If you watch the episode of the Grand Tour where Richard Hammond buys one of these, that's exactly what happened to his STS. Around 2005 or so GM fixed the issue, and there is a company that makes a kit to fix the older engines, but too little too late. These pre-2005 Cadillac's with 4.6 Northstars are worth maybe $2000, and to fix the engine studs is like a $4000 job.
every Brand has its problems look at the mercs. ... they still rust like hell, talking about faillure. and all brands suffer from repairs needed after a certain amount of Miles. Owned a volvo v70 t5r a brilliant car but also cost me loads of money to keep it healthy. now I drive a 99 seville sls Just for the fun of it and must say im not disapointed till now.
+Herke Van Der Veen - Benz don't rust like hell. If I remember right, some 90s Benz actually had a 25 year anti-rust warranty. They guarantee not to rust for 25 years...
Thats why my friend who has two cars with these engines had to have them completely rebuilt after about 60,000 miles. It was just an issue with these motors had nothing really to do with how you drive it the head gasket would simply fail
9 лет назад
Just found one for sale in the UK, '99 115,000 miles for £950 lol
Winston so what if most of the world does something that doesn’t make it right why wouldn’t we continue the same way we have for hundreds of years while on horses why wouldn’t we then continue it in cars if u lot want to be the same as 3rd world country’s crack on
So why does he like the Ford GT and the Corvette ZR1 then? And he once roadtested a Ford Mustang Convertible around 1997, and he didn't seem to hate it at all.
Owner one for six years and was the best winter car I have ever had. With northstar yes the gasket is the issue due that ppl dont change oil often enough. Still very good value for the money. Mr C NEVER likes any US made cars.
Caddys can be quite headaches though... maintenance headaches like Mercedes, Ferraris and Lamborghinis although not as expensive at all just get a regular nice car!
Britons will probably always think American cars are supremely inferior to anything on their side of the pond. I recall watching an episode of 5th Gear a few years ago where the host actually grabbed and ripped out the rear-view mirror and other parts of the interior, calling the Chrysler 300 inferior and complained about shoddy workmanship! They have an amazing amount of contempt for our cars. Always have and (unfortunately) probably always will.
i just laughed when he said its not as reliable as a lexus or mercedes. today in 2017 i still find some of these driving around here and there. i however have not seen a mercedes or lexus from the late 90's doing the same. except for the cheap lexuses based on the corolla model. but i still see more seville sts' and sedan devilles than lexus' or benzes.
The Northstar engine is a beast after 4000rpm another note the probable reason why the auto box was so sluggish was that it was new car and i had not yet got it's parameters or the previous driver had been quite gentle since it's an adaptive box with an algorithm computer that predicts drivers intentions I have the same auto box minus the computer in my 95 sts and it's also an adaptive box and when you drive aggressively it will shift and vice versa and it works
In defense to Caddy. It comes to what you want. If you want to blast down the highway at 150 and drift corners through the mountains you buy the M5. If you want to eat a corn dog cruising around town at 40 and have the comforts of the couch buy the Caddy namely the DTS truely the last of the slushy Cadillac's. I own the 1980 Datsun for when I want to carry on. Also a 1975 Fleetwood For cruising and entertainment.
i disagree with quentin, i think manufacturers and dealers should do more special editions to (as he said it), enrich our lives! it would be cool to spot a peugeot with silly edition names like "summer breeze ⛱️" or a fiat with "world cup ⚽" edition! i believe it would also increase said vehicles used price later on too so it would be a win for the owner!
If you hate Honda don't buy one. There are auto companies I dislike but I dont leave hater comments. You like a Mustang great, you like a Fiat great. Life goes on...
G9 Music I'm Polish and i would buy a Cadillac, if only it wasn't so uneconomical. Nowadays, fuel is too expensive. Of course, there are diesel versions, like in BLS, but it's not the same as a powerful V8.
+AMCNorthstar 93 I purchased it used from my father-in-law, it had about 40,000 miles on it at the time. It was a turd from the get go. The only good thing I could say about it was that the engine was fantastic, everything else was junk. Really soured me on GM.
buddywayne1 What was so bad about the rest of the car? I am looking to buy one myself. I have been inside and driven a few of them and I am quite impressed at the overall build quality and its structure. Many of the ones I have seen hold up very well. I see many of them with very high mileage and still run great.
