1996 Cadillac Deville Engine cooling Problems

“My father purchased a 1996 sedan Deville brand new. He passed away in april 1998. My mother drove the car until this year. She gave me the car. The car has approx 17,000 miles. I just found out the car has a blown rear head gasket. I realize the car is 15 yrs old but I feel this should not have happened with such low mileage. The car was never abused and still smells new inside. Do I have any recourse with GM?”

“Front wheels passed through a puddle and water splashed into engine compartment while I attempted to make a turn. There was a complete loss of power steering and the turn could not be completed. The effect was momentary but scared me quite a bit. This has happened three times on different rainy days with the car.”

“Loss of engine coolant on my 1996 Cadillac Deville. Took car into dealer and they diagnosed blown head gaskets. Repair called for engine removal and cost approx. $3400. I have heard of a number of other GM northstar engines having this same type of failure. My car has been dealer maintained since new and with only 85,000 miles on this car and the number of other similar failures reported, I consider this a manufacturers design fault.”

“Very dangerous situation occurred while driving on city roads where posted speeds are 35-45 MPH. The car just started to speed up on its own and I could not get the engine to slow down. The only way I could avoid a traffic accident was to ride the brakes continuously. By the time I got home the brakes were smoking and extremely overheated. I almost could not stop with the engine racing and the brakes worn out. I had to shut the engine down while still in drive, almost running into the wall of my house. I am 70 years old and was very scared. …”

“My 1996 Cadillac Deville concourse has developed a defect whereas it will accelerate on it's own, shutting down the A/C for more horsepower while it does it. I have seen it accelerate through 80 MPH once. The condition goes away temporaily when the engine is shut off and recranked, returning at unpredictable intervals. My local Cadillac dealer refused to repair the problem, giving me a go away and never come back speech advising me strongly to junk the car (it's in almost perfect condition otherwise). …”