With only about 3370 miles on a brand new car, my rear differential internals were destroyed and the housing cracked due to the following 2 reasons: 1. Excessive wheel hop due to a poorly designed rear suspension 2. The differential that comes stock in every 2004-2005 cts-v cadillac is not rated to handle as much horsepower and torque as the car puts out. Gm cut corners and put in a differential that was meant for their v6 base model cts that makes about half the power. When the rear differential blew up, it also destroyed my driveshaft. I noticed the differential over time started to whine and clunk more and more and become louder and louder until all of a sudden while driving I heard a loud boom and a bunch of clunking and metal grinding. The car was immediately undriveable. My dealership replaced my driveshaft and the differential with a 2006 cts-v differential which is a beefier piece. I have 2500 miles on the new differential which is already starting to whine and clunk. Wheel hop is still atrocious and it is only a matter of time before this differential breaks as well. My dealership denied knowledge of any issues with cts-v rear ends, and tried to place the blame on me by stating that my rear tires were very worn for only 3370 miles, so I must have been abusing that car. That is not the case, and these tires are notorious for having the worst tread wear of any tire on the market, and every cts-v owner complains about how long they last. In fact, consumers gave the tires on this car the worst rating of any tire listed on "the tire rack." see here: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tiremake=goodyear&tiremodel=eagle+f1+supercar+emt consumers rate the tire wear as a 2.6/10. What a joke, and cadillac dealerships place the blame for the tire wear on me the owner.
2005 Cadillac CTS suspension complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 16 of 16, newest first, as owners wrote them.
4/11/05 - 8,367 miles - 1 day out of service rear end failure 4/28/05 - 9,664 miles - 5 days out of service rear bushing failure. *jb rear end failure 5/5/05 - 9,720 miles - 1 day out of service rear end failure wheel delivered from factory will not balance - no sign of damage 7/25/05 - 15,732 miles - 4 days out of service PCM recall #05544 - dealer unable to reprogram rear end hops wildly in rainy or slick roads when accelerating hard shifting into 1st gear rear end whine drive line clunk parking brake goes to floor and won't stop car rear end failure - dealer replaced rear differential and did not add friction modifier, claimed cts-v's do not need - later determined this was incorrect 8/29/05 - 17,372 miles - 22 days out of service rear end grinding friction modifier added transmission rebuilt replaced pressure plate replaced clutch - tsb 05-07-31-001 rear end bushings installed to reduce wheel hop tsb 05-04-114-001a navigation system replaced after all buttons were peeling parking brake goes to floor and won't stop car PCM recall performed 10/6/05 - 18,990 miles- 0 day out of service navigation system not programmed properly by dealership - returned for repair 11/5/05 - 22,151 miles - 0 day out of service replace all center caps on wheels - peeling 1/2/05 - 27,171 miles - 10 days out of service rear end failure radiator failure tsb 05-06-02-005a sun visor replaced due to peeling 1/19/06 - 27,538 miles - 6 hours out of service PCM removed and replaced at gordon histed's request 1/26/06 - 28,000 miles - 2 hours out of service navigation system removed and replaced 2/2/06 - 28,500 miles - ? Transmission failed again - won't shift into reverse 10 service visits in the last 9 months 44 days of out of service in the last 9 months.
When driving in rain / poor weather, the car during take-off violently shakes when the rear wheels spin. This shaking has thrown off my rear alignment, aided in premature tire wear, and may have caused significant rear-end damage.
Excessive wheel hop frequently under mild to heavy acceleration excessive tire wear, tires need to be replaced after 4000 to 6000 miles rear end differential is very weak and may break causing injury or death cadillac knows of problem providing some customers with extended warranties had a 2004 ctsv and it was lemon lawed in july 2005 for the rear diff breaking 3 times within 1 year.
Purchased 2005 cadillac cts may 30, 2005. At first new owner check up I complained of a knocking noise under the drivers front side. Coastal cadillac in pawley island, sc could not hear anything wrong. Made another appointment june 16, 2005 as we took a trip and my husband heard the thumping. They finally located the problem, a broken front strut, which took 3 days to replace. At that time I voiced my concerns about this vehicle and asked for a new car. The answer was no. Now on sept 2, 2005 my "check coolant level" message came on. I now have a leak in the coolant reservoir. The car only had 2,789 miles at the time. I am not looking forward to calling the dealer about this problem and thought I could just purchase coolant and fill it. I thought that this should not be occurring in such a new vehicle.
Excessive wheel hop occurs frequently under mild to heavy acceleration. In wet conditions, it happens much more frequently and can cause serious traction and handling problems. This also puts heavy stress on the drivetrain and has caused many failures in half-shafts and differentials amongst other owners vehicles, which could lead to further catastophic loss of control. This is a major issue that is being ignored by the manufacturer at this point in time.
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