Found the coolant leak, material defect- should Honda be required to replace it?

To all those who saw my last post concerning my 06 leaking coolanthttp://vfrworld.com/forums/mechanics-garage/34779-coolant-leak-no-big-deal.html, I have identified the problem.

when I dis-assembled the bike, I found that the Thermostat housing (T-housing), part number 19310-MCW-000, was leaking from the front bank of cylinders hose connects at. There is a defect in the casting proccess when the metal is poured that allows coolant to seep through. In my case, the seeping occurs right at where the hose is clamped to the housing, allowing the slow leak to occur. This can be easily identified by removing the hoses from the T-housing, and checking for any powdery buildup between the hoses and the housing. If you find any, take a soft brass brush and clean the housing off. youll find a spot that looks like pitting in the surface of the metal that's allowing the coolant to seep through. if you take a peek into the inside of the housing I bet you'll find a tiny spidery type crack that starts the seeping. My housing had a couple of these seep points on it, and one of which extended past where the hose clamp seats the hose onto the housing.

My fix was to buy a used housing off ebay (about 40 bucks delivered) because through the dealer it was 119.56- just for the housing, no o-rings etc. I received the housing in the mail and started to prep it for install when I noticed that it too had powdery buildup around the forward hose port, and after dissasembly and cleaning, it was indeed defective too. It came from a low mileage 06 as well. A couple radiator shops said my best bet was to use a high temp JB weld (actual welding wouldn't work, to many contaminates in the weld point from coolant), but I want reliability.
At this point I ordered a new one from Service Honda, and the required O-ring, for less than the dealer, delivery included. A short while later I come to find Honda Powersports America does not have any in stock, with no estimate of re-supply. I reached out to my contact in Japan and he is sending me one of the 39 they have in stock there in Japan. it's 7,200 Yen (about 80 USD), but I don't know about shipping yet...

The presence of a material defect on two seperate Items from the same manufacturing year seriously weakens my faith in Honda's reliability. Just a cursory look at the housing shows lack of quality in grinding of excess material casting. If it were a plastic part or a rubber component failure I wouldn't be so concerned- they WILL fail eventually, but I shouldn't have to worr about metal parts. Do you think Honda should be required to replace the part for free? I'm half tempted to write Honda and see what they say....

 

write a nice letter, explain the issue in detail, send pictures of more then 1 item. YOU (singular) MIGHT get one new piece. if in any way you strongly word it or sight disappointment in honda you will not even get a reply. the out right TINY number of these that are going to have an issue that is noticeable is, well, tiny. and cast aluminum is known to have issues, thats why when the bike was new and being delivered brand new it had stop leak (of a very specific type and quantity) added to the coolant. now the fix, simple, use the same stop leak and add it to your cooling system. if you don't like that idea (i have no idea why that would be, every vehicle manufactured on the planet for the last like 20yrs has had stop leak in the coolant from the factory) then the answer is to cut off the neck, machine out the area and have a insert and new neck of a different material pressed in. or if you bake it for long enough and clean it right that cast aluminum can be welded.

 

I actually had pretty good luck with an oil pan (4 wheel vehicle) that had a crack in the cast aluminum. I let it drain overnight, sprayed the dog nuts out of it with brake clean, and dryed in thoroughly with compressed air including blowing the air in the crack. It was on the very bottom of the oil pan, so I know I could never get it totally clean and dry. Massaged the JB weld into the crack and let it set for a few hours. Re-filled with oil, as far as I know it hasn't leaked yet.

I think if you use the same procedure with the housing you WOULD be able to get it totally clean and dry and basically fill the void/imperfection with JB or some sort of epoxy like that that will fully cure without oxygen. Wait for it to cure fully and slap that puppy back in there.