I know you spend a lot of your life with your face under the hoods of cars, but the two in my garage and the three or four that came before them have all had wire spring clamps in the cooling system and worm gear clamps holding the sections of the air intake together. (Rayzerman had
some useful information on that subject in another thread.) The last car I owned with worm gear clamps in the cooling system was a 1975 Plymouth.
I also know that some people balk at the price tag, and that's fine. For me, the benefits of not having to watch for leaks and not having to re-visit the cooling system have far outweighed the $25 cost for the clamps and the value of the time I spent putting them in.
Except that they do, and I have to go on the assumption that Honda installs the clamps correctly at the factory. After four applications (one at the factory, one at the STealer, one done to "yeah, that feels tight enough" and one done at the proper torque) resulted in leaks, I decided a constant-dimension clamp wasn't the right tool for the job and switched to constant-tension.
What style clamps were they using? I have a hard time seeing Belleville springs failing without being subjected to abuse they'd never see under the hood of a car.
--Mark