I am writing this because i have a complaint. i have never been notified that this car has a recall with the differential. not from the dealer nor gm. i have read that cars have locked up at high speed resulting in near crashes.i am also reading that there is no fix for this yet. there are cars sitting at cadillac dealers for months with nothing done yet. this concerns me this could happen to me and my car. the real problem is i have not been notified and i bought this car as a cpo from valenti cadillac in hartford ct. if i hadn't looked around i would never have known this car has a rear differential recall that is dangerous.
Tl* the contact owns a 2014 cadillac cts. the contact stated that when driving at 60 mph, a loud noise emitted from the vehicle rear of the vehicle. control of the vehicle was lost and headed head on to the opposite of the highway to oncoming traffic. the brake pedal was applied but the rear tires seized, as a result the rear of vehicle skid and smoke emitted from the burning tires. the vehicle came to a halt in the middle of the incoming and outgoing highway. the vehicle was not drivable and police officers remained on the scene directing traffic around the vehicle in order to avoid a collison in the meantime the towing company arrived. a police report was not filed. the vehicle was towed to ron carter cadillac (18101 gulf freeway building b, friendswood, tx 77546 phone (832)-369-8228). the dealer advised that the rear differential was faulty and caused the rear tires to fail. the vehicle was pending to be repaired. the manufacturer was notified of the failure. the failure mileage was 101,000.
I was driving down a 4 lane road going 45 mph - when without warning a loud bang came from the back of the car and the wheels locked up and i went into an uncontrolled spin for ~ 75 yards going sideways down the road at 45...and then came to a stop in the middle of oncoming traffic - the roads were wet as well...i fortunately did not spin into oncoming traffic. i avoided traffic behind me - i was driving with 2 passengers who hopped out of the car to warn drivers approaching we were disabled in the middle of oncoming traffic. the car would not move at all - i turned it off and on and then put it into n to see if we could push it to safety. i tried one last time to put it into gear and it went into reverse so i backed it into safety - i could have been killed - and am very lucky - so, i research this and find out that cadiallic knows this is a problem on their cts - especially on the cts v sport - see the attached link i have provided. http://www.carproblemzoo.com/cadillac/cts/differential-unit-problems.php so, the car is 'supposedly' being repaired at cadiallac dealer - but how can i ever trust this car again? i won't put my grandchildren in the back seat and the passengers who were with certainly don't trust the car...if i had been driving on the freeway, i would have been killed or if i have swerved into oncoming traffic. now i have a vehicle i can't trust - this car is unsafe and has engineering issues and cadillac / gm know it. i am going to get repair invoices and other documentation -
Vehicle displays 'service rear axle' 'service stabilitrak' 'park assist temporarily unavailable' 'automatic seatbelt tightening unavailable'. 4 separate and unique occurrences. some have also included 'reduced engine power'. typically the messages come on and reduced power occurs after expressway driving, followed by stop and go city driving or traffic. also ambient temps are over 80 degrees with each occurrence. lastly engine bay is extremely hot after the service messages are displayed. engine temperature gauge does not indicate overheating (displays under the halfway point of the gauge). i have 2 separate video documentations that can be uploaded to youtube. 1st occurrence resulted in cylinder head replacement under warranty. the next 3 occurrences have all happened after the warranty service. dealership has been unable to replicate the issue after the car cools down. cadillac customer service said a second dealership review was required even though the car was brought to the dealer with the above service messages present. attached documents display first warranty service, and second record service messages being present. similar tsb issued for the ats-v lf4 engine for 'service rear axle' or 'rear axle off', also the lt4 engine has a tsb for engine overheating and going into reduced power mode when the charge air cooling system is not refilled properly via vac-n-fill method. this vehicle has a similar liquid to air, charge air cooling system, requiring the same type of fill method. full disclosure i am a general motors employee.
