Anyone familiar with them? Wish they had been made with a manual instead of an automatic...
Anyone familiar with them? Wish they had been made with a manual instead of an automatic...
My dad leased a 2007 for 3 years it was awesome but he needed to buy a newer diesel truck to pull his boat so he couldn’t keep it but it was very nice and fast with 469 hp. The 2006 only have a 5 speed automatic the 2007 and later have the 6 speed auto. For any that might not know they have a hand built 4.4 liter supercharged northstar. They went down to 4.4 liters from 4.6 for additional strength.
my dad had an STS- V8 before he made the convert to lexus. the thing was pretty quick, and handled nicely. factory LSD in it even. his trans did start slipping at around 80-90k, which is why it got traded in.
Cool but north star vs ls...
Didn't they have some really expensive one off parts? Also, a big ole barge with a manual trans seems idk wrong lol.
Something about a Northstar with a blower makes me happy. It was a cool engine, but got an (IMO) unfair bad rap. Early ones had head bolt issues, etc. and they were kinda high strung and carboned up and had issues when put in grandpa cars. So the N* never really got to live up to its potential.
I’ve avoided cars with the Northstar because of GRM. Is it not as bad as all that?
yupididit said:Also, a big ole barge with a manual trans seems i̶d̶k̶ ̶w̶r̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶l̶o̶l̶.̶ ̶ like the best idea ever.
FTFY
No experience from the inside, but I always thought the new Cadillac style looked better on the STS than on the CTS – something about the proportions in the larger size just works. And the Vs do it best: one went past me one night at high warp and looked just as cool as berk.
I think the interior is the letdown aspect of the car, but much less so than a 1g CTS at least, and only if you compare it to other luxury cars of the time. I think they're attractive on the outside and I wouldn't hesitate to own one if it were available for the right price. Ive driven the base v6 STS and liked it.
ebonyandivory said:I’ve avoided cars with the Northstar because of GRM. Is it not as bad as all that?
I've always heard it was a love-hate relationship. Great engines, packaged like it was designed by an Italian engineer on LSD. Starter motor underneath the intake. I don't know if that was true for all of them or not.
Played tag with an STS-V a few weeks ago. They're thin on the ground, pretty much anywhere. I agree, it had nicer proportions than the CTS-V, although I wouldn't decline owning either a V1 or V2.
We gave each-other the once-over with a nod of approval. There's a distinct shortage of fun RWD sedans these days. But then he hammered down and disappeared. No sense trying to catch up with someone having 100 more whp.
IIRC I believe 2006-2009 are years to have. The LC3 4.4L Supercharged motor got better head gaskets and the smaller bore strengthened the block. It also had variable valve timing.
469 horsepower is still a lot of power for today’s standards. I miss the days of Bob Lutz pushing his weight around the General.
One of my friends worked for GM and had one as his company car for a few months. I got to drive it, and it was impressive for what it was. I'm not sure if it's accurate, but I've always seen folks recommend against owning a Northstar. Not sure if this version is any different.
You can get a V1 CTS-V for the same coin.
Not too much to add here except I just saw the MSRP when new: $77k!!!
mtn said:ebonyandivory said:I’ve avoided cars with the Northstar because of GRM. Is it not as bad as all that?
I've always heard it was a love-hate relationship. Great engines, packaged like it was designed by an Italian engineer on LSD. Starter motor underneath the intake. I don't know if that was true for all of them or not.
As a long term Northstar owner I have yet to hate the engine. My family has driven Northstar powered cars almost exclusively for more than 15 years. We've yet to be bitten (knock on wood). If you do your own work, it's been hard to beat N* powered cars in the bang for your buck (comfort/power/options/$$) based on the bad rap they got in the late 90s. I'm always under $.05/mile not including gas to drive something that stickered at >$50k. This was back when you had to spend 7-8K to get a nice 100K mile example, the last one we bought was $3K with 80K miles on it and we've already driven it 50K+ miles with nothing but coolant/oil/brakes/battery. This assumes you don't buy someone else's problem.
