Yes, as the title reads this has been my 3rd...YES 3 aftermarket Denso Radiator replacements since my first OEM radiator failed years ago. I paid $500 for the first Denso after market replacement but then it failed 2 more times. ( no cost for replacements after the first one) I just picked up my car today and all is well. Understand Denso may be the manufacturer for OEM parts but this radiator was made in Taiwan and the last one maybe Mexico. They are cheap and very thin. Nothing is made well these days. Disheartening to say the least... but it is what it is. Better to keep my old timer alive with cheaper parts than buy a new car ( with most likely cheaper parts as well) and deal with depreciation. I put away approximately $2,000 a year to keep my trusty LS430 alive and well. Well worth it in my eyes.

 

Were all 3 aftermarket radiators experienced the same type of failure? At the same location?

 

I wouldn't say the same location, but all were leaking from the core and not from any seams on the sides.

 

This is what concerns me about say a starter replacement, given the # of hours of labor. I would probably look the other way and have my indie do it, so the part fails, they eat the labor. Using my Nissan as an example, I put 3 "new" starters in. They were "new," not remanuf, with lifetime warranties. 2 failed within 6 mos., and I ate my own labor. The third was about to fail, I caught it--the field wire was repeatedly deteriorating I guess from heat, and shorting out. I covered it with electrical tape and the third lasted. The first was bad out of the box. On some of these bigger ticket components, imho the replacements aren't as good as the original...I mean the Denso tow radiator is $68 online, how good can that possibly be.....

p.s. my Nissan radiator was from amazon and cost like $70 made by TYC, lasted for years and it was made in China. The original was Calsonic made in Japan. I guess it all depends...sounds like Denso is a dud. To me, they are AC Delco to GM, who clearly has a good, better, best model called advantage, professional, OE. Probably the radiator we are talking about is the "good," and Toytota/Lexus OE is "best."

 

The first Lexus dealership I went to when my original radiator failed quoted me $1,000 for an OEM radiator with a lifetime warranty and no labor. They do stand behind it as one of my struts started leaking after 2 years from the installation date and they just swapped it out. Anyway, when I heard $1,000 I asked about an aftermarket and the service writer told me it wouldn't save me much money. I immediately tried another Lexus dealer further away and it was slightly under $500 for the aftermarket Denso. I have to say that it was 1 1/2 years when the first replacement failed and little over one year when the 2nd one went and the dealership still took care of it without an issue. The work order stated that parts were only covered for 12 months. They know me there so that helps. Regardless, it's not fun going back so many times to replace the same part.

 

Hopefully third time is a charm and your problems are behind you. If no. 3 does fail maybe try the Denso Tow Pkg radiator. Little bit thicker from what I understand. A little more cooling capacity for those hot Fla summers. I live in Arizona so I feel your pain.

I put a Denso rad from Rockauto in my LS400 in 2010. Back then I thought Denso was Denso. I know better now but either way it's still doing fine some 80,000 miles later...

 

Seems like these days you can buy an OEM radiator for $300 or less, if you don't need the towing option. I'd go with that without hesitation over any aftermarket.

 

yeah I got my OEM radiator (non-tow package) for $307 which included shipping and tax. Installed it myself so that was the total cost + $20 for coolant. The one I replaced was Koyorad... looked like it was leaking from every point possible lol

 

I did not realize the OE is $300 or so ($252 for non tow, $305 for tow). Even using list pricing, the dealer gets $635 for labor? Unreal....actually it's not computing. If list price is $365 for OE, and they want $1000 for the job, the maximum aftermarket could be off that price is $365, where the aftermarket costs $0. Of course it's $68, not $0. Savings should be $365 - $68 for aftermarket. For them to say $1000, or $500, doesn't seem to make sense, as the labor is the same...wait a sec two dealers...prices are out of whack....then again, Toyota franchises install customer parts too...nuts

I think I would do OE if I had to do mine....

https://www.discountpartsmonster.com...omponents-scat

edit maybe deduct $50 from the labor numbers above for coolant at dealer prices

 

Yes OEM is always the best route if you are not concerned about the extra bucks. However, the only down side is the extra cost for labor in the event of any issues with the radiator you may be bringing to your Indy shop. Another reason I like to give the shop the extra profit for the part that they obtain for installation.

 

Yep, agreed, timing belt is a good example, probably starter is another....if we supply the parts, we save money on the net price, but the indie does not warrant...if the indie gets the parts, they mark it up, but have to eat the entire job if something goes wrong....so imho the more the labor is, the more it makes sense to give the parts markup to the indie....

 

Bingo! That's how I think about it.

 

I went with the "tow package" in my 01 ls430 when i had it. Car ran much cooler and never had any issues. I think I ordered it off some random website for $300? a few years back.

Could be a bad batch? Maybe you have something poking it from your condenser?

 

Pay crap and get crap.

 

That really sucks to have such a failure rate, generally Denso's have been reliable. Varies too so they may have cheapened the build over the years to save production costs. Had the original in our 400 changed at 200K miles. The shop mentioned they were seeing the beginnings of a leak at joint, he was pretty surprised it lasted that long. His comment was that they usually go in the 150-170K under most circumstances. The older stuff was well made.