WHEN LEAKS ATTACK

Drip drip goes the Cadillac

A customer brought to me a 2004 Cadillac  SRX with the 4.6 liter engine.  Evidently it had been leaking fluid for some time in small amounts but now it was a full blown gusher.  Nice orange spot every time she parked.
"Help me!" she cried.  I guess I'm a sucker for dames so what the heck, I decided to see what I could do.

Observing a large puddle of dexcool under the car, I took a flashlight and examined the front of the engine.  Yup.  Leaking from water pump weep hole.  Nice simple job.  Put a new pump in, bled the system and checked it for leaks.  Still leaking, only this time from the other side of the engine!  I verified that the pump was bad (it was) and resolved to find the other leak.  

First thing was to get some coolant dye that was compatible with dexcool. Here is what I used.

What I saw was the coolant leaking from behind the intake air hose from a piece of metal that connects to the intake manifold. It is known as the water outlet.

This caused a significant leak down the passenger side of the engine and cannot be seen because the gaskets are on the rear side of the intake water outlet. So it has to come off.  Like these picture show, there are four bolts that hold it on and a large hose and small hose on the left side.  But first the throtle body bolts have to come off. There is a hidden bolt behind the throttle body.

Throttle body removed and the bolts are clearly seen.

Once the assembly had been removed, the leak area and gaskets could be clearly seen. Notice the scale buildup on the right hand picture.  The gaskets were similarly covered.  A leak was inevitable.

Here's a destroyed gasket that shows the scale buildup and reason for the leak.

New gaskets with part number from GM.  (Dont get them at the dealer, they are 6x as expensive)

Thread in the bolts to hold the gaskets and then put some locktite thread sealer on it to hold them in place.

Torque it down and put the throttle body bolts back on.  assemble the rest of the small stuff you took off (hoses, wires, etc) and refill it with coolant.  It should look like this when you are done.

On an added note, there is a tee fitting for the radiator overflow tank that sits on top of the radiator.  You can see it in the above picture on the lower right hand corner.  Notice the one I have is metal while the original is plastic.  Discard the plastic one and get a metal tee.  The plastic will break and leak all over the place while the metal one will probably outlast the vehicle.  Just one less leak for you to worry about.

If your zen concentration and relaxation techniques are up to par, you will not feel the least bit angry about the horrible leaks the SRX can develop.  Except for that tee fitting.  That's really pushing it Cadillac!!

E Brake on a Cadillac Srx

And now, the post you have all been waiting for..........well, those of you who want to fix the Emergency brake on you Cadillac Srx that is.  I will admit to you that I found this seemingly simple repair to be one of great annoyance.  There is a spring located on the end of the e-brake that hooks onto the back side of the rotor  on the rear wheels of this car.  Unless you are superman, aquaman and shazaam all rolled into one, you are not going to be able to do this.  Until now.......

Ok here it goes.  The spring is located on the rear of the brake rotor and there is about three things in the way.  In other words there is no room for you hands in order to put that spring back onto the lever that is underneath the brake rotor.  If you are not a zen mechanic, you had better be at this point because this little bugger will make you want to scream and rant and rave.  Assuming you have tried everything except bashing it with a hammer, I will show you how to put it on with a minimum of fuss and still retain you zen composure.

Here is a picture of the spring attached to the lever on the backside of the rotor/bearing assembly.

That spring is really really really stiff and hard to compress but you can do it with your hands, just wear some mechanix gloves so you don't pinch the crap out of your fingers.  Move the spring upwards towards the cable and away from the brake lever.  You will only be able to move it about an inch, but when you have it an inch or so up from the lever, you will see there is a notch right before it becomes cable.  Have a ziptie and an assistant ready.  With the spring drawn up about an inch, have your assistant zip tie the notch and then slowly release the spring.  The zip tie should hold it and then you can connect the spring to the brake lever.

One final point here:  this procedure is only for putting the spring back on the e-brake lever with the brake rotor off.  How you get it off is up to you but in my case I was only changing the wheel bearing assembly.  For those who are interested in finding a tool to accomplish this task I say this:   forget it. I already tried that and it was a waste of money and dismal failure.  The fix to this is strength, patience, a zen attitude, and zip ties.