2001 Cadillac DeVille DHS from North America - Comments

01 Deville

Been a devoted Cadillac owner for >20yrs, and with each newer one I buy, the quality drops off.

85 Deville: weak engine, decent otherwise.

94 Deville (still driving 140k miles) ; fit/finish off, warranty work for a lot of small stuff. (dash pad, speakers, etc.)

2001 Deville (1yr old at purchase, 53K to date) : various sensor failures, other petty stuff, spitting black sticky foam from a/c vents (on wife's white sweater!). Dealer said they wouldn't fix. Uncomfortable car, vs older ones. All 4 window regulators died (never used the rears!). I repaired them substituting the nylon with fabricated steel pc., and they work great.

Also owned a 58 Convertable, 64 Sedan Deville but that's a whole different era!

Needless to say, I'm done with Cadillac, as they're no longer the car that they were; just another run of the mill car.

Wow, just got a 2001 DHS and am terrified of what's to come.

Just bought a 2001 Deville in August, the dealer did $2000 of work before putting it on the lot (cam shaft sensor, crankshaft sensor, 2 tires, etc.)

Beautiful car inside and out, garage kept.

Then the problems started. Had 2000 worth of work done on it so far. Brakes, rear air suspension, trans fluid flush, motor mounts (they cause harsh shifting believe it or not), oil change, etc. Did I mention that it only had 58,000 miles on it.

Was great out of the shop, much better ride and no more vibrations. Went to the beach about 150 miles away. On the way back the engine started to over heat, but not to a dangerous level. Service engine soon light upon next start. Had to have both fans replaced! They were turning slowly and causing a sensor to trip. Good thing this car has so many sensors... it needs them. Hopefully that is it for awhile.

Just replaced the car with a new 2009 Malibu for a daily driver. Keeping the caddy in the garage as an occasional driver. Hopefully it will not need anything for awhile.

Still love the car because it is extremely comfortable, roomy, and stylish, but I wish it was more reliable and less costly to maintain. I expected a used car to have some issues, but this was extreme.

I agree.

Just bought a 2001 DTS with 100,000 km. Comfortable. Nice handling. Great acceleration. Driver's seat heater doesn't work. Stability control comes on without reason (on summer road) in town and slows the vehicle to a crawl for a few seconds. Will repeat until I shift to neutral and shut off vehicle for a few seconds. I hear the control for this function is expensive. Any alternatives? Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions. You can send to: phopkins@mts.net.

We got a good deal on our first Caddy, 2001 Deville DTS with 50'000 miles. Bought it for 12,000 in February 2006. Rides like a dream but a little quirky. NS engine does use a little oil. I ck it 2 weeks after a change, sometimes it needs a qt, then maybe 2 more or less in 7000 miles.

I smell coolant fumes and add a little 50/50 mix every so often when the check coolant level warning comes on. No problems with pressure check, I think it may be the overflow cap. I'll try that next. I haven't put cardboard under it to check for drips yet.

Service stab. sys. message has been on since we bought it.

If it bothers me I turn it off. Railroad crossing or series of potholes can knock ABS out. When light comes on, get somewhere safe and stop the car, it resets the ABS. We had a 99 Olds mini van that did the same thing. No biggie.

Both rear window regulators went out. Gorilla tape is working for me until I can afford to get them fixed. It drives my hubby nuts but I bought the car for safety reasons not looks.

Car now has 76,000 plus miles, no payment and it doesn't slip a wheel in ice and snow here in West Virginia. 4x4s slide all over the road and into ditches. I wen right around them all. We were in Florida for 2 1/2 years and the heat down there did a lot of damage to the paint, dash and probably contributed to the window regulator problem. It is a reconstructed car, but it's comfy on a long trip, holds the road well, and is heavy enough to help me feel safe. I didn't in the little Toyota Camry, or the 88 and 99 Olds mini vans or the top heavy 2004 GMC Envoy. I know my grand babies are safe when they are with me too.

