"Pirate" electrolytic caps - identifying?

From: Lewin A.R.W. Edwards (larwe_at_larwe.com)
Date: 10/31/04 

Date: 31 Oct 2004 09:43:13 -0800

I'm trying to analyze a group of almost simultaneous failures in
products that were released in 2002. The product is built on an x86
motherboard, in a housing that meets or exceeds normal PC-case
airflow. It SEEMS - and I'm still burning in a "repaired" board to
test this theory - that the culprit parts are specific electrolytic
caps used in various places over the PCB.

The caps in question are G-LUXON 1000uF, 6.3V, 105 deg C rating, date
code 0117(M). ALL of them are visibly bulged on top. Sticky dust-mud
has gathered in the intersection of the score-marks on top, which
leads me to believe that they bulged enough to break the can here and
electrolyte has vented out. All the other electros on the board look
normal. But then none of the other caps on the board are G-LUXON
brand; they are mostly Sanyo.

I'm wondering if this is a symptom of that problem people were talking
about a while ago, where an incomplete/not-ready-for-primetime
electrolyte formula was stolen and used in Chinese-made caps, which
then exhibited an unusually high mortality rate.

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