Cadillac CTS 3.2L

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Feb 12, 2014
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Vancouver, BC
Hi please help me decide on the brand and type of oil to use for all my future oil changes

1. What kind of vehicle you have
2003 Cadillac CTS 3.2L V6
2. What your owner's manual says
- Weight
5W-30 +60F (+16C) and colder
10W-30 0F (-18C) and warmer
- Certification
API - Starburst symbol
- Change intervals
The car is equipped with GM Oil Life System that calculated when to changed oil and filter based many different parameters. (It displays Engine Oil Life %)
3. Where you live
Vancouver, BC, Canada. the temps here never gets below 0F (-18C)
4. How you drive (easy? hard? fast? slow?)
pretty easy and slow most of the time, under 2500PRM
flooring it only once in a while.
5. What your daily drive is like (short trips? long trips? city? highway?)
I don't drive daily, when I do drive it's in City with heavy traffic, medium trips, sometimes long trips. Average 300mi/month (500km/month)
6. Whether your car has any known problems
165,000mi (255,000km) on the engine, changed the timing belt, water pump, fixed clogged PCV, replaced lots of seals. Fix pretty much every problem it had. Only thing I'm not sure about is oil pan seal and rear main seal, might be leaking slightly because oil pan is dirty but not dripping on the ground. I bought the car used with high mileage and have no idea what the previous owner might have used for oil

I do all the work myself, including oil changes, so the price or oil changing intervals are not really an issue.
my priorities are
1. Don't want to blow anymore seals
2. minimize engine wear
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: 285south
Any synthetic 5w-30 would be optimal for your situation.


Agreed. You beat me to it.
 
First of all congratulations on your purchase
wink.gif

I owned an 3.2 CTS Sport Luxury & I loved that car.
I used different oils... Shell Helix Ultra 5W30, Castrol 0W30 and finally GM DEXOS 2 5W30 (bought on ebay).
No problems during the 7500/10000km OCI with Shell & GM oils.
Castrol EDGE 0W30 was IMO the best.
Bought each liter at 2€
smile.gif

Better cold start & reduced slightly fuel consumption.
a little bit of oil consumption in hot weather (35/40°C)
Use any synthetic 5W30 oil and it will be fine, it's a strong motor.
I used 50/50 e85 ethanol/95 octane fuel and the car ran fine.

I'm an Euro Castrol EDGE 0W30 fan & I will use in my current car.
Shame that they stopped this formula & went to fst technology.
Maybe I will try their EDGE 0W40 fat in the future.
 
Originally Posted By: frenchboy
First of all congratulations on your purchase
wink.gif

I owned an 3.2 CTS Sport Luxury & I loved that car.
I used different oils... Shell Helix Ultra 5W30, Castrol 0W30 and finally GM DEXOS 2 5W30 (bought on ebay).
No problems during the 7500/10000km OCI with Shell & GM oils.
Castrol EDGE 0W30 was IMO the best.
Bought each liter at 2€
smile.gif

Better cold start & reduced slightly fuel consumption.
a little bit of oil consumption in hot weather (35/40°C)
Use any synthetic 5W30 oil and it will be fine, it's a strong motor.
I used 50/50 e85 ethanol/95 octane fuel and the car ran fine.

I'm an Euro Castrol EDGE 0W30 fan & I will use in my current car.
Shame that they stopped this formula & went to fst technology.
Maybe I will try their EDGE 0W40 fat in the future.



thanks, from what I see on forums 3.2L might be better choice than 3.6L in terms of reliability
3.6L CTS are huge on oil consumption... and timing chain failures
I'm glad I got 3.2L and so far I'm happy with it
grin.gif


anyway in my situation where temps don't get very cold, (rarely blow freezing) I thought I should be using 10W30 not 0W30

also I'm worried that it might start leaking if I switch to full synthetic or below recommended weight grade?
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Ikera

anyway in my situation where temps don't get very cold, (rarely blow freezing) I thought I should be using 10W30 not 0W30

also I'm worried that it might start leaking if I switch to full synthetic or below recommended weight grade?


I'll tell you what you do in that case:

Change the oil every 6 months with MaxLife 10W-30 and a WIX Part # 57079 oil filter.

Alternate oil filter is ACDELCO Part # PF2256G.
 
Factory fill in most current and past Cadillac's is M-1. I would run 5w-30 year round.
Dad has a 93 Allante and an 06 sts . Runs great in both. Very quiet.
Small motors love it too.
Great oil , easy to find , reasonable price even for Canada.
M-1 Long Life could easily run 10-15000 with a good filter.

Any synthetic near that spec is fine.
 
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4

I'll tell you what you do in that case:

Change the oil every 6 months with MaxLife 10W-30 and a WIX Part # 57079 oil filter.


Thanks for advice everyone.

I do use WIX filters already,

I know were to get
MaxLife (High Mileage Synth blend)
Mobil 1 (Full Synthetic)
Mobil Super 2000 (High Mileage Synth blend)

but I couldn't find Mobil 1 High Mileage (Full Synthetic)
actually I don't think I've ever seen a Full Synthetic High Mileage oil of any brand on a shelf... only online.
 
Last edited:
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