Lots of goofy things happened like when I plugged a cell phone into the front charger port (cigarette lighter) the whole charger port pulled out. Then the driver's side rear charger port quit working. Heater went out in the driver's seat. I had to track down a fuse under the rear seat because something else shorted out. I found the trouble in owners manual and fixed it myself without help except to get the seat out. I can't remember what the problem was now, but I did fix it. Occasionally the gas cap comes loose and pulls out, and I have to snap the little cable back in.

Quirks but I had a VW once that I had to hit the fender to get the head light on. We bought a brand new Toyota in 1990 and it wore out 2 sets of breaks in 2 years. It also pulled to the side when we picked up speed. My husband caught the regional rep. at the dealership one day after fighting with the dealer for months, and found out the car had been dropped when it was unloaded. They fixed it for free finally but we traded on a used mini van.

All the paint pealed off the top of the van and the warranty paid for the paint job. That was defective too and had to be repainted. We put 3 air conditioners in it and finally found out they were all defective in that particular model. It happened while we were in Florida and van rear windows don't roll down. It was so hot. Both Olds vans had problems with the drivers side window motors. window would go down but took all day to raise it back up inch by inch. Replaced the window motor twice in the 88 under the extended warranty, and never kept the 99 that long.

There will always be a price for luxury, but safety is priceless.

I'm a 62 year old wife of a man that has wasted more money on foolishness and dumb car deals in our 45 years of marriage than repairs will ever cost us for this car. And his driving scares me to death. It's been a rough ride through life but not in the Caddy.

Incidentally, 21mpg isn't too bad either. If I don't have gas money I just stay home. I put in about $40.00 every 10 days or so.

I have a question; I have a 2001 Caddy Deville with 150k on it. I had the car looked at and the guy said I need a new torque converter or new tranny. I live in Nebraska; I need to drive this car down to Dotha Alabama. My question is with a bad torque converter, will my car make the round trip down there and back?

I have an 01 DHS, and it just got cold, and I noticed both front heated seats are out. I ran a jump line from one of the rear lines and got the bottom drivers seat hot, so I located all the modules and switch the back ones to the front and front to back, still no heat in front, but the back seats are hot. So I have come to the conclusion there must be another fuse or relay for both fronts. Anybody have any idea where and what the problem could be?

2001 DHS: What a nightmare, this is probably one of the most problematic vehicles I have ever owned in my 47 years on this earth, and I have owned several Cadillacs. I have lived to regret selling my first 1967 Deville Convertible (what an idiot I was), anyway, here it is:

This car has given me problems with the door motors; all four have died over the last couple of years, one of them the first year I bought the car (fixed by the dealer then), but since I have learned how to fix them, simply take the door apart and re-tie the stupid plastic string that operates the riser, you don't even need any parts (LOL).

Then other problems started, every sensor imaginable has been activated, some I did not even know it had, they constantly keep me on a state of paranoia and stress on my daily one an a half hour commute (one way), I live in fear that it is going to blow up any minute, or worse die on me at the maximum speed limit (seven times while exiting a freeway), when I least needed it to do so (you know road emergencies).

The scam with the transmission is just that, somekind of conspiracy by General Motors to sell us more "TCC" sensors ($1800 to $2000.00) to fix it, so your "check engine" light can be reset. I refuse to do so, the car has had this problem for seven years now, and the transmission runs great.

The seat sensor, the cruise sensor, the radio, the A/C, the heat, etc.. you name it, the car is a "nightmare in America" The folks at GM (Cadillac) are probably laughing their ass off as they read this.

Oh yeah, the oil guzzling engine (Nortstar), that is exactly what it is, but it won't quit (you got to give them credit). I am currently drilling for my own well in my backyard to maintain this car (LOL). They are right, if you floor the accelerator you can actually see the smoke behind you "clear-up".

