Notice Might be the end of the line for me....

No probably about it, it definitely is the best 1994 Cadillac in town. In fact, I have to admit, I'm jealous.

 

Very nice! I personally am not into the whole bling thing, but I think it's nice enough how it stands. I'll have to take some pictures of mine when I get it tomorrow and post them here.

If there is anything I would do to mine, it's fix the rear bumper (it's a bit banged up), and either rebuild or replace the motor with a new Northstar, which are still being sold. It has brand new fuel injectors, so the engine is fine as it is and very smooth. But I still wouldn't mind tearing it down to the bones and replacing things as needed. It's got 121K miles on it after all.

I would also have the stereo updated. It works, but it's the original tape deck from 1997. I would like an updated unit that I can plug my phone into and play my music.

Other than that, it's in very good shape. The vinyl leather roof was installed by a professional upholstery shop a few years ago, along with the gold and silver rivets that hold it in place. It looks beautiful....waaayyy better than the original fabric cloth roof that it replaced. It was also just in the shop, has a new battery, and updated circuitry/computer. All desperately needed.

There's nothing like a giant American sedan to make you feel secure on the road.

 

Oh, and the antennae needs to be replaced. It's bent and won't go down.

 

Vandals?

 

I doubt it. This car has been loaned out to a couple of people since my parents got it; one a family friend, and the other being the grandparents of my nephew. No doubt one of those dumbasses broke it.

 

The main things I'd do is change the spark plugs and the gaskets. Then I'd consider replacing the water pump. I'll presume you've replaced all the fluids and the filters.
Another consideration is are all the lights working? All the brake, parking, instrument panel, license plate, interior and turn signal lights?
When you say roof, do you mean headliner?

 

I never loan out my car. NEVER. When I was younger, I taught my young brother-in-law how to drive a stick shift. He wrecked my gear shift linkage and had to replace the whole works.

 

Yeah, all the lights are working. It had some major problems with the circuitry, but I'm hoping that was fixed back in late December when it went to the shop. Mom drove it yesterday, and she told me it runs great.

In as far as the roof, no....I mean the entire outside covering and the fabric layer beneath it (at least, I assume there was a fabric layer beneath the cloth to protect the metal of the roof), which was rotting. It had a cloth top (I think it's called a "soft top"), which has since been replaced with a leather vinyl top. I'll show you pictures of what I mean tomorrow.

Well, it wasn't mine, so I didn't really have a say so in the matter, lol. And believe me, I don't share my mother's same level of permissiveness when it comes to letting people borrow cars. But they've had, at one time, 5 cars, so they had the luxury of letting a couple of people borrow them when necessary, including me.

Now they just have two Mercedes (2015 CLS550 and 2001 SLK320) and a Ford Escape (my mother's everyday/work car). But they used to have this Cadillac, a Mitsubishi 3000GT (which my father traded in for an Aston Martin V8 Vantage early in 2018), a Ford Windstar (long gone), the Escape, the Kia (which I drove), and a Mercedes SLK320.

The CLS 550 is my father's baby, and he'll NEVER loan that out. The SLK is likewise his baby (it's my mother's car), because it belonged to his late friend's now-passed mother, so it has a very personal connection for him.

That now just leaves the Escape, which has about 200,000 miles on it, as their "loaner" car if they absolutely need to loan it out. But it's absolutely full of my mother's work stuff, so it's not really practical to that end.

 

Ever since James Bond came out I've drooled over an Aston Martin. You father should guard that like a hawk.
The only roof covering I've heard of for a sedan is vinyl. Anything else is new to me.
They do have a fabric cover or soft top for certain vehicles like Jeeps and off road types, maybe even certain convertibles. Otherwise, I'm totally unaware of any sort of fabric on the roof.

 

Have you flushed the coolant ever?

I change mine every two years, same with trans/brake/steering fluid and such.

 

I don't wanna live to 400.

 

Well. I was so interested in getting one of these cadillacs that I went on craigslist and found a nice one for three grand.

https://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/d/rancho-cucamonga-1998-cadillac-sts/6821167877.html

Then I looked into what I remember being head gasket issues and apparently it is the head bolts that fail.

I'd be selling one of those if I had it. Ticking time bomb.

 

How do head bolts fail unless you over tighten them?

 

When they are made too short with threads that are too fine causing them to pull out of the block causing the head gaskets to fail.

I thought it was the dexcool eating head gaskets but I haven't looked into this for years. Seems they've figured out the problems.

 

The problem with Dex Cool appears to have been with the head gasket and the water pump. It was a combination of the materials that were used that were in contact with the Dex Cool. Once they switched to another type of gasket material and aluminum blocks and I suppose some other changes to water pumps, all problems went away.

The failure of the bolts appears to be that the same bolts were re-used after replacing a gasket. New bolts fixed the problem.
http://ricksfreeautorepairadvice.com/is-dexcool-bad/

 

I hear yeah!
I like Suburbans for that feel.
But,,, I fear I have had my last one. Too damn many control buttons and switches in those things anymore. In my last one, I found my ass damn near on fire.
The seat heater was stuck on high, switch and thermostats not working. Couldn't drive the damn thing that way! I had to find the fuse to disable it, so I could get on down the road.

Then another time, I was picking my daughter and grandson up at the airport. One of them was getting in the passenger side rear door when the seat there snapped into a roll up position and I could not figure out how to get that damn thing undone. Of course the Chevy dealer shop fixed all this shit, but I was done.

 

Not what we're talking about. I thought that was what it was too which is why I asked about flushing the coolant. Your link mentioned the gasket material being incompatible with the coolant.

This is about the Northstar engines and head gasket failures. Which from reading about it is caused by inadequate head bolts. The pre 2000 engines are the worst and the 2004 and up are the best.

I was just reading a forum and a GM tech had what sounded like great advice. Buy the nicest car you can find with blown head gaskets and switch to ARP studs and machine the heads if you have to and the engine will last 500 thousand miles.

Hearing him describe the warranty repairs they did during the car's run sounds like a total hack job. They'd drill out the holes and install thread inserts that would maybe last until the car was out of warranty. And people wonder why American Manufacturers get such a bad rep.

 

Back about 1970 Gm made some soft cast blocks that would not hold the head bolts. Same problem.

 

I know, I was talking about multiple problems and not just the one you presented. I mean, let's avoid boring.