SCRIPAL Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 I always thought Denso products were superior to other aftermarket parts and have made it a point to use them and Toyota OEM when I could find them. Most all replacement replacement parts on my Dolphin are Denso. I recently purchased a Denso radiator to install in my 2004 Tacoma thinking by paying more for it I was getting Japanese quality. After less than 1000 miles it failed allowing radiator coolant to mix with the transmission fluid. The result is a blown transmission and thousands to replace. I contacted Denso and exchanged several emails with their senior QA engineer who seemed generally concerned and wanted the radiator for examination. I agreed if they would at least provide me with a replacement. He agreed. I never received the radiator nor any further communications. However, out of all of this I learned a valuable lesson. Their radiators are made in China not Japan. My bad for assuming otherwise $$$. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjrbus Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 Sorry about your bad luck on this. I am always skeptical about buying parts from Ebay and Amazon. This is a far bigger problem than people realize, there is no way to tell if the part is actually provided by the manufacturer stamped on the box. https://www.wardsauto.com/industry/chinese-police-seize-thousands-fake-toyota-parts https://www.local10.com/consumer/call-christina/feds-warn-of-counterfeit-auto-parts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCRIPAL Posted November 6, 2018 Author Share Posted November 6, 2018 A friend who is a certified auto mechanic installed the radiator for me so I failed to inspect it or the box it came in to determine where it was made. The Denso representative asked for a photo of the radiator which I provided and he said lots of their radiators were falsely labeled as Denso. Sure enough, the Denso sticker on the radiator clearly stated it was made in China. Based on that, I assumed it was a counterfeit item. He subsequently admitted it was "genuine" Denso. I did research on the net and found that they have 22 plants in China. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjrbus Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 What it says on the box or part means nothing! They can fake anything. Because something is made in China does not automatically make it of poor quality, made in Japan does not insure high quality. Did the Denso rep physically inspect the radiator? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek up North Posted November 6, 2018 Share Posted November 6, 2018 26 minutes ago, SCRIPAL said: I did research on the net and found that they have 22 plants in China. Everyone has plants in China. https://autoweek.com/article/car-news/ford-will-build-next-gen-focus-sedan-china Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SCRIPAL Posted November 6, 2018 Author Share Posted November 6, 2018 @jr. No, he has not inspected the radiator which I would be most happy and encourage him to do if he will send me a replacement which I doubt will happen. But, if by chance it does, I will have a rapid cool transmission cooler installed thereby avoiding another possible failure. I don't usually get burned twice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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