Thinking about buying a Cadillac with the Northstar engine. Has the oil leak problem been solved. What year?

What years are safe to buy? I know it's a VERY expensive repair but I heard Cadillac addressed the problem on newer models.Thinking about buying a Cadillac with the Northstar engine. Has the oil leak problem been solved. What year?
Oil leaks were only an issue the first couple of years. By the time they were on all cadillacs (96) they solved those issues. Oil consumption can still be an issue that seems to depend alot on how the car is used. Typical things I hear are around a quart between changes. Not what you would expect from an expensive car. For the most part I have not heard that it gets any worse with mileage and most of us that drive 'old' cars are used to checking fluids and adding as needed so I dont see it as a problem.





The Northstar is a high tech, high performance, aluminum engine. Like all aluminum engines cooling system maintenance is is critical. Like all high tech engines they have lots of parts which makes them expensive. Like all high performance engines they dont do well with lots of short trips at lower speeds, they need to get 'opened up' from time to time. The worst possible case its the 'little old lady' that just drove to church (10 miles away at 30mph) every sunday. Those engines sometimes have serious problems that can not be fixed without taking it apart. Now if she drove it to visit her sister in Pasadena and put it to the floor a few times to get on the freeway no problem. Many of the Northstar cars the engine is fairly easy to remove because it drops out the bottom. A big mistake people make when the work on them is not to use the proper thread insert to repair the threads for things like head bolts, even if the threads look ok they still need to be replaced. Also many people dont identify the cause of the failure, just throw a new gasket in and call it good. The engine came out in 92? and was in all Cadillacs built except Escelade and Catara starting in 96. Thats a lot of cars in the last 12 years. Is it going to cost more than a camery? Heck ya but if you are even looking at cadillacs you must be interested in some confort and style and those things dont come for free.Thinking about buying a Cadillac with the Northstar engine. Has the oil leak problem been solved. What year?
Let's put it this way. caddy's are crap. I have an 06 with the Northstar engine %26amp; at 61,000 miles the head gasket went out. Towed it to dealership %26amp; they said there was water in the oil. Told me head was cracked. Quoted me $9,000 to repair!





My advise: STAY AWAY %26amp; save yourself the heartache.





PS: I bought a used engine had it put in from my mechanic %26amp; it cost me $2500 total. I sold the car a week later.
That is still a $4000+ engine to buy, so proceed at your own risk.