Expert: Rob Painter - 6/21/2010

Question
Hi

my car Cadillac Seville 94 , 4.6 later northstar , start to over heat. I changed the radiator, water, thermostat , block the heater radiator, but still have overheat problem.

when I turn on the engine, it is ok. while I start to drive, it starts to have overheat.

Also when I accelerate , the temp goes down, but when I have a normal driving, temp goes up.

I also change the cap.

my mechanic cannot understand the problem and he is thinking about the headgasket. but the oil is clean and the is no air in cooling system.

I am going to tell him to change the headgasket, is there any thing else that I have to check before change headgasket? because it is so expensive.

Thanks in advance

Answer
Hello,

In just 48 hours I have received three overheating questions after many components have been replaced in these Cadillac aluminum engines and the engine still overheats.

You need to realize that every time you replace a part and the engine still overheats, you just possibly damaged that component as well as others. These engines are notorious for overheating issues. Once overheating happens on these engines, you are slowly destroying the engine. If the temp gauge goes past ¾, damage is occurring.

Even if the radiator is flushed or replaced, thermostat and engine components are replaced, the fan function is not considered.

If white smoke is not coming out of the exhaust, the head(s) could be warped or cracked. The head gaskets could be blown, the block can be cracked and more.

Please don’t blame any technician for not repairing the problem instantly. It is not their fault. Cadillac is a wonderful car, but in my opinion, every engine they have made since 1981 is junk and is always prone to overheating and potential new engine replacement. A junkyard engine could be as bad as or worse than what you have already.

The symptom overheating can have a 100 different reasons. Say the water pump is found to be bad. It is replaced and the customer drives the car home. The next day customer drives car and it overheats (same symptom), but now the head gaskets are blown and maybe the water pump is bad again. The tech gets blamed for a comeback on the water pump when in fact; the customer did more damage (different damage) by overheating again.

I feel all Cadillac owners should find a class action attorney to sue Cadillac for this notorious problem that has spanned for 30 years costing the consumer thousands in repairs.

I will not be addressing Cadillac overheating any more. It costs too much of my time.

If GM is sued for this egregious problem, since it is government owned and the problem has been there for 30 years, I don’t know if anyone can collect.

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