My Brother is a Farrier on Vancouver Island. He uses a Land Rover V8 for his work vehicle, with petrol at less than £1 a gallon it is rational given the huge distances he covers. He has just sent me an article about the capacitors being offered on the market. A man in the UK, bought a replacement capacitor for his Land Rover distributor, it failed within a very short time. He took it to pieces and found it was cr*p. Enquiries reveal that a lot of automotive electrical bits are made in China. It seems that they are rubbish, now onto Canada. He tells me that Honda, in their stationary engine have been caught out using cheap Chinese parts. This information comes from a repairman living on Vancouver Island, who does Honda warranty work and has come across this. It seems there, in Canada, it is possible to buy a posh version and a cheaper version of say lawnmowers both with a Honda engine. The cheapo, one is allegedly fitted with a Chinese made Honda engine. It is of poor quality. What my Brother is amazed at is the seemingly acceptance by Honda of this state of affairs given that Honda has in the past jealously guarded it's reputation for reliability.
Now, the item about the capacitors is in a British magazine, as to the Canadian Honda story, I have no reason to doubt what my Brother states. He has a lot of very eminent engineering contacts and is a very well respected member of the Vancouver Island fraternity. He dislikes Chinese imports with a vengeance and I know this to be true, because it has been reported in the UK. After buying a well known brand of bearing to rebuild his transfer box, it failed after a very short time. The reason, the bearing was of poor quality and had not been hardened correctly. Made in China. He was not amused as all he got back was the cost of the bearing. It takes a bit of work to strip and rebuild a transfer box on a Land Rover. Surely Honda have not gone down the road of so many others in the quest for economies?