2000 Cadillac Seville Sls Sedan 4-door 4.6l Clean California Title on 2040-cars

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GM recalls 3.8 million vehicles in North America due to braking issue

WASHINGTON — General Motors Co said Wednesday it was recalling 3.46 million U.S. pickup trucks and SUVs to address a vacuum pump issue that could make braking more difficult and that has been linked to 113 accidents and 13 injuries. The recall covers 2014-2018 model year vehicles, including some Cadillac Escalade, Chevrolet Silverado, Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Sierra, Chevrolet Suburban and GMC Yukon vehicles. In late June, GM recalled 310,000 vehicles in Canada for the same issue. GM did not immediately explain why the Canadian recall occurred more than two months before it called back the vehicles in the United States. The recall was triggered because the amount of vacuum created by the vacuum pump may decrease over time, GM told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in documents posted on Wednesday. The NHTSA opened a preliminary investigation into the issue last November, and said it had reports of nine related crashes and two injuries. It provided GM in July with additional field reports that prompted the automaker to open an investigation. GM said it could affect braking in "rare circumstances." The NHTSA said in a statement the "vehicles may experience brake boost failure, which would require increased brake pedal effort, leading to a hard brake pedal feel, and potentially increased stopping distance." GM said dealers will reprogram the electronic brake control module to improve how the system utilizes the hydraulic brake boost assist function when vacuum assist is depleted. GM said the vacuum assist pump, which is lubricated with engine oil that flows into the pump through a filter screen, can in some cases lose effectiveness over time, as debris such as oil sludge can accumulate on the filter screen. GM told NHTSA that prior model years used a different brake assist system design, and vehicles manufactured after 2018 were not equipped with the affected pump design. Separately, GM said on Wednesday it is recalling 270,000 additional U.S. vehicles in three smaller recalls, including 177,000 2018 Chevrolet Malibu cars with 1.5L turbo engines because an error in the engine control module software may result in the fuel injectors being disabled.

Junkyard Gem: 1981 Cadillac Eldorado with V8-6-4 engine

Skyrocketing fuel prices caused by geopolitical events in 1973 and 1979 led to gas lines, federal fuel economy requirements, and an increasing reluctance on the part of American car shoppers to buy big, thirsty Detroit luxury machines. General Motors had pulled off some amazing technological feats in the past — the small-block Chevrolet V8 engine and Hydramatic transmission being two extraordinarily successful ones — and so Cadillac's bosses figured that a combination of computer wizardry and clever mechanical engineering would give the 368-cubic-inch Cadillac V8 a cylinder-deactivation system and resulting superior fuel economy. Here's a very rare example of one of those 1981 Cadillacs, found in a California self-service wrecking yard. The idea behind the V8-6-4 was that computer-controlled solenoids would physically disengage the rocker arms for one or two cylinders on each engine bank under low-load conditions, converting the engine from a 368-cube V8 to a 276ci V6 or 184ci V4 (that's 6.0, 4.5 or 3.0 liters, respectively, for the metric-system aficionados among us). This sort of variable-displacement magic is commonplace today, but it was science-fiction stuff in 1981. An "MPG Sentinel" display on the dash would let the driver know how many cylinders were active at the moment, and the car would get Chevy Citation fuel economy with Cadillac luxury. The V8-6-4 was the standard engine in all 1981 Cadillacs (except for the Seville, which had the troubled Oldsmobile diesel engine as the base powerplant and the V8-6-4 as an option). Unfortunately, the V8-6-4 worked about as well as the Oldsmobile diesel: very poorly. Within a few years, most owners of these engines had disconnected the rocker-deactivation solenoids and just drove their cars as regular full-time V8s. This one has the snazzy "Cabriolet Roof Treatment" option, which boasted "textured elk grain" vinyl and could be had in one of 17 available colors. Front-wheel drive gave the early-1980s Eldorado plenty of interior space, despite its more proletarian Olds Toronado origins, and these velour-covered seats made for very comfortable road trips. The price tag started at $17,550, or about $51,650 in 2019 dollars. The 1981 Imperial went for $18,311, and that car was based on the same platform as the lowly Plymouth Volare. Meanwhile, A BMW 733i cost $28,945 and a new Toyota Cressida a mere $11,599. The 1981 Cadillacs were just a little too much ahead of their time, it turned out.

Lansing builds its millionth Cadillac

Cadillacs are built at plants across North America. The Escalade is assembled in Texas, the SRX in Mexico and the XTS in Ontario. But the bulk of Cadillac's lineup - or the smaller members of the family, at least - are built in Michigan. And while the upcoming ELR will be built alongside the Chevy Volt at the Detroit/Hamtramck facility (which incidentally opened with the Cadillac Eldorado back in '86), the majority of those Cadillacs built in Michigan are handled by the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant.
In fact, Lansing Grand River just celebrated its millionth Cadillac built. The landmark millionth vehicle is a new 2014 CTS sedan in Red Obsession Tintcoat. The facility opened in 2001 and has built Cadillacs almost exclusively since then, assembling the CTS and ATS model lines, though in a couple of years it will also handle production of the Chevy Camaro.