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****Please refer to my additional post referring to rubber washers during install to minimize vibration****
Posting this for future "searchers" of information and will try to ensure I include key words for searching purposes. A google search showed a number of guys on the web have purchased or inquired about this same radiator and ebay seller in the past. So I'm sharing my experience so others can formulate their own decision on purchasing.
Short story - Bought aluminum radiator in February 2014, developed leak in December 2015, contacted ebay seller Uyunira for lifetime warranty replacement, and within 3 days after sending in the radiator I had a brand new replacement radiator.
Long story - Decided to purchase an all aluminum radiator to replace my original OEM one in February 2014. 22 years with the same factory radiator and welded up a couple times to fix a weld seam leak and a pin hole leak. After the 3rd leak I decided to retire it and get a new radiator. Didn't want to spend the money for an OEM and was curious about the aluminum radiators so gave it a try. A little less than 2 years later, the aluminum radiator developed a leak. I use Toyota coolant mixed with distilled, the hoses were new OEM that were installed at the same time, and the thermostat was a fairly new Toyota dual stage (4crawler recommendation).
Koyorad doesn't make an all aluminum one for my truck and the Mishimoto website said $460 (would buy OEM if wanting to spend that money all at once), so I found a reasonably priced one on ebay with a Lifetime Warranty. The ebay seller is Uyunira and the product is from Japan Racing Products located at: 9870 Poplar Avenue, Fontana, CA 92335.
The following are my communications with the seller:
December 7th -
"Dear uyunira (ebay seller),
Can you please provide information on how to warranty a radiator I purchased on February 17, 2014. I have proof of purchase via paypal and the item was advertised to have a Lifetime hassle free warranty. The radiator now has a leak. Thank You.
Purchased on February 17, 2014.
TOYOTA PICKUP 4RUNNER ALUMINUM CORE RADIATOR 22R 22RE T
$169.95
Item #181313913809"
December 7th -
"Dear Grego92,
Hello,
Yes you are covered. We will need you to send it back with a return label for postage. We will send you a new one and take up the warranty with the manufacturer but the manufacturer does not cover shipping. So if you would like send it with the return label or a money order for $24.95 to cover shipping back to you. Send it back with a note explaining the defect. Pretty much anything is covered unless it is caused by collision damage. Send to:
Japan Racing Products
9870 Poplar Ave
Fontana CA 92335"
December 8th -
"Dear uyunira,
Hello,
Thanks for your response. I will be able to send it back early next week and will either include a return postage label or a money order for $24.95."
December 8th -
"Dear Grego92,
No problem Greg. Normally the manufacturer attempots to fix it but the best solution would be to just give you a new one right away. Please make sure you include your proof of purchase inside the box and we will send you the new one as soon as the old one arrives here
- uyunira"
December 15th -
"Dear uyunira,
Just an FYI, the leaking radiator was delivered to the address provided this morning via UPS, it appears the address was a residential address as it was left on the front porch. I included a return shipping label along with a copy of the paypal receipt and explanation of where the leak is."
December 16th - "Dear Grego92,
Yes, They sent it to my home and the new one has been shipped. You should have it today
- uyunira"
***** I received a new replacement radiator on the afternoon of December 16th as stated in the email. *****
Per their instructions I typed up a short letter telling them the problem with the leak and attached photos even though the radiator was being sent, included a copy of the receipt, email with the ebay seller, and a UPS return shipping label. The cost for me was only ~$20 each way, so the total cost of this warranty return was my time, inconvenience, and $40. I'm going to call it a total of $100 in economic costs.
All in all, not too happy about having to warranty the radiator just under 2 years, but happy with the quick and painless lifetime warranty replacement. Obviously customer service was excellent!
As a side note, anticipating a lot longer process than what actually occurred, I went ahead and purchased a CSF 2314 all metal/brass 3 row radiator and installed it. No issues so far for the week.
The CSF radiator fit my OEM cap, a Futaba R134, and Stant 10227. I read other posts where they said the OEM cap didn't fit, no idea what happen to theirs or maybe they made some changes so it now fits. I re-used my Toyota OEM cap, kept the Futaba as a spare to use with the Aluminum radiator, and returned the Stant.
One thing of note; Unlike the Toyota OEM and this aluminum radiator, the CSF 2314 radiator does not have the hanging tabs incorporated into the design. The lack of these tabs is a minor inconvenience during install, instead of hanging and walking away to grab the bolts and wrench, you need to be more mindful of holding it up while simultaneously hand starting the bolts.
So I won't be installing the replacement aluminum right now, but I think I'm going to pick up one of those harbor freight radiator pressure testing kits and test it out to be sure and to know I have a working radiator ready to go when/if the CSF develops a leak.
Posting this for future "searchers" of information and will try to ensure I include key words for searching purposes. A google search showed a number of guys on the web have purchased or inquired about this same radiator and ebay seller in the past. So I'm sharing my experience so others can formulate their own decision on purchasing.
Short story - Bought aluminum radiator in February 2014, developed leak in December 2015, contacted ebay seller Uyunira for lifetime warranty replacement, and within 3 days after sending in the radiator I had a brand new replacement radiator.
Long story - Decided to purchase an all aluminum radiator to replace my original OEM one in February 2014. 22 years with the same factory radiator and welded up a couple times to fix a weld seam leak and a pin hole leak. After the 3rd leak I decided to retire it and get a new radiator. Didn't want to spend the money for an OEM and was curious about the aluminum radiators so gave it a try. A little less than 2 years later, the aluminum radiator developed a leak. I use Toyota coolant mixed with distilled, the hoses were new OEM that were installed at the same time, and the thermostat was a fairly new Toyota dual stage (4crawler recommendation).
