Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure on the 2008 Cadillac Cts
When timing chain, belt or tensioner failure gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Cadillac Cts report timing chain, belt or tensioner failure at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 120,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 175,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 148,995 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25,005 miles | 81,263 miles | 98,500 miles | 141,000 miles | 174,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $1,200–$4,500 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 40,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 135,000 miles.
By volume the 2009 carries the most reports, with 45; the 2008 has 14. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I have a cadillac 2008 cts with 24,000 miles on it. The check engine light came on and I took it to my local cadillac dealer. They stated they could not fix the problem and I had to take it to the selling dealer, don massey cadillac. Problem: the check engine light came on and I immediately took the car in. My local dealer, allen cadillac in monroe michigan stated there were two problems. The timing chain was stretched according to then and the cam and crank shaft were defective. The car is currently in service. I was told by the service tech that this is a common problem with the 2008 cadillac cts and that dealer had seen over a dozen cars with the same problem. Gm has not issued a recall. When I took the car to don massey cadillac (selling dealer), there were six other cts cars in for service at the same time as mine. Although gm is supposed to fix this under warranty, why have they not issues a recall? This is an over $50,000 car with 24,000 miles on it and it will have to have the engine rebuilt. This is the second major repair to this car. This past december, a clip that holds the wiring harness in place snalled and the…
Engine service light came on - dealer diagnosed problem was caused by a stretched / loose timing chain. Dealer reported 1,000s of 2008 cadillac ctss with the 3.6l dy engine experienced the same problem. Nhtsa should invest problem since how the timing chain fails could cause a serious accident. *tr
The problem started with the timing chain, which LED to coil issues and catalytic converters issues which LED to low head beams constantly burning out. Everytime work is done it causes a chain reaction to other parts in the car that requires more and more money. Now the engine light is still on and I am told that since the first catalytic converter was repaired, the second one now needs replacing and the low head beam on the passenger side has wiring issues that will not allow the new bulb to burn, I am told that the wiring appears to be spliced. The catalytic converter was replaced in april and so was the low beam bulb. Headlight was replaced in april, 2015 it is not working today and was told by dealership that the wiring had been spliced or burned out. Radio speakers do not work and all was centered around issues with coils and catalytic coverters.
Also reported on the 2008 Cadillac Cts
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 timing chain, belt or tensioner failure happen on the 2008 Cadillac Cts?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is timing chain, belt or tensioner failure on the 2008 Cadillac Cts?
14 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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