Genuine Toyota vs. Aftermarket Timing belt parts

[Retrospekt]

My dad is real sketchy on using aftermarket parts for my timing belt job. I can get a GATES timing belt kit for 85 bucks off of ebay and various other seals from GATES also...but he said he doesn't trust them.

Is there really a difference? And if so...how do I go about obtaining Geniuin Toyota parts? I'm assuming the prices the dealer will give me are going to be insane.

[Albuynp Ryeno]

i completely agree with your dad, dont use aftermarket.

As to how to get legit parts for a good price. Use toyodiy.com to find the part numbers you need. then order the parts from a site like carson toyota trademotion or toyotapartsales.com

Alternatively. Print out the price quote from either of those 2 sites and have your local dealership price match (or get really close)

[Mike Gerber]

Retrospekt,

Did you find a local shop to do the job for less than the dealer? If so, did they agree to do the work with parts you bring in? Most shops won't do that, since they have to be repsonsible for redoing the job if a part fails.

Incidently, I have recieved good prices from www.toyotapartsstore.com. They are in Milwaukee so shipping isn't too bad. You can call them up at 1-800-920-8606 for a price quote. When you do call, tell them you are an internet customer.

Mike

[the_professional]

I dont know.
I have done fine with aftermarket. But I'm really