Brown coating on new Stant radiator cap

[Garlic]

Hello everyone,

I just purchased a brand new 16 PSI Stant radiator cap and discovered a brown coating on the spring straight out from the box.

Is this normal (some kind of anti-corrosion coating) or is it corrosion from poor storage?

Picture:

Contacted Stant but have yet to receive any feedback from them. Online retailer has offered a refund/replacement but I just wanted to make sure its really a defect before proceeding.

Thanks.

 

[mrsilv04]

Other than the spring, it looks to be new and unused.

Does the packaging that it came in show any sign of excess moisture or water damage?

 

[cronk]

Looks to even to be rust. I would expect rust to be more spotty looking. I would think its a coating of some sort.
I wouldn't worry about it. Stant makes good products, I have one of their "superstats" in almost every vehicle I own.

 

[JHZR2]

That's a decent picture and it looks to me that there is bright metal under the brown coating. I'd guess paint or corrosion protection. My guess is that spring steel is different from the other metals used, so they coat it for protection.

 

[The motor guy]

Who cares, just wipe it off and see if it comes back. I would only be worried if the entire cap was brown.

 

[Kuato]

On every cap I have replaced, the spring has been brownish in color.

 

[vssjim]

Springs for assemble like those are usually color coded to be sure thay are putting the correct spring in an assembly. Most valve springs have some stripe on them as well. I would bet that the same style cap with different pressure rating for another application will have a different color spring

 

[Kira]

+1 on 'color coding'. It even looks like chipped paint in the photo.

I too buy Stant products with confidence. Kira

 

[dailydriver]

+2 on the color coding, as I HOPE that spring is made out of some form/alloy of stainless steel.