Why am I losing coolant in a 1998 Cadillac Seville?

Answer 1

I have a 97 Seville SLS. I bought the car with 30,000 miles in 2005 from a dealer for $10 grand. No problems for the first year. Now in June 2008, a number of age-related problems are beginning to appear. I think I have escaped the bad head gasket lootery, though. Coolant problems in this car can be related to a number of things. One, and the worst case scenario, is the notorious head gasket problem associated with the northstar engine. You have this, you're pretty much done with the ten-year old car, in my opinion. Two, it can be simply a bad radiator or overflow resevoir, and the hoses, including heater hoses associated with this. All are subject to dry rot, cracking, etc. Especially the neck of the overflow resevoir. I had everything replaced here eventually over a year's time in 2007. The radiator and the overflow R&R cost about $500. The subsequent replacement of the 4 "heater hoses" finally clinched the deal, and solved the remaining leak issues, that cost about $150. By the way ,,, you can live with a slow freon leak for ages, rather than replace anything having to do with the a/c.