Ok, I'm new to this site and I know I’m about to get slammed. I can take it as long as it is not fear based but rather based experience or facts.
I recently bought a 2006 Jeep Wrangle TJ Rubicon mall crawler with 78K miles to pull behind my Motorhome. I chose it since it was less weight than my Tacoma with less cost to convert for flat towing. The jeep radiator recently cracked on the top seam which got me stuck in Elko, NV. Thanks to my motorhome I was able to pull it back to CA. That brings me to the part where the hard-core OEM only folks might slam me. I’m 57 with mostly foreign cars under my name and I can’t seem to understand agreeing to a normal 10 years age replacement of a radiator. What happen to quality in our nation? I have a 2003 Toyota Tacoma with over 260K as well as other foreign cars with over 200K miles and I have never had a need to replace a radiator. I asked other fiends with foreign 4x4’s and when I asked about this issue, they have not heard of such a low bar. They all laughed at me when I bought a Jeep. I went to Africa a few years ago to do a safari and they all used Toyota’s. I ask why they did not use Jeeps or Land Rovers and they all stated those brands all fell apart after a few trips. Grrrr. Where did we go wrong? Ok enough with my frustration.
I see this post starts with OEM as the only way to go but when I go to Jeep events, I see a lot of TJ’s having aluminum radiator replacements which goes against the recommendation of this thread. I unfortunately did not ask at the time since I thought it was just bling and did not know I was about to have an issue with my radiator. Now that I have a Jeep sitting in my drive with a cracked radiator, I’m thinking perhaps they may have been on to something. Since mixing plastic with aluminum has different heat expansion characters that it seems to be a good failure issue. It seems to be the failure of most of what I see on this and other sites I’ve searched. With that in mind, having all one material seems to be most of the aftermarket solutions for this problem which seems logical to me.
I challenge someone to go against the OEM standards being posted on this site and respond with their own experience with a non-OEM products that worked for them. I see mostly two being used out there from pictures of Jeep events, YouTube posts, and conversations with other Jeep owners on my last motorhome trip. Mishmoto and Griffen see common replacements and both are made in the USA. I think more Jeep users can be helped from your experience including me. Please post the brand, how long you used it, and what if any successes / failures you’ve had with it. The challenge is on….
Thanks.