Hey, what about the dashboard lights, every single one comes on at least once during my drive (what a trip, it's like Christmas every day), you got to be laughing hard, this is the truth and is funny.

The funny part is that I paid about $50,000.00 for this model (you know, a state of stupidity at the time, I fell for the beautiful black leather, or is it?), anyway, I gotta go, I think the DHS just drove off on it own, and gave me the finger. Anyone interested in starting a "class action lawsuit" let me know. Having fun in California.

I purchased my 2001 Cadillac Deville about a year 1/2 ago with 87,000 miles. The previous owner had all the records and everything was up to date.

Great car. No major problems. The car uses a quart of oil about every 900 miles and my rear deck speaker started to rattle. Found a deck speaker at a wrecking yard for $40.

My service engine light came on but the dealer reset it and said it wasn't nothing to worry about. No other complaints at this point. Loving my Cadillac in Texas.

Hi, any help would be great.

I have a 2001 DTS with 134,000 miles. At speeds between 50 and 60, it has a bad shake that seems to worsen every day, then at 60 and above there is a vibration, but not nearly as bad.

Could it be the struts?

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

One important thing about wheel vibration most people overlook on the Deville (I own a 2001 myself) is that tire pressure is critical-- I found this out thru experimentation on my own car. The correct tire pressure for the Base Deville (not sure about DHS or DTS, though.) is 30 PSI, not 32 or 35 PSI!

I had a mild vibration at highway speeds, and discovered that once I set the air pressure @ 30 PSI, all vibration went away. You should be able to find the recommended tire pressure on the inside opening of the rear passenger door-- try this first before doing anything else.

Dec 24, 2008 I own a beautiful 2001 DTS that I purchased from a very well known dealer in central Florida two and a half years ago. I paid a hefty premium ($20,000 with no warranty which turned into about $23,000 after delivery charges, taxes, and a 36,000mi warranty purchase) for this auto since it seemed that it was barely broken in at 17,000 orig miles.

I was assured that it was virtually a new 2001. Outside of the fact that the Service Dept told me the tires on the car had to be replaced (after only 1,000 miles) since the originals had dry rot and I had to pay about $100 more and the Check Stability System warning kept coming on even after sensor replacement (finally seems to have gone away), the car has been a dream.

However I have noticed that since about 36,000 miles the car is now using oil (now have 46,000 miles) Since my bumper to bumper warranty is still in effect for at least 6 months and 7,000 miles, I am looking for some unbiased advice as to whether this can be being caused by some other engine problem, and what service can be performed to remedy it.

I have learned from this site that if the car is running hot, this can cause oil evaporation. The indicator never goes above one half and I don't feel like it's hot. What do you suggest I do, since I would rather rely on a good tech away from the dealer, since I find that it seems that occasionally I am told I need something that I don't agree with, and question the knowledge of the tech/rep such as needing a wheel alignment for a slight shimmy from about 60 to 70mph that goes away.

This appeared after the dealer rotated the tires front to rear, and never rebalanced the front tires. Unless it is a strut, I am told from another tech that the vibration comes from tires not alignment. Should I change to synthetic 5W30 or will that just evaporate also?

Thank you.

I currently own a 2002 DTS NS Cadillac with night vision. I also have after market Vogue Tyres with V-9 rims. I've noticed several people mentioning vibrations around 60 mph. I had the same problem for quite some time. I took the car to the dealership and they couldn't figure out what was wrong, told me to get new regular tires, not Vogues. Went to the tire store where I purchased them and they fixed them, only cost me 80.00. By the way for those of you who don't know Vogue Tyres are the black, with the yellow ring outside of a white wall, no caddie should be without them.

I have a 2001 DHS and the car cuts off on me while driving, foot on the gas, and at red lights. Getting a torque converter code. I've been reading and researching and I've seen people say the problem might be the CRANK SHAFT sensor, CAMSHAFT sensor or THROTTLE POSITION sensor. Does anyone have any knowledge on this problem before I go waste thousands of dollars?!