+AMCNorthstar 93 Well, first of all, the rear struts went bad, at about $1200 that was expensive, the auto trunk closing mechanism quit, another couple of hundred. The passenger front seat reclining mechanism broke. We had to hold the seat up with a bucket till I could get that fixed. The sunroof leaked. I cant remember all of it, those things just stuck in my mind. Maybe I got one that was built on a Friday, I don't know. I just thought for being GM's flagship, it was a very poor example. I prefer Ford products. The Crown Vic and Marquis are excellent autos.
buddywayne1 Well yes a lot of those items you mentioned can also go bad on any car. Unfortunately its sounds like you went to the dealer to have it done and the dealer always overcharges for everything. I'm sorry to say but you got ripped off for paying that price on the rear suspension and trunk pull-down motor. As far as the seat breaking, I never heard of that before on any Cadillac or other GM sister car to the Seville. There is a simple solution to all these problems with makes them great cars. I also like the Ford cars very much. I am also a Lincoln man myself. I never owned a Lincoln yet but I know of a few people that do. Typically the Fords and Lincoln's have more problems with there suspension system and way more often than Cadillac. And the Fords do have many of the same things go wrong. But they are still well worth fixing and driving and doesn't mean they are a bad car either. Every car will have its issues but overall I find that the Lincoln's and Cadillac's are excellent cars and deserve to be on our roads over any foreign cars.
and they were reliable because it was old tech. not like in Mercedes or BMW were they always research for latest technology. The 940 was at least a 30-40 year old layout
uhh, look at one of the heads on a 4 valve ferrari v8. it is VERY similar to a honda ls vtec head, and correct me if i'm wrong but ferrari know a thing or two about making good v8's. Don't get me wrong i'm not defending honda's cars but when it comes to engines there really isn't much you can say about them. And i wouldn't call it a "hard enough" time making v6's, what other v6 that came out in the 90's that would produce almost 300hp, rev to 9k rpm, get 30 mpg and last 250k miles+
I just bought seville 4.6 DOHC 97 and the engine overheats, it was probably badly used by the previous owner, I have a problem now and I do not know whether to replace the pump, gasket under the head or the whole engine. could someone present help me? of course not for free. a movie with my caddy on my channel.
You dont know how these cars drive or handle.....im telling you they are excellent!! and i have been with all rwd cars before and the fwd is much better for stability and traction and is much safer on the road!
i havent had any major problems with my GMs i drive them hard because there fun.. so naturally theres some mechanical failure but its mostly due to my driving not desighn
The 4T80E is a very, very good transmission, responsive and dependable. I'd say its easily more enjoyable than the 5-speed used in the W210 Mercedes of the same year.
because people dont know how to drive my heads went and and i drove the car for years untill i finnaly wanted to be able to go over 60mph and decided to rebuild it
556johny556 the only thing that goes on them is the head gaskets and that’s on the older models 2001 and older. And oil leaks. From 2002-2004 I’ve never ever had a problem with my engine and I’ve owned 5 of these cars. Stop talking shit like they are sooo bad. They run very good when maintained.
@@90s_Nostalgiagames Head gasket failure on these engines means the car is totaled. The cost to fix head gaskets on these engines far exceeds the cars value. The issue these engines had since the 90's until 2002 was use of inadequate parts causing these failures (It has to do something with the bolt or something of the sort used in the head. I don't remember the exact details because I don't even want to be anywhere near those engines). You can maintain it all you want, a pre 2002 Northstar will blow up unless you perform an expensive preventative measure that replaces the faulty parts with the ones that won't blow up the engine. And that is simply not worth anyone's time or money
@@556johny556 I believe it was caused by the head bolts and studs not being strong enough, which allowed the heads to lift off the block and leaks to occur around the head gasket. I don't think it was the gaskets themselves that actually failed - it was much more expensive that just replacing the gaskets, because to actually cure the problem you had to drill out and re-tap the block and head to take larger/stronger studs and bolts... a very complex engine-out job that as you said, would often cost more than the car was worth. A pity, because it was a very smooth, powerful and refined engine.....when it was working! Later builds seemed to have corrected that design flaw and are very durable engines. You can buy stud kits to upgrade the earlier cars, but unless you are a competent DIY mechanic, those earlier (pre 2002) cars are a financial black hole.
Mr. Clarkson made the mistake of believing GM marketing hype. Big mistake. The Northstar could have been a good engine, but it was made by GM. Actually it never needed servicing, just replacing.
+CarLuvrSD The Northstar V8 was an excelletn engine and last a longtime of maintained properly!! They were only replaced to get more money out of the customer and GM as that happens on many cars.
In retrospect you can tell why the BBC axed this Top Gear and how Clarkson helped rework the show to bring it back in 2001. Clarkson segments are clear, direct and have some humour while the other segments are very dull and remind me of a terrible 1990s-2000s gardening and home improvement show.
I guess that all depends on whether you want to be entertained or informed. Clarkson is very good at the former, but pretty hopeless at the latter. The later series of Top Gear wasn't really a useful or objective source of information to the motoring public, but it drew in huge numbers of viewers because it was funny. Turns out most people would rather be laughing than learning.
I have owned STS for six years and it was a pleasure. Also the best winter car I have ever owned. With winter tires runs nicely on snow and ice and cold starts at - 18 ! Jeremy HAS never liked any US cars.
