2014 Cadillac ATS Luxury 2.0T AWD - Mostmint #46

[MostMint]

Apparently its time to replace the Corolla with something that has a little more zip.

https://www.primeautosalesllc.com/detai ... /102223515

This car has a couple dings but its clean rust wise. It has 117k, brakes look new and are very responsive, and suspension is firm. I took a grand off the asking price since the differential needs rebuilt. It sounds like a bad wheel bearing but as various YouTube videos attest it is the differential - the breather gets plugged and the expanding/contracting cycle of the fluid eventually pushes all the fluid out of the diff.

It needs some other odds and ends but it seems like a good starting point for $6500.

the 2.0 makes 272 hp and the AWD weighs 3542 lbs
20/29 EPA est mileage

[TireSmoker]

I like it! I think that engine is the same basic architecture as my Cobalt was. I think you got a great deal. Huge upgrade over the Corolla.

[MostMint]

Hopefully I'll have it in racing condition for the opening Wednesday at KMP. And I kinda want to run it on the dirt dragstrip as well.

The Corolla has needed like nothing other than tires, air filter and oil/filter since I got it. That part will be missed. To be fair it did need some work when I first acquired it

[GMJohnny]

I like the upgrade. The running gear is very similar to my 2016 Regal. Tons of front
tire burning torque there!

GM

[Basement Paul]

This one is RWD based, unlike your Regal. So the motor sits in there the correct way and not sideways. This one won't be frying the tires and should be a successful dirt racer as well. Hopefully it's just a tick slower than the Vette in the dirt.

-BP

[AKROVER]

Yeah, 2.0 turbo sedan.

[MostMint]

Few updates:

1) Differential

3.27 gear
can buy a kit to replace the bearings and seals for as low as $70
can buy a new diff (Chinese I gather) for under $600
I found an ATS at local pull a part and it still has the diff in it. The car is wrecked in the front and the diff shows no sign of leaking.
The halfshafts and driveshaft all bolt to the diff so you can remove it without removing the halfshafts or even the tires

2) engine
is leaking oil - it appears to be the valve cover - still some work to diagnose

3) left rear is toed out
best guess is it had a minor incident in the LR and damaged a toe link. you can see a little damage on the quarter panel

4) tires and wheels
the tires I planned to replace, but it has 1 generic brand and three Continentals. They all have different manufacture dates.
225/45/R17
wheels seem to be pretty common so a used set of stock wheels can probably be had for about $200. Thinking I'll need a second set for snow tires

[MostMint]

Had to learn how to jack up this car to pull the diff.

Differential is out - literally just unbolt the halfshafts and six bolts. I wasted some time because the rubber u-joint had metal sleeves that were slightly pressed in and I didn't understand this. After reviewing some videos I applied a few hammer taps and they came out. The thing is coated with fluid - kinda disappointed I didn't see when I was inspecting this car to buy it though the sounds on test drive saved me. It's just not a problem I was expecting on a Cadillac built in this century.

Cam cover is off. Online research tells me that somewhere around 100k they start leaking. Mine is leaking pretty much all the way around the top but it really looks like the worst offender is the vacuum pump gasket. The hardest part of this job is reaching the bolts that hold the vacuum pump which is driven off the exhaust cam since the bolts face the firewall. Another oddity is the cooling line that runs over the cam cover and connect with the block through a hole in the cam cover. Had to drain some water out of the block so that wouldn't flow into the crankcase. Signs of a 10 year old car were prevalent: The gasket on the exhaust side got real crisp, under the hood I found some of the vacuum lines have already been replaced, and the suspect Y fitting in the cooling system has already be replaced, plastic tubes on the engine for PCV are very brittle so there is some work there, and a heat shield/sound deadener at the back of the engine is missing. Cam cover gaskets are on order.

I pulled the plugs out. They are a bit black but this is likely due to the last half dozen times I moved it in and out of the garage without warming it up at all. They were AC 41-125 iridium plugs. The car is a bit sluggish when you first engage the throttle. On the assumption these are the original plugs I ordered another set.

The rear tires had way too much negative camber and the LR was toed out quite a bit. I looked under there and played with the adjustments a bit - however one of the offset washers for the lower control arm on driver side was stripped so it wasn't moving with the bolt. I'll grab one from the car at pull a part. When the car is back on the ground I'll get to taking measurements and fine tuning it. This car has the same basic 5 link suspension configuration as the Challenger.

New tires are on order. I was debating what combo of tires to get (summer/winter/racing) until I came across Michelin X-Ice tires for over half off at Tire Rack. If I'm doing dirt drags I can't see how snow tires can hurt, and with AWD I'm going to try them on the paved drag strip also. They are new old stock and I only drive like 5k miles per year. In time maybe I'll get another set of rims and summer tires.

So far I've only found a couple things in this car from prior owners - here's one of them.