Koyorad doesn't make an all aluminum one for my truck and the Mishimoto website said $460 (would buy OEM if wanting to spend that money all at once), so I found a reasonably priced one on ebay with a Lifetime Warranty. The ebay seller is Uyunira and the product is from Japan Racing Products located at: 9870 Poplar Avenue, Fontana, CA 92335.
The following are my communications with the seller:
December 7th -
"Dear uyunira (ebay seller),
Can you please provide information on how to warranty a radiator I purchased on February 17, 2014. I have proof of purchase via paypal and the item was advertised to have a Lifetime hassle free warranty. The radiator now has a leak. Thank You.
Purchased on February 17, 2014.
TOYOTA PICKUP 4RUNNER ALUMINUM CORE RADIATOR 22R 22RE T
$169.95
Item #181313913809"
December 7th -
"Dear Grego92,
Hello,
Yes you are covered. We will need you to send it back with a return label for postage. We will send you a new one and take up the warranty with the manufacturer but the manufacturer does not cover shipping. So if you would like send it with the return label or a money order for $24.95 to cover shipping back to you. Send it back with a note explaining the defect. Pretty much anything is covered unless it is caused by collision damage. Send to:
Japan Racing Products
9870 Poplar Ave
Fontana CA 92335"
December 8th -
"Dear uyunira,
Hello,
Thanks for your response. I will be able to send it back early next week and will either include a return postage label or a money order for $24.95."
December 8th -
"Dear Grego92,
No problem Greg. Normally the manufacturer attempots to fix it but the best solution would be to just give you a new one right away. Please make sure you include your proof of purchase inside the box and we will send you the new one as soon as the old one arrives here
- uyunira"
December 15th -
"Dear uyunira,
Just an FYI, the leaking radiator was delivered to the address provided this morning via UPS, it appears the address was a residential address as it was left on the front porch. I included a return shipping label along with a copy of the paypal receipt and explanation of where the leak is."
December 16th - "Dear Grego92,
Yes, They sent it to my home and the new one has been shipped. You should have it today
- uyunira"
***** I received a new replacement radiator on the afternoon of December 16th as stated in the email. *****
Per their instructions I typed up a short letter telling them the problem with the leak and attached photos even though the radiator was being sent, included a copy of the receipt, email with the ebay seller, and a UPS return shipping label. The cost for me was only ~$20 each way, so the total cost of this warranty return was my time, inconvenience, and $40. I'm going to call it a total of $100 in economic costs.
All in all, not too happy about having to warranty the radiator just under 2 years, but happy with the quick and painless lifetime warranty replacement. Obviously customer service was excellent!
As a side note, anticipating a lot longer process than what actually occurred, I went ahead and purchased a CSF 2314 all metal/brass 3 row radiator and installed it. No issues so far for the week.
The CSF radiator fit my OEM cap, a Futaba R134, and Stant 10227. I read other posts where they said the OEM cap didn't fit, no idea what happen to theirs or maybe they made some changes so it now fits. I re-used my Toyota OEM cap, kept the Futaba as a spare to use with the Aluminum radiator, and returned the Stant.
One thing of note; Unlike the Toyota OEM and this aluminum radiator, the CSF 2314 radiator does not have the hanging tabs incorporated into the design. The lack of these tabs is a minor inconvenience during install, instead of hanging and walking away to grab the bolts and wrench, you need to be more mindful of holding it up while simultaneously hand starting the bolts.
So I won't be installing the replacement aluminum right now, but I think I'm going to pick up one of those harbor freight radiator pressure testing kits and test it out to be sure and to know I have a working radiator ready to go when/if the CSF develops a leak.
You seem not to be dissatisfied with this deal.
A contrarian point-of-view: This illustrates why I wouldn't buy one of these mail-order radiators. Two years to failure on a brand new radiator? Gotta' be kidding me. Draining and refilling, removing and replacing, packing and shipping...not my idea of fun. I got better things to do. I got enough spare parts hanging on the wall; don't need a spare radiator.
Go over to NAPA, Autozone. etc. Unless you live out in the sticks, they'll have it in stock or available this afternoon or tomorrow morning. It'l probably cost less and last longer, and you can just drive it over to the store to get a warranty replacement. The aluminum core, plastic tanks, with gaskets radiator on my Corolla is eight years old, 96,000 miles. Since new, I've never even taken the cap off the reservoir tank, let alone pop the radiator cap off, so I don't buy the all-aluminum welded-construction "racing" is better stuff. Just sayin'. my $0.02.
Additional email from ebay seller I received today.
"Dear Grego92,
Please excuse us for the issue with the radiator. Just as a precautionary measure we have found a solution to the leaky corners. When installing the radiator back on the truck we have found that using 2 rubber washers on each bolt one in front of the radiator and one behind it on the bolt hole will keep the radiator from leaking. We found the issue to be related to vibration. Most of the OEM radiators failed when the brackets separated from the tanks due to vibration. With these solid aluminum radiators the have no flex so it overloads the core and causes it to leak. I got some of those washers from Home Depot for my 4runner for about $2 for the pack of 10.
- uyunira"
I believe the seller is referring to these washers, although I'm sure any equivalent rubber washer or vibration reducer would give the same result. I suspect the added washers may require longer bolts. If this in in fact effective, this could be a good cheap practice for installing any radiator, specially for those who added a header which increased vibration (me being one of them with an LCE header)
12-16-2015 | 08:14 PM
