2023 CT5 Blackwing engine failure

[CT5BWenthusiast]

It's early, and my car just left on the tow truck to the nearest dealer two hours away, but my 2023 CT5 BW started making ticking and clacking under the hood this morning in the school drop off line. When in drive there also was a fairly loud bearing failure type sound coming from the direction of my foot petals. The exhaust note was normal and no check engine light was on, which is hard to believe. The oil pressure and temperature appeared normal. The engine oil fill and color/clarity looked very good on the dipstick. My last fuel fill-up was last night about 4 hours south of here (93 Oct) and I had about 57-ish miles of fuel left according to the dash. Tow truck driver said it sounded like a timing chain, but to me it sounded like an engine with lifter or valve ticking and a bad bearing, possibly on some belt-driven accessory. Turning air conditioner and interior fan off made no impact. 21,000 miles and 10 months old (purchased new). I've just used it as a daily driver and it has never been driven particularly hard, as evidenced by the original set of tires still being in reasonable shape.

 

[OldGoat]

It's early, and my car just left on the tow truck to the nearest dealer two hours away, but my 2023 CT5 BW started making ticking and clacking under the hood this morning in the school drop off line. When in drive there also was a fairly loud bearing failure type sound coming from the direction of my foot petals. The exhaust note was normal and no check engine light was on, which is hard to believe. The oil pressure and temperature appeared normal. The engine oil fill and color/clarity looked very good on the dipstick. My last fuel fill-up was last night about 4 hours south of here (93 Oct) and I had about 57-ish miles of fuel left according to the dash. Tow truck driver said it sounded like a timing chain, but to me it sounded like an engine with lifter or valve ticking and a bad bearing, possibly on some belt-driven accessory. Turning air conditioner and interior fan off made no impact. 21,000 miles and 10 months old (purchased new). I've just used it as a daily driver and it has never been driven particularly hard, as evidenced by the original set of tires still being in reasonable shape.

Hopefully sounds worse than it is. Please keep us posted and good luck

 

[Jim2000]

Sorry about your troubles. I assume you have not modified the car. It is likely that GM will stand behind the warranty and either fix the engine or give you a new one. 21,000 miles on the rear tires is incredible. I won't be able to do that.

 

[MookdocOE]

Sorry my man! GM will do you right! Your honestly like very. very lucky because unmodified LT4's other than the coveted "Car and Driver" engines don't fail...exceedingly small numbers.

 

[greg00coupe]

No experience with Cadi warranty of this magnitude but had many Corvettes and have lot of stories. Bottom line.... GM will take care of you. 16 Corvettes were blowing engines due to filings in the oil filter. A friend blew his engine at Mid Ohio w 1700 miles. The General gave him a new car.

 

[BimmerFan]

21K miles in 10 months, yeah baby, drive it!

Best of luck, hopefully it's nothing too serious.

 

[CT5BWenthusiast]

3 week later update— it took Orr Cadillac in Shreveport 5 days to get the car in a bay and pull the oil filter and find metal particulates in it. Told me I need a new engine and the engine is on back order with no idea when one will be made available. Told me they have no loaners available and the car has to be at their shop ten days for them to provide a rental. Cadillac customer care called right afterwards and told me my new engine was pushed to the very front of the line, even before the new cars being built. Fast forward to today and still no engine build or delivery date. Left a message for Cadillac customer care last Wednesday that has gone unreturned.

 

[beamon]

Sorry to hear this. Did they provide you with a rental or loaner car yet?

 

[Neveready]

Sounds like you got no loaner yet, if so, I’d call Cadillac customer service back Monday and insist you speak to someone if your assigned customer care rep isn’t responsive. They should have the authority to force the dealers hand or provide reimbursement. It’s on their website under warranty information, it does say loaners and rentals are at the discretion of the dealership but I think CS can make this happen. This is a luxury brand, you should be entitled to loaners or rental car reimbursement for something of this magnitude so i wouldn’t take no for answer.

Site Maintenance

COURTESY TRANSPORTATION​

If your vehicle requires warranty repairs during the coverage period, the following are available:

• Alternate transportation
  
  -AND/OR-
• Reimbursement of certain transportation expenses

Refer to your Owner’s Manual or consult your dealer for more details. Coverage periods typically last for 6 years or 70,000 miles.

 

[rubberduck]

That’s odd about the loaner. Must be dealer specific since they give me one on the day I bring my car in. They also gave me a loaner for 3 weeks after I signed the paperwork and was waiting for my car to arrive.

 

[VBhak]

3 week later update— it took Orr Cadillac in Shreveport 5 days to get the car in a bay and pull the oil filter and find metal particulates in it. Told me I need a new engine and the engine is on back order with no idea when one will be made available. Told me they have no loaners available and the car has to be at their shop ten days for them to provide a rental. Cadillac customer care called right afterwards and told me my new engine was pushed to the very front of the line, even before the new cars being built. Fast forward to today and still no engine build or delivery date. Left a message for Cadillac customer care last Wednesday that has gone unreturned.

I'm so sorry to hear you having to go through this... makes me a little nervous as well. A LARGE part of the reason I've stuck with Cadillac is both of my previous V's (LSA, LT4) were driven to > 70,000 miles with not a single engine issues (had other minor issues with CUE screen, temperature sensor, etc) but nothing major mechanical. Made me feel like these engines were bullet proof.

