Avoid Liland Global Radiators

Hey GRM! January 2019 the factory radiator in my '98 Chevy K1500 split an end tank. I ended up buying a Liland Global brand all-aluminum radiator from Rock Auto. I had been getting a whif of coolant smell every now and then, but chalked it up to a heater hose that was weeping slightly (all green crusties). Last weekend I noticed coolant drops in the snow under the truck, so I took a better look. My fancy expensive radiator was leaking.

Today I took a better look and confirmed it's leaking from multiple spots where the core meets the end tanks.

Sent them an email asking about warranty coverage, turns out it's 16 days past it's 1 year warranty (purchased Jan 31st 2019 and noticed it was leaking Feb 16th 2020). They aren't willing to do anything to help me out, and also are suggesting I'm partially to blame due to the fact that I switched from Dex-cool to conventional green coolant.

So just giving everyone the heads up to not expect much from them if considering spending the extra money on their product vs a cheaper plastic/aluminum rad. I also noticed Rock Auto doesn't seem to carry their radiators anymore.

I'm going to see if a shop can fix it up, if not I'll probably replace it with a Spectra Premium.

FYI, I had a Spectra Premium from RockAuto leak in less than a year in our 1996 F-150. Too much effort to return.

Now I buy my radiators from our FLAPS, it's easier to walk in the door and plunk it on the counter.

Some stuff isn't really worth the savings.

Run_Away said:

 They aren't willing to do anything to help me out, and also are suggesting I'm partially to blame due to the fact that I switched from Dex-cool to conventional green coolant.

That is berkeleying ridiculous.

DEX-cool  =

The first thing I do when buying a GM car is to flush the cooling system, twice. The Mopar 5 year (also red) has held up great without any of the DEX-cool bull E36 M3.

You SHOULD be here telling us about how they handled your (actually their) issue and sent you another radiator. Bad publicity is not worth what a new radiator would cost them.

Shame on them.

That sucks. 

I've been using a Chinese-made ("Koyostar") ebay Mishimoto-clone for 9 years on the rally car now, with no issues at all on a car that is punished constantly. I'd be furious if a "name brand" radiator a year old on a street car was leaking.......

Donebrokeit said:

DEX-cool  =

 

 

The first thing I do when buying a GM car is to flush the cooling system, twice. The Mopar 5 year (also red) has held up great without any of the DEX-cool bull E36 M3.

In a properly sealed cooling system the dexcool works as well or better than the old green coolant. The problems arise when you get leaks or top off with water or the wrong coolant. Wife's Sierra is 14 years old with the original dexcool with zero issues. Dads 03sikverado is sitting at 240k mikes on the stuff. 
 

back to the OP .... for the price of the cheap Radiators I don't expect more than a year of life and anything past that is golden to me. 

I've had decent luck with a $99 ebay radiator in my Sentra as well, once I fixed the fitment issues. This one was double the price.

Not buying another online, local only so the warranty process is painless when it fails.

I've had good luck with Nissens radiatiors. Yes, that is the brand.

Devil's advocate here. You asked them to warranty something that was out of warranty. To make matters worse you could have investigated the leak earlier and would have been in warranty. Yeah they might have made a crappy radiator but you didn't help matters. 

In reply to Stampie :

You're absolutely right.

They don't owe me anything, but between the attitude I got from them and the durability of their product I felt like sharing my experience.

If I may harp on the quality a little more, notice in my second picture - both trans cooler lines required adaptors to fit, and that blocked off steam port(?) under the filler leaked until I replaced their worm gear clamp with a constant tension clamp.

Wow I'm glad I found this, currently looking at a reliable radiator for my Yukon tow vehicle and saw the Rock Auto Liland radiator, which shipping makes it over 300. Guess I'll keep looking, the ECP radiator looks like a contender at just under 300 shipped and is a cooling upgrade.

Heya folks, just to add another story. I just purchased a liland rad thru rockauto as well.

The unit looks alright and is labeled correctly but is completely the wrong size. I also double checked rock and liland sites for part number verification.

Rockauto still has it listed as available but with a day delay so must be just drop shipping.

I reached out to lol and thru their site and recieved an auto reply email that their server is blocked.

After going thru the rockauto return system it looks like I will get 150 bucks back from my 400 purchase and still have no rad....looks like I just spent 250 bucks to get an eggplant in the backside..

Currently I am sending my old rad to a shop and having it rebuilt, while I am waiting I am taking down the wall of rockauto magnets from my tool chest.

In reply to 66NewYorker :

That is crazy. There had to be more to this. 

In reply to Run_Away :

I worked for the formerly known Liland Trade & Radiator Service, Inc. for decades. The former owners were stand up people. It is sad to see what it has become under new ownership since 2014.