Before all this I ran it on a warm day and tried the AC which seems to be working well.
I've also learned that these come with a fold down rear seat though mine does not have that option.
I'm about halfway through the owners manual - there are a lot of bells and whistles on this car.
These direct injected Ecotecs can have problems with build up on the intake valves around 100k also so that's probably going to need an evaluation at some point.

[MostMint]

Acquiring parts:

* Went to pull a part to fetch the differential. Also secured a wheel center cap, exhaust tips, special washers for the rear suspension camber adjustment, and three the door handle trim pieces. The rear bolt was gorilla tight I had to use leg power on the pipe extension on the ratchet to get it free. Otherwise it was a fairly straightforward procedure.

* Went shopping for tires online and found Michelin X-Ice snow tires clearance priced for about $90 a piece. At this price I'll start with these - should help racing on dirt drags and will try them on the pavement also.
* Ordered a breather for the differential and obtained some plumbing to support it. Took some doing but I found a breather for a go kart engine that should do the job nicely.
* Acquired spark plugs
* Acquired new windshield washer bottle cap. Tried to locate this in the junkyard. There were at least six cars there with the same size opening but none of them had that cap. Almost all the other GM cars with the larger opening still had the cap.
* Cam cover gaskets are on order.
* Found a 13k page factory service manual online

Other:

* Cleaned up the differential and installed it in the car. Still need to connect the halfshafts to the diff.
* Cleaned up the cam cover and all the bolts. The main gasket surface is clean and prepped. This cover has one seal and many small gaskets - I will remove these when replacements are here so I put the new on in the same configuration as outgoing
* Saw a video on ATS where the guy was having problems with a vibration which dealer said was bent wheels. I was skeptical I had this problem but for good measure I checked. Sure enough all the wheels had small bends in the inside bead. Two of them had curb rash and were bent in slightly. Variances I'd guess are 1/8" ish maybe a little more.

Up on jackstands and work in progress

The car has factory Brembo brakes!

The door handle trim pieces - before and after

[MostMint]

Differential install is complete
* differential breather is in place. I ordered one for a 5/16" fitting but it ended up 3/8". Quickly overcame that with a change of attachments.
* turns out the bolts holding the halfshafts to the diff are one-time use torque to yield. I torqued them to 55 ft/lbs and will monitor them

* decided to check the magnetic plugs in the diff. both had fine metal on them. fluid level was good and looked good.

Other
* tires are mounted, balanced and on the car
* installed the good offset washer and took some big swings at adjusting the rear toe and camber. It's a lot better but still need a good 4 wheel alignment for the last bit. I need to be able to move the car to get the suspension to settle after adjustments and it's not running. Also IDK yet how to easily get this car in neutral without starting it which I'm not doing with the engine apart

* I've gone as far as I can with the cam cover - some of the gaskets still are not here yet. I took time to replace the brittle plastic tubing in the PCV system
* The cam cover has been off this car before. Some of the pieces in back for insulation and holding on the engine cover are missing. I also notice oil leaking where the lines connect to two of the PCV valves. These observations make me wonder if there is a problem with the PCV system not operating properly. I understand how the air is supposed to flow, and some things to check in the system to make sure its working.

[Basement Paul]

Here's the neutral problem.

https://youtu.be/dKHTVsP13c4?si=sgB8RaqwxLQ14zdW

Quick and easy.

-BP

[MostMint]

Had some drama obtaining the proper cam cover gaskets.

If you need to buy GM parts I would suggest avoiding GMpartsgiant.com. No one sells all the gaskets you need in a kit. Aftermarket kits all seem to be missing the seal for the vacuum pump. Looking at the pieces it seemed like the prices piecemeal for GM parts was not that much more so I figured out what I needed and ordered a la carte from GMpartsgiant. They divide the order into two parts - the first part they ship right away and 5 days later its here. The next part requires me to confirm that they are special ordering and these parts cannot be returned. I'm like fine just send them. This is like 4/16. I get an estimate of delivery between 4/18-4/24. On 4/24 the parts are not shipped yet so I contact them to see if I can cancel. They don't have the parts yet so I might have a chance. They said no. Well I signed off saying no returns were OK but they are not on the hook to deliver in a specific time. As of this writing the parts are not shipped yet.

I decided to get an aftermarket kit - Autozone had a Mahle kit that had all but the vacuum pump seal, but that had arrived fortunately. It was not in stock so I ordered it online on 4/24. Mistake. Order confirmation said they would send me an email when the parts were shipped. Near the end of business day I called the local Autozone and told them I needed the same kit, which they would have delivered by the morning. 10 minutes later the Fedex guy delivered the first kit I ordered from Autozone. Still waiting for the email on that one.

So the gaskets were installed in about 2 hrs. There is some RTV to be applied in a few spots I'm waiting for that to cure to drive it.

In the meantime I synced my phone to the car. Unfortunately while the car can do calls through bluetooth it will not allow me to stream music from the phone through bluetooth. I have to connect to a USB port in the center console. My Corolla which was much cheaper new can do this.

Anyway test drive tomorrow!