Mikie

Hey everyone at Honda-Tech I just wanted to bring this to the attention of other fellow members so that you know what your getting yourself into when your meeting people to buy parts or buying parts online.
The reason I'm starting this thread is because today I had met someone locally to buy a Spoon Duracon Shift ****, Mugen Oil Cap and a Mugen Radiator Cap and when i had got home I looked at the radiator cap and was a little skeptical on the authenticity... so I began to do some research... and I came to the conclusion that the radiator cap was a replica...
(If this is a re-post then forgive me but I just don't want other members to get scammed into buying "genuine" parts that aren't so genuine.)

So here is what to look out for...

(AUTHENTIC ON THE LEFT, REPLICA ON THE RIGHT)

So when I laid both of the packages down side by side i noticed that the foam in both packages were different so i began to look at the radiator cap a little closer and noticed that the lettering on the radiator cap was thinner then the oil cap, and I also noticed that the top of the "G" was cut off at the top, which to me was a clear indication of it being a replica... Mugen charges lots for there products so I doubt they would let any flaws slide through the assembly line. Next thing I started to look at was the black, gold and red stripes under the Mugen logo and when I examined both I noticed that the oil cap packaging had a metallic gold look to the stripe and the radiator cap looked like it was brown.


Then I flipped the packages over and noticed that once again the lettering on the radiator cap was thinner then the writing on the packaging on the oil cap. Another clear indication of it being a replica was that the oil cap came with a set of instructions, as the radiator cap did not. When pulling out the instructions there was a genuine Mugen sticker which was on the box, the radiator cap was lacking the sticker and was also missing the the period at the bottom of the box where the website was printed (www.mugen-power com) <---- No period between "power" and "com".




When doing research online my oil cap was very easy to find, it's the silver v.2 version which i was relieved, it looks exactly as it does on jdmland and inlinefour so I was okay with that, then when searching up the radiator cap i noticed that the sticker was pink, the genuine caps are red... When searching the Type-F Mugen cap, it was obvious since there was no white B2 bar along the bottom above the 1.3 writing.

That concludes my Replica post on what to look out for and what I had spotted, please share your stories of being scammed into buying replica items or reply with your own "how to spot a replica" post and help the rest of the Honda-Tech community gain confidence when buying parts!