This is the story of how and why I got a new radiator from RockAuto, delivered and sent back the same day last week. When you hear this sound (»doink!«), y'turn the page. Ready? Let's begin:

A member of my chosen family is the service writer at a good independent shop in Northern Michigan. That was my first stop with the '91 Spirit (3.0 V6, 30k original miles); I took it in for him and his crew to make it ready for my transcontinental trip this past September. Leaky axle shaft seal replaced, loose heater hose clamp tightened, Koni shuts and strocks. The tech noticed some advanced-and-advancing corrosion of the radiator at the lower right rear corner and said I'd be due for a replacement soon.

Lately I've been smelling coolant when I walk past the front of the parked car; "soon" appears to be coming, well, soon. There's no gusher or geyser because I'm running waterless coolant, which operates at atmospheric pressure rather than 14 to 16 pounds -- I'm guessing that's probably buying me some time before absolutely needing to replace the radiator. But we're in Seattle from the middle of last week to the end of this one, so I thought I'd snag a radiator and swap it in or at least have it ready to swap. RockAuto listed a new Spectra Premium radiator, number CU-1108, for $75. Most of SP's stuff is made in Canada, but I wanted to check so I called up their HQ and asked. "Our CU-1108 is made at our facility in Laval, Quebec", came the answer. Fine by me, I went ahead and ordered from RockAuto, specifying 2-day shipping to give myself maximum opportunity to do the swap.

A business day and a half later, FedEx dropped off a radiator box festooned with "NEW RADIATOR" and "MADE IN CHINA". It also had a "Proliance" (used to be Modine before some dillweed MBA decided to rebrand that venerable company) sticker mostly covered over by a "Cooling Depot CU-1108 Made In China" sticker. There was also a sticker with a 15-digit part number (the last seven digits were zeroes), a bar code, and "MADE IN CHINA". Near that was a label bearing the name and address of an auto parts house elsewhere in the state of Washington. I called them and asked whether RockAuto had dropshipped my order from them. They had no idea why this box would have their label on it; they had nothing to do with my order.

I opened the box and took a look at the radiator: No manufacturer identification on it at all, just a small sticker that said "Inspect by BD12". The core was a super-thin aluminum one, much thinner than original. Won't fit right; will leave a giant gap between the front of the rad core and the A/C condenser. The plastic tanks gave every appearance of being made out of this-isn't-the-specified-material-but-the-owner-of-the-factory-in-China-got-a-great-deal-on-a-material-of-the-same-colour-from-his-brother-in-law.

Um...no.

I called RockAuto and the guy said "We don't list the country of origin on any of our parts. This is a global economy and companies make quality parts all over the world. Whatever brand radiator you received, it's equivalent, and we don't accept returns because the customer doesn't like where the part was made." I told him I wasn't rejecting it because of where it was made, I was rejecting it because it wasn't what I ordered. He said he'd have to call Spectra Premium and find out whether the radiator was theirs or not. I said fine and gave him my number.

Then I called Spectra Premium again and described the box and the radiator. The answer, which the lady was nice enough to double-check for me, was clear: if it was in fact their radiator, at least the box would have a Spectra Premium label with a bar code on it, and probably so would the radiator, because that's how they do their inventory tracking.

No call back from "blah blah global economy blah blah" dunderlump at RockAuto, so I called RockAuto back. Got a different guy, explained the situation. He said he was going to put me on hold and call Spectra Premium. When he came back, he said they'd told him that if there was any label at all with the CU-1108 part number on it, that it was definitely their radiator because that was their part number. Um...bulk wrap! Spectra Premium haven't got a trademark or a copyright on "CU-1108"; anybody's free to use that part number and in fact a fair number of different outfits do. I pointed that out. Dunderlump № 2 made a couple more halfhearted attempts to push this "Oh, no, only Spectra Premium can use that part number because it's their part number" line on me before relenting and emailing me a return label. The reason-for-return field was pre-filled-out: "Misboxed".