Between your story and the Car and Driver story, I'm starting to get nervous. Did they change something substantial between the LT4 in V3 vs LT4 in the 5BW?

 

[coffee_time]

I'm so sorry to hear you having to go through this... makes me a little nervous as well. A LARGE part of the reason I've stuck with Cadillac is both of my previous V's (LSA, LT4) were driven to > 70,000 miles with not a single engine issues (had other minor issues with CUE screen, temperature sensor, etc) but nothing major mechanical. Made me feel like these engines were bullet proof.

Between your story and the Car and Driver story, I'm starting to get nervous. Did they change something substantial between the LT4 in V3 vs LT4 in the 5BW?

I’m with you. Had both a 2nd and 3rd gen V with zero issues on the motor. As far as I know, nothing has been changed other than our cars now are “hand built” motors.

 

[jbawden]

Everything has a failure rate and on an individual basis, odds are very low that your unlucky LT4 lottery card is going to come up. The LT4 is a very durable platform but again a handful aren't going to make it.

 

[CBH]

Sorry to hear about your catastrophic failure. It hurts just thinking about it !!

 

[MookdocOE]

GM knows pretty much down to the Knats Arse how many have failed and it' probably a couple tenths of a percent on total volume? Remember that includes engines that are beat on WOT all the way out to their warranty coverage before maybe giving way. So these things can handle serious abuse folks and yes some are going to fail.

I talked to the head tuner at Cordes Performance and said, ZL1's with LT4 and 8l90's don't need anything until after 800hp and the ones I saw all were 900ish stock 8l90's quirky they are but bulletproof!

 

[CT5BWenthusiast]

I did eventually get Orr Cadillac to provide a rental, but no amount of nice logic in the world would sway them, and ended up having to get ugly with them and demand it. They are still trying to skimp and only give me $40/day for the rental when you can't rent a full size (Toyota Camry) here for less than $47.50/day. I have four tall kids so we can't fit in a compact. And I know GM covers $60/day, so who knows why they would do this to me.

I'm not sure what happened, but my Cadillac Customer Care rep (Tyler) apparently is no longer with the company, and my new rep said what he told me (my engine will be the prioritized to front of line at factory) can't actually be done (I bet they would if I were a celebrity). He also says they don't even have the ability to contact the factory, and they can't tell me when my replacement engine is going to be built or shipped. He claims they can only work through the 3rd-party dealer, which makes zero sense. The new Cadillac customer care rep blamed the delay on Orr Cadillac not submitting the engine order as an "expedited" order, which I have discovered is not at all true since the dealer has provided documentation showing it was.

No teardown has been done to determine what caused the failure. The placard on my failed engine says it was built by Morgan Beachboard. And I suspect the failures of these LT4 engines are far more numerous than anyone here suspects.

 

[BimmerFan]

This whole thing stinks, and I feel for you brother. Best of luck! At least you got a Camry <cough> to tool around in. I hope you don't get spoiled.

I've been through issues like this with BMW, and it sure can be a battle when you have to be the go-between and no one's stories seem to line-up.

 

[DCV]

At least Ford was pretty quick, initially, about replacing motors in the GT350 when they turned into oil burners. Mine was done at 6K miles and took about a month to get the replacement motor and get it installed. Too bad Caddy is dragging this out to you. Then it burned up 1 alternator and two AC compressors....

 

[1Evil55]

I did eventually get Orr Cadillac to provide a rental, but no amount of nice logic in the world would sway them, and ended up having to get ugly with them and demand it. They are still trying to skimp and only give me $40/day for the rental when you can't rent a full size (Toyota Camry) here for less than $47.50/day. I have four tall kids so we can't fit in a compact. And I know GM covers $60/day, so who knows why they would do this to me.

I'm not sure what happened, but my Cadillac Customer Care rep (Tyler) apparently is no longer with the company, and my new rep said what he told me (my engine will be the prioritized to front of line at factory) can't actually be done (I bet they would if I were a celebrity). He also says they don't even have the ability to contact the factory, and they can't tell me when my replacement engine is going to be built or shipped. He claims they can only work through the 3rd-party dealer, which makes zero sense. The new Cadillac customer care rep blamed the delay on Orr Cadillac not submitting the engine order as an "expedited" order, which I have discovered is not at all true since the dealer has provided documentation showing it was.

No teardown has been done to determine what caused the failure. The placard on my failed engine says it was built by Morgan Beachboard. And I suspect the failures of these LT4 engines are far more numerous than anyone here suspects.

I can understand the level of frustration you’re at. We’d all be the same. But continuing to blame your builder and adding fear is so Covid-2019. Please add the other catastrophic engines from the same builder if you disagree.

 

[minn19]

@CT5BWenthusiast, I am sorry for what you are going through as it does suck (had the same issue with Ford on a GT350). But, I think the LT4 is a very mature/reliable engine and you’d probably be surprised how many haven’t failed. I’ve had two ZL1s and been on the ZL1 Camaro forums for years. Aside from a few over those years, the only ones I heard that needed to be replaced was because of a bad run of oil pumps that would break/starve the engine of oil.

Hope it gets worked out soon, you are probably still within the time frame to lemon it. If you bring up buyback or lemoning it, sometimes that lights a fire under the right people.

Your dealer does sound like a bunch of a$$hats, which is unfortunately becoming the norm it seems like.