The rear differential locked while driving at 45mph on a straight, four lane road. it made a loud thump and felt as if the brakes were slammed on. the car pull hard left and the rear tires were smoking. managed to get the car back to the right and stopped after hitting the curb. fortunately no other vehicles were involved. the elsd is on backorder and will not be available for 90 days.
The rear differential in my vehicle had to be replaced. two of the main bearings failed. we noticed a grinding noise from the back as we drove. in august of 2019, i took it to my regular mechanic and he rode in the vehicle with me. he heard and felt the grinding. he recommended that i take it to a reputable transmission mechanic. i took it immediately to bay area transmissions. my vehicle was on the brink of a catastophic failure according to the transmission mechanic. he took me for the test drive and upon return, immediately put it up on the rack. removed the plug and showed me the black fluid and metal shavings on the plug. he said that the pinnion and rar bearings were shot and that the whole unit needed to be replaced because the parts for this are non-existant. he found a refurbished unit and replaced it at the cost of $1800.00. i had called our local cadillac dealer service dept. they quoted me a new one for $2600.00 but, didn't have one in stock and couldn't tell me when or if they could get one. the cars drivetrain warranty was expired as we had 90000 miles on our vehicle. we purchased it in october 2018 with 68000 miles on it. we started noticing a noise from the rear back in june of 2019. there were approx. 80000 miles on it at that time. i wrote cadillac a letter and sent them a copy of the bill asking for help on this as i felt that this failure should not happen with a well maintained, luxury vehicle such as cadillac. they returned a call to me saying there was nothing more that they could do. i told them that this failure could have resulted in a major accident and loss of life. they don't seem to concerned. i informed them that i was going to contact the nhtsa. i'm writing because i've read that this type of failure happens in these vehicles more often than gm would like to admit.
Complete rear differential assy failure, at my expense of 4590.00 gm did kick in 2500.00 but even with the repair there is no fix for the replacement that is currently being fixed. a full recall with repair, reimbursement or buy out should be demanded, this is a life and death safety issue.
Axle half shaft bolts backed out breaking mating gears in differential. vehicle was in motion when a vibration that felt like a wheel was extremely out of balance started. the vehicle was pulled over to inspect. after seeing nothing i attempted to drive away so it was put in drive and as the brake was released the gears broke disabling the vehicle necessitating a flat bed tow to the dealer.
My wife was driving and made a right hand turn into a parking lot. the car by itself automatically shut off and the gear shift went by itself from drive position into park. the car did restart. the dealer cannot find anything wrong with the car. *tr
I was driving a 2014 cadillac cts on 04/27/14, in fremont, ca. vehicle configuration: 2014 cts 3.6l rwd performance. vin, to the best of my knowledge: 1g6as5s39e0[xxx] the incident occurred at approximately 11am. the planned travel route was as follows: fremont cadillac, 5939 automall pkwy, fremont, ca ||| nw on boyce road ||| n on stevenson blvd ||| interstate-880s ||| exit automall pkwy ||| fremont cadillac. i traveled north on stevenson blvd and then headed for the onramp for interstate 880-south. when i approached the freeway onramp i noticed, all of a sudden, a delay between pedal application and power. i demonstrated this to my passenger twice over, by gently letting off the gas and applying it again... at which point the vehicle's check engine light came on, accompanied with a loss of traction control and stability control, reduced engine power, and shuddering during gear shifts. the vehicle was traveling approximately 40mph at the time. aside from the aforementioned issues, no other problems with the vehicle were observed. i only traveled two miles before experiencing these issues. as this was a brand new car on a test drive, it obviously had very few miles on the odometer. upon returning to the car dealership, the sales associates pulled the car back onto the sales lot, moved other new cars out of the way, and parked the car amongst other new vehicles for sale. the vehicle was most certainly not pulled into the service drive. needless to say, this is unsettling news. i have no faith that the vehicle was properly inspected, nor do i have faith that the dealership will responsibly handle this matter. it is my recommendation that gm withdraws this vehicle from dealer inventory and performs an independent assessment of the vehicle. *js information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6)