FAIL!

I'm getting an OE radiator. It's not $75, but it's also not a generic piece of almost-kinda-sorta-more-or-less-can-be-made-to-fit garbage from China. If I wanted a Chinese car, I'd have moved somewhere dumb enough to allow them on the roads and bought one.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Erm…yes, that's the Spectra Premium catalogue page and the RockAuto product page for the radiator in question.

And…? :shrug:

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Dan:
Well just stroll on down to a nearby Buick dealer, I’m sure they can get one of the two in one built in China these days.

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67' Dart GT Convertible; the old Chrysler Corp.
82' LeBaron Convertible; the new Chrysler Corp
07' 300 C AWD; Now by Fiat, the old new Chrysler LLC

The problem is not the products being made in China but rather that American businesses that manufacture their parts in China are cheap (business ethics, etc) and Chinese people needfully want to work. Hypothetically if say such and such product made in China by an American company suddenly was being made back here in America, the product would be just as cheap if not possibly made even cheaper as to make up for higher wages paid to employees. So you get even cheaper product for more consumer cost.
Maybe if China had welfare like America does then maybe people there would not want to work then we can get some of our jobs back

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'73 Scamp (the girlfriend): 225ci super/6 2BBL conversion (Almost done!)
'90 Subaru, wagon (the wife): H4-cyl 2.2L

1977 Mercedes-Benz 300D, 5cyl diesel(For sale!)

mexico/delaware

where was the car built..dan....

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slant six's RULE!
http://www.usajon.com

Dan, I have sympathy with your situation and understand your frustration, but in all honesty; you of all people should possibly have smelled a rat when buying a $75 radiator, also being the lowest priced of 3 versions shown! if I'm not mistaken, the last one you bought cost around $400!

As I said once before, the chinese only make parts to order, and stricktly follow the US design sheets, so blame the US company that order crap, not the chinese who produce it as ordered...

That said, last year I got a new 18" brass radiator form an eBay company called accelaautoparts for my Aspen for $98. I expected cheaply made in China, but it turned out to be cheaply made in the Phillipines, seems OK though.

Olaf

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Aspenized

exojil - I would think if the product was made in america the product would more likely be better quality and not be as cheap as:

Safety standards are different
People expect more from American craftsmanship - warranties etc.
The item would cost more as all parts/labour generally would cost more.

However I am sure both points of view have plenty of merit. I bought something from China once it was good :/...

I've bought first-quality parts for "unrealistically" low prices through ordinary mainstream channels often enough -- and Spectra Premium's quality parts are generally priced low enough -- that there was no red flag at the $75 price.
Yes, for a custom hand-built radiator -- not relevant to this situation.
I've been a product development manager for enough years and enough companies to know that no, Olaf, as a general rule the Chinese do not "strictly follow the US design sheets". I'm not sure if you have any actual, real, professional product-development experience, but my guess is that you do not.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Your guesses are still just guesses.

Olaf

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Aspenized

Fair enough. What's your line of work, Olaf?

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Enough, children.

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

but mommm!! just kiddin'

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'73 Scamp (the girlfriend): 225ci super/6 2BBL conversion (Almost done!)
'90 Subaru, wagon (the wife): H4-cyl 2.2L

1977 Mercedes-Benz 300D, 5cyl diesel(For sale!)

I also order a lot of stuff from RockAuto, and have had the same problem before. So Dan I feel your pain.

The best was when I ordered a replacement belt and tensioner for my 02 dakota. I ordered a Gates tensioner assembly and a Gates belt. What I recieved was a Gates tensioner and some Chinese made "Roadmaster" belt.

After about three phone calls, I finally got them to refund me the extra money I paid for the Gates belt and never recieved. Since it was the middle of brushfire season I needed my truck back up and going as soon as possible. I went ahead and installed the Chinabelt and I'm still running it on my truck.

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82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2