If the 4th gen Seville STS (98-03) was rear wheel drive I'm not sure I'd have much reason to own a different car as a DD. Now that the RWD STSs (05+) are starting to get so cheap I'll probably get one for SWMBOs next nice car, looking to do a fly and drive from a less rusty state in another month or two but the V8 non-AWD cars are harder to find so it depends what I can find.
Based on anecdotal evidence, the early (93/94-97) N* engines had the majority of the headbolt issues. There were some porosity issues with the blocks on the early engines that they sorted out before the generation change in 98. The 00+ engines got roller rockers and coil on plug. There were headbolt changes in 01/02 and again in 03/04 to go to a larger diameter corse thread and then to increase the engagement length of the bolt. I think alot of the headbolt issues are due to porosity as well as the corrosive nature of old DEX and people thinking it's a lifetime coolant. I've taken N* engines to ~275k miles with nothing more than oil/coolant/plugs. That engine still rips, but the body is too rusty for my comfort.
Yes the starter is under the intake on the FWD cars, but I've never had one fail on me. I had to do one on one of my sisters cars, it actually turned out to be a chewed wire with a cooked mouse attached, but the job wasn't terrible. It certainly isn't as quick as a starter on a SBC but it's not difficult. I'd rather do a starter than the rear plugs on one, you have to either partially drop the subframe or remove the front motor mount and oil filter adaptor and rotate the engine forward to have a remote chance of getting to them.
None of this is really relevant to this conversation as the 05+ Northstar for the RWD cars was a ground up redesign. I still can't believe GM continued with the name after all the bad publicity, but then again it's GM.
I don't think the STS-Vs have many V specific parts, mostly just engine/drivetrain. The XLR is the car with the 2-5K tail lights. I will likely own an XLR someday, mostly because SWMBO loves them, but that'll be the first car I buy knowing I'll be selling it relatively soon afterwards.
1UZ has the starter under the intake manifold. People swear by LS400's without doubt lol.
yupididit said:1UZ has the starter under the intake manifold. People swear by LS400's without doubt lol.
Yeah but Denso Starter > Delco Starter when it comes to longevity.
In reply to Dead_Sled :
The later STS-V had a mesh grille, different front bumper and a lip spoiler on the deck lid.
SyntheticBlinkerFluid said:yupididit said:1UZ has the starter under the intake manifold. People swear by LS400's without doubt lol.
Yeah but Denso Starter > Delco Starter when it comes to longevity.
Imma let you in on a little secret. They all buy components from various suppliers. Back in the day, Lexus was probably using something Japanese, but by the 2000s, that Caddy is as likely to have a Denso, a Delphi, a Visteon, Bosch, or anything else. And so is the Lexus.
Tom_Spangler said:SyntheticBlinkerFluid said:yupididit said:1UZ has the starter under the intake manifold. People swear by LS400's without doubt lol.
Yeah but Denso Starter > Delco Starter when it comes to longevity.
Imma let you in on a little secret. They all buy components from various suppliers. Back in the day, Lexus was probably using something Japanese, but by the 2000s, that Caddy is as likely to have a Denso, a Delphi, a Visteon, Bosch, or anything else. And so is the Lexus.
Well, I can understand that, but he said 1UZ. So that would be pre-2000, which was most likely using a Denso unit and Cadillac was probably using a Delco unit.
I almost bored y'all with my current trials$tribulations on my V2 ...I'm in love with a new drug...this beeatch (ECM)has drug me thru the four differentials....two superchargers....and a new LSA courtesy of GM corporate before warranty expiration....and i have no intentions of letting it go...where can one have a Corvette skinned in a Caddy pan and not look back and say.....oh hell yeah????
SyntheticBlinkerFluid said:In reply to Dead_Sled :
The later STS-V had a mesh grille, different front bumper and a lip spoiler on the deck lid.
Different rear bumper and hood as well compared to the regular STS.
STM317 said:SyntheticBlinkerFluid said:In reply to Dead_Sled :
The later STS-V had a mesh grille, different front bumper and a lip spoiler on the deck lid.
Different rear bumper and hood as well compared to the regular STS.
You guys are right, I guess I was thinking about body panels that are unique to the V that couldn't be swapped with a non-V STS, kinda like the Saab variants of other cars with unique body panels. I'm pretty sure you could swap everything except the hood with a base model STS.
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