AtWhatMileage
Fuel · 9 owner reports

Other fuel system problem on the 2008 Cadillac Cts

1 fire 1 of the 9 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.

Reports of this failure 9
With an odometer reading 8
Reports per 1,000 built 0.2 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 25%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $300–$2,200
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 11th

When other fuel system problem gets reported

Owners of the 2008 Cadillac Cts report other fuel system problem at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 121,800 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.

25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 8 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
26,000 miles 51,080 miles 101,500 miles 128,000 miles 147,800 miles

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Of these reports, 1 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.

Putting it right typically runs $300–$2,200 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 65,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 100,000 miles.

By volume the 2008 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

My 2008 cadillac cts v6 di AWD has a dangerous acceleration lag when you step on the gas to pass or get out of the way of a hazard in road. There is about a 1-2 sec lag between stepping on pedal and rpms moving, and about another second or so before any pick up happens. Doesn't sound like much, but no other car I have had, did this. At the speed of oncoming vehicles, a 1-2 second lag can mean a 30 - 60 yards of distance being traveled by an oncoming car or truck. That sight fills up rear view mirror fast. In my opinion, this is a serious design flaw and potentially death causing defect. This happens anytime I need quick acceleration, and is also happening in other cars I tried at dealership to see if it was just mine. *tr

5,000 miles NHTSA complaint 678782 filed 2008-07-18

I was traveling at 25mph when there was a sudden very loud explosive/grinding noise(it brought people running out of adjacent buildings). I hit my brakes immediately, but the noise continued until I put it into park. I exited the car and under the rear axle of my vehicle were multiple large bolts and screws lined up in a row. The vehicle was totally disabled, and subsequently was towed to the dealer. They determined that all the rear axle bolts just fell out at once.there was no other damage found to the vehicle. My concerns remain as to "why did this happen" and "what if I had been going at an accelerated rate of speed"? Multiple experienced mechanics and specialist (including cadillac) have no answers to these questions and have never seen this happen before. *tr

56,440 miles NHTSA complaint 949241 filed 2012-11-13

Tl* the contact owns a 2008 cadillac cts. The contact stated that while park, fuel fumes emitted in and around the vehicle. The failure recurred multiple times. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic. The technician was unable to locate the failure. The vehicle has not been repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 98,000.

98,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1112237 filed 2014-09-22

Also reported on the 2008 Cadillac Cts

Other body or interior problem

22 reports median 52k

Other electrical problem

18 reports median 67k

Other engine problem

17 reports median 44k

Other brake problem

13 reports median 38k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 9 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other fuel system problem happen on the 2008 Cadillac Cts?

Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other fuel system problem on the 2008 Cadillac Cts?

9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed