98 S70T5 OEM Radiator or Aftermarket?

[RigsPGT]

My Nissen from FCP is almost 2 weeks old and have no complaints about it. Everything went in perfectly and have put 3k miles already. Although these miles have been on an emergency trip and the system has some Prestone instead of the good Volvo stuff but things will change again when I do a timing and water pump replacement.
Can't comment any further yet and I don't know how being made in Czech republic instead of Denmark makes any difference but the whole thing looked good

[ZombieDevil]

For something that needs to be made with the highest quality to protect the life of the engine, I'd go OEM. I had an aftermarket one that lasted 13 months on a 12 month warranty. Perfect!! I now shop either IPD and FCP. If I need to buy a part that may unexpectedly fail, I go to FCP. You can't beat a lifetime warranty!! So now I have a radiator from FCP that I will never have to pay for again.

[charleskennedy23]

I go the nissens from FCP and seems to be doing well after about 2,500 miles… I was with Zombie Devil on the thought process for going with FCP…

[abscate]

Thread update

We have had failure reports of the Nissens radiator in the 5 year timeframe, and end cap seal or top fitting cracking seem to be the things that go wrong. Fcp has reviews up in the it website

[wizechatmgr]

I used to know of a shop in VA that built copper radiators and brazed them together. The things were almost bullet-proof and were easily repaired. I now want to kick myself for forgetting the name of the place.

I don't ever like plastic tanks paired with metal on anything. It's a problem waiting to happen...

[abscate]

At first glance one would think the valeo OEM would be a more cost effective choice but that assumes the Valeo has maintained the OEM lifetime of 10 years.

Most experiences in the supply chain don't support that premise