Akiragt4
Jon ?Nguyen?
Mad's Auto Repair
12185 Foothill Blvd
Sylmar, CA 91342
(818) 834-2233
(818) 834-2230 (fax)
I ordered a replacement radiator for my '93 'trac. I specifically asked for an ALLTRAC radiator and Jon assured me that his "supplier in Japan" would send a radiator specifically made for an alltrac.
In hindsight, I trusted Jon too much because I met him here on the boards, he lives close to me, and is genuinely an alltrac enthusiast. He has a really sweet red 'trac with silver mesh rims and GT-Four RC badging. Also, a track-prepped ST165.
Anyway, I paid him $250 in cash (also a mistake) for my alltrac radiator. As you can see by the pictures below, I got a U.S. manufactured GTS radiator. I won't go into every particular lie Jon told me to convince me that this was in fact a straight JDM alltrac radiator.
After physically going to the shop several times to try to resolve this, I told him I either wanted an alltrac rad or my $250 back. The last communication we had in person was that he was going to contact his "supplier" to see what the mix up was and call me. I also sent him a PM on the boards letting him know that I would be leaving a poor feedback if he didn't respond. I have never received a call from Jon. As a matter of fact, he never returned any calls I made to him during the entirety of our transaction.
Jon has several alltrac and mr2 parts cars in his lot, and he occasionally pops up on the regional forums if someone is looking for an OEM part. I actually bought a small sensor from him once with no problems. I think the issue is that if there is any problem after the fact, he just doesn't care. If he already has your money, why should he take a loss just to make sure you get what you paid for?
Anyway, on the pics!
First pic is the bottom of the alltrac radiator I took out of my car. Notice that there are no bungs for a tranny cooler.
Pic from below of the radiator I bought installed on my alltrac. Notice the tranny cooler bung.
Other tranny bung. Hmm, what type of car uses tranny coolers??? Oh yeah, an auto celica GTS!
This is a pic of the filler neck of my alltrac rad. It's kind of hard to tell from the pics, but the neck design is different than the aftermarket GTS rad. The alltrac is a "short" design and the GTS a "tall."
GTS filler neck. Want to know how I found out there is a difference? When my car started puking coolant out the overflow bottle after ever stop.
On the left is a generic $7 auto parts store rad cap. On the right is a TRD cap for the alltrac (I work at toyota. I know my parts guy ordered the correct cap for the alltrac). Notice how the TRD cap is shallower and a different design? If you use it on the aftermarket rad, your rad will leak coolant into the overflow all the time because the cap isn't deep enough to seal the spout in the filler neck. The $7 cap solved the problem of the coolant. But what does the fact that the OEM cap won't work on this rad tell you????
Top view of the two rad caps.
Here's the box that my "JDM" radiator came in.
"Made in China" Thats JDM tyte, yo!
Who knew 1-800-Radiator was a JDM supplier of alltrac parts?! And before you ask why i didn't question the box when I picked it up, he lied and said the original box was damaged or something so he switched boxes.
Here's a photo of how the alltrac cooling fan doesn't line up with one of the fan mounting locations on the GTS rad.
In short, don't do business with Jon Nguyen!
Also, there will soon be an entry on the L.A. Better Business Bureau website for Mad's Auto Repair. www.labbb.com
BTW, I'm willing to edit this feedback the minute I receive either an alltrac rad or my $250. Jon can PM me for my address.
Jon ?Nguyen?
Mad's Auto Repair
12185 Foothill Blvd
Sylmar, CA 91342
(818) 834-2233
(818) 834-2230 (fax)
I ordered a replacement radiator for my '93 'trac. I specifically asked for an ALLTRAC radiator and Jon assured me that his "supplier in Japan" would send a radiator specifically made for an alltrac.
In hindsight, I trusted Jon too much because I met him here on the boards, he lives close to me, and is genuinely an alltrac enthusiast. He has a really sweet red 'trac with silver mesh rims and GT-Four RC badging. Also, a track-prepped ST165.
Anyway, I paid him $250 in cash (also a mistake) for my alltrac radiator. As you can see by the pictures below, I got a U.S. manufactured GTS radiator. I won't go into every particular lie Jon told me to convince me that this was in fact a straight JDM alltrac radiator.
After physically going to the shop several times to try to resolve this, I told him I either wanted an alltrac rad or my $250 back. The last communication we had in person was that he was going to contact his "supplier" to see what the mix up was and call me. I also sent him a PM on the boards letting him know that I would be leaving a poor feedback if he didn't respond. I have never received a call from Jon. As a matter of fact, he never returned any calls I made to him during the entirety of our transaction.
Jon has several alltrac and mr2 parts cars in his lot, and he occasionally pops up on the regional forums if someone is looking for an OEM part. I actually bought a small sensor from him once with no problems. I think the issue is that if there is any problem after the fact, he just doesn't care. If he already has your money, why should he take a loss just to make sure you get what you paid for?
Anyway, on the pics!
First pic is the bottom of the alltrac radiator I took out of my car. Notice that there are no bungs for a tranny cooler.
Pic from below of the radiator I bought installed on my alltrac. Notice the tranny cooler bung.
Other tranny bung. Hmm, what type of car uses tranny coolers??? Oh yeah, an auto celica GTS!
This is a pic of the filler neck of my alltrac rad. It's kind of hard to tell from the pics, but the neck design is different than the aftermarket GTS rad. The alltrac is a "short" design and the GTS a "tall."
GTS filler neck. Want to know how I found out there is a difference? When my car started puking coolant out the overflow bottle after ever stop.
On the left is a generic $7 auto parts store rad cap. On the right is a TRD cap for the alltrac (I work at toyota. I know my parts guy ordered the correct cap for the alltrac). Notice how the TRD cap is shallower and a different design? If you use it on the aftermarket rad, your rad will leak coolant into the overflow all the time because the cap isn't deep enough to seal the spout in the filler neck. The $7 cap solved the problem of the coolant. But what does the fact that the OEM cap won't work on this rad tell you????
Top view of the two rad caps.
Here's the box that my "JDM" radiator came in.
"Made in China" Thats JDM tyte, yo!
Who knew 1-800-Radiator was a JDM supplier of alltrac parts?! And before you ask why i didn't question the box when I picked it up, he lied and said the original box was damaged or something so he switched boxes.
Here's a photo of how the alltrac cooling fan doesn't line up with one of the fan mounting locations on the GTS rad.
In short, don't do business with Jon Nguyen!
Also, there will soon be an entry on the L.A. Better Business Bureau website for Mad's Auto Repair. www.labbb.com
BTW, I'm willing to edit this feedback the minute I receive either an alltrac rad or my $250. Jon can PM me for my address.