Mopar ones for sale these days can be made in China too. Just like Bestop products.
I need to replace my TJ radiator
- Thread starter DamnYankee
- Start date
Hasselblad
TJ Enthusiast
All I can say is I had 2 shipped to me before digging deep for the OEM. Build quality seemed night and day, if I recall the seams and metal were noticeably flimsy/cheap/questionable.
It's annoying when we all crap on parts simply because we hate the store from which you bought it. But the main culprit there took his ball and went home. So much of what we tout around here is based on incredibly small sample size, yet we treat every negative data point as universal fact and every positive data point as "clearly you got lucky." The truth is probably somewhere in between. And more and more, most everything anymore is made in the same place by the same people anyway.
I've had good luck with parts store stuff, I'm going to keep using it when it makes sense.
Yep,I’ve had my O’Reilly business account (from my glass co.)since around late 80s,had pretty good luck with their stuff.
Here is the way I have ranked parts stores over the years.
1. Napa
2. Orileys
3. Advance Auto
4. AutoZone
Always had good luck out of Napa but the closest one is 40 miles away
Orileys has been good so far, but most of their staff isn't knowledgeable.
I miss the independent local Mom and Pop parts stores like we had back in the 70's.
Autozone has always been the closest wherever I've lived so they are my go to. But as far as knowledgeable staff.....I guess when I go in it's not to pick some 18 yr old's brain. I had better already know what I need. At best they will be generalists, or maybe you luck out and have a gearhead manager but even then he's going to know his 86 IROC-Z project pretty well, but not much about anything else.
YMMV obv
Don't feel bad posting your experiences even if it's not in lock step with the forum darlings. It's always good to hear both positive and negative experiences and then, based on that info, anyone who is interested in purchasing said item can decide if purchasing it is right or not.
You left out why you got somewhat picked on. Given the vagaries and widely varied levels of quality with all this low priced aftermarket crap, all I wanted to know is if you trust them to deliver the same product to others that has served you well. If you do and are willing to lead others down the same path, then go for it and stop being a dick about it. If you believe in the product, then recommend it and stop trying to hide behind hurt feelings.
I guess that's a way to look at it. What actually happens is the seal gets compressed each time the radiator heat cycles and cools back down. Over time, the seal loses resiliency and stops springing back to properly seal the tank to the core. Typically that slow weeping will happen for a couple of years and stop the weeping each time the radiator warms up without catastrophic failure.
Without swinging your dick around, how many TJ cooling systems have you repaired in the last 20 years?
Have you actually seen that? I just checked these and the other two I have here, one of which I just swapped in and they are all made in USA. That said, it would still make zero difference to me what the COO happens to be. I am acutely aware that COO has exactly fuck all to do with quality. I know of a lot (exact personal hands on knowledge) of parts we all love and use that are NOT made in the USA and the quality and performance are still stellar after moving production to China. I'll even bet you good money that not a single part sold by that Detroit Axle company you frequently recommend is made here.
KennethS
TJ Expert
I was responding to the post about a radiator that is in attic storage for a long period of time.
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Probably just my bad experience with ordering parts on Amazon. Everything seems to be fake "name brands" on their site.
p.s. Detroit Axle lied as much as Alloy USA axles. It's sad to see people use USA" as only a reason to charge more for inferior products. I ONLY trust products you make or recommend. Radiators other than Mopar?
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Contrary to the assertion that there exists "forum darlings" who should be ignored, we have a ton of experience with the TJ cooling system. Most may not be aware that there is a group of us who have worked on this over many years here in SoCal where we need the system to work very well. We share info and what works and what has not worked. We all went through the same process over the years. Mopar can't be that good, surely the aftermarket is better so we all did what everyone does, screw Mopar, we're going to try the "fancy" shit. We did, I started with several all copper and brass CSF units because I was told Mopar sucked. My wife kicking my ass because she couldn't run the AC on the freeway convinced me at least part of that was wrong. The leaks starting several places in the others convinced me on the rest of them. Lots of folks have come through here and the other folks I'm in contact with and we keep track of what we see. We've seen early failures in all of them except 2. Mopar and Northern. I'm not a fan of Northern because they built it on a rig without an AC condenser and you (a) have to pull the grill to install one and (b) you have to build spacers to move them towards the motor to get them off of the AC condenser. Their experiences and mine are exactly the same. We've tried most of them, they either don't cool or they don't last very long or both.
I just installed a Denso in a rig as a test. It is a manual so the demand on the system isn't quite as high so it seemed safe to cool and so far it has but we are not in the hot months yet. I am under obligation to swap in one of my Mopar versions if it won't cool as it should. I am not under obligation if it fails in short order.
I am like everyone else, I want a great alternative that is under 400 bucks. I want them to cool as well as OEM and I want them to last a 100,000 miles. That is a fair request for that much money. Right now, I don't have that answer but as you can see, I've got limited stock on hand so the answer needs to be found.
I only have one regret in all of this. I was doing some work on a rig other than the cooling system and it had a nice looking fully welded nicely made 2 row aluminum radiator in it. Like always, I asked him how it was and they related that it had been in use several years, it worked as well as OEM in the hot months, and it was relatively inexpensive about 300 or so. Where did you get it? Forgot. Do you remember the brand? Nope, I don't and it has been so long, all I remember is I carried into a shop after I bought it and had them install it. So there it is, the elusive well made cheap unicorn and we won't ever know what it was or where it came from.
I've removed them for trans swaps both ways and left them sitting empty in our heat and sun for years before I gave them to someone in need. They worked as new with zero issues. I do doubt that would be true if I left them in our attic.
I’m the attic guy(lol)and my original mopar is not living upstairs,kinda worried about my nos rubicon flares though
ShinyTravisto
Member
Found a tiny pinhole weeping on my radiator 
Guess I too am in the market
Guess I too am in the market
Welcome to the club. Everyone is a member....eventually.
Mine had a tiny hole
Took me a few weeks to recover enough from the burns to put in the new radiator.
ShinyTravisto
Member
Found a new OEM on ebay within driving distance, hopefully the world has another option whenever this one kicks the bucket.
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