Help! Low Oil Level display

[Richiez]

I have a 2007 Cadillac XLR Base. With 43,052 miles.
It is needing a quart of oil added between oil changes.
It has been 1,311 miles and two months since the last oil change, 84% oil life remaining and now the “low oil level” is displayed.
I’ll have to add a quart.

Any suggestions/
Thanks

 

[onalaska]

If its not leaking it then it must be burning it. Northstars are famous for oil leaks, but probably not big enough to leak a quart that often.

I have a STS with about 130,000 miles and the same Northstar engine and it uses no oil between changes (usually 7-8,000 miles). The XLR is does not use any oil either and has about 75,000 miles. Unless it gets worse you will probably be better off just living with it rather than going to the expense to have the rings and/or valve guides and seals replaced.

 

[Richiez]

Low Level Oil Display

If its not leaking it then it must be burning it. Northstars are famous for oil leaks, but probably not big enough to leak a quart that often.

I have a STS with about 130,000 miles and the same Northstar engine and it uses no oil between changes (usually 7-8,000 miles). The XLR is does not use any oil either and has about 75,000 miles. Unless it gets worse you will probably be better off just living with it rather than going to the expense to have the rings and/or valve guides and seals replaced.

Thanks for your response onalaska.,
No oil leakage, I keep it in the garage and would notice that. No smoke from the exhaust either.

Maybe I drive it to rough.

Guess if it continues Ill just trade it in on something else. Love the car though.

 

[Richiez]

Low oil level display

If its not leaking it then it must be burning it. Northstars are famous for oil leaks, but probably not big enough to leak a quart that often.

I have a STS with about 130,000 miles and the same Northstar engine and it uses no oil between changes (usually 7-8,000 miles). The XLR is does not use any oil either and has about 75,000 miles. Unless it gets worse you will probably be better off just living with it rather than going to the expense to have the rings and/or valve guides and seals replaced.

One more thing I purchased this car with 16,000 miles it was pampered by an elderly lady.
Its hard to believe a car with 43K miles would need rings or valve seals/guides replaced.

 

[onalaska]

One more thing I purchased this car with 16,000 miles it was pampered by an elderly lady.
Its hard to believe a car with 43K miles would need rings or valve seals/guides replaced.

That does bring to mind something I have read about with the older northstars that did use a lot of oil due to being driven by grandpa or grandma in your case and the rings being stuck due to carbon buildup. You may want to run some techron through the gas and rev it up to redline on a regular basis. You won't hurt it if you keep oil in it. Just make sure you are somewhere that kind of driving can be done safely. Mine hits 6,500 on a regular basis and I have citations to prove it!

 

[Richiez]

Low oillevel

That does bring to mind something I have read about with the older northstars that did use a lot of oil due to being driven by grandpa or grandma in your case and the rings being stuck due to carbon buildup. You may want to run some techron through the gas and rev it up to redline on a regular basis. You won't hurt it if you keep oil in it. Just make sure you are somewhere that kind of driving can be done safely. Mine hits 6,500 on a regular basis and I have citations to prove it!

Thanks onalaska,

I think your on to something. This car was pampered, never pushed over 50. I push it now, accelerate
through the gears, shifting close to redline, but don't go much over 80.

 

[airmike]

On a different caddilac forum they had in the past a engineer from gm that stated to help on oil use, do the wot proceedure:

Get onto a local highway where you can increase your speed up to about 75 and where you can drop your speed to about 40 without causing an accident or getting a ticket

Make sure your coolant and oil levels are good

Put your gear selector in 2, your rpms will rise

Press your gas pedal about 3/4 of the way and accelerate till you hit your redline of about 5800. If you are like me, you will chicken out and stop accelerating at about 5000 rpm

The engine is in a low gear, so take your foot off the gas, and the tranny will haul the car down

Let the car show to about 40,

Do 10 cycles, I did this once a month or so,

There are a few things happening here, the high rpms exercises the rings, loosening the carbon in the rings and combustion chamber, the negative pressure created in the combustion chamber by the forced deceleration, blows the loosened carbon out the exhaust

 

[Richiez]

Low oil level

On a different caddilac forum they had in the past a engineer from gm that stated to help on oil use, do the wot proceedure:

Get onto a local highway where you can increase your speed up to about 75 and where you can drop your speed to about 40 without causing an accident or getting a ticket

Make sure your coolant and oil levels are good

Put your gear selector in 2, your rpms will rise

Press your gas pedal about 3/4 of the way and accelerate till you hit your redline of about 5800. If you are like me, you will chicken out and stop accelerating at about 5000 rpm

The engine is in a low gear, so take your foot off the gas, and the tranny will haul the car down

Let the car show to about 40,

Do 10 cycles, I did this once a month or so,

There are a few things happening here, the high rpms exercises the rings, loosening the carbon in the rings and combustion chamber, the negative pressure created in the combustion chamber by the forced deceleration, blows the loosened carbon out the exhaust

Thanks airmike, ill give it a try.

 

[V Happy]

Low oil level display

Carbon build up can be a problem in today's engines. I have had a few instances that carbon build up caused problems you wouldn't believe. Takes me back to my Grandmothers 59 olds. She got her drivers lic. when she was 65 so she truly was driving like grandma. I was not old enough to get a drivers lic. When she would had me'do some mechanical work on her car that never seen 40 mph around town. She usually took it to the old dealership to get it tuned up. I told her I could do a tune up. The first time I tuned it still ran like crap I loved to push hard on the petal way back then. In her car the first and second time I used super the car blew smoke like it was on fire. After that the car ran great. I remember she would say Sonny I don't know what you do to that car but you make it run so good !! I never told her I ran the snot out of it. The built up carbon would just pour out of it when I tuned it up!!
V Happy

 

[BusaMan]

Memories...

I remember WAY back when my folks borrowed my Grandma's pretty new '51 Pontiac for our vacation "out west" from Minnesota to Montana. My Grandma NEVER drove over 45mph, even on the highways. [One time, I rode with her from Grand Rapids to Coleraine on the 2-lane Hwy 169. Did I forget to tell you that she always took her "half" out of the middle, thereby making her impossible to pass??? Yep. Anyway, when we got to Coleraine (about 7 miles, or so) we must have had a hundred cars stacked up behind her.] But I digress. So, when my Dad started driving the car on our trip, it was so "loggy" that it couldn't even begin to pass anyone, and had a helluva time holding the speed limit. My Dad kept working it, though, and the black soot was pouring out of the back, like a mosquito abatement program. By the time we got to Aberdeen, SD the smoke had all disappeared and the car was fresh again. We just told Grandma that all the car needed was to be "broken in".

Later (much!) in life, I was a Suzuki/Kawasaki/Cannondale/Arctic Cat motorsports dealer selling high-performance motorcycles (along with many other products), and we would get customers come in griping about how their cruisers weren't as strong as when they bought them. After we treated the cylinders and gas with a decarbonizer, I personally would take their bikes out for what was referred to as an "Italian Tuneup"; i.e., gradually do what AirMike prescribed and end up alternatively accelerating hard and slowing down with engine braking. In the final stage of this procedure, I'd be taking it wide open from 2,000 RPM to where the rev' limiter would kick in. We sold overhead cam cruisers and sport bikes, and those machines really need to be exercised regularly. I would tell the cruiser riders to, "Stop riding this machine like your Grandma's Harley. At least once a month take it out to an empty highway (lots of them around Pueblo, CO.), put it in 2nd gear and see if your rev' limiter still works". The customers really liked how their bikes performed when they got them back.

Thanks for the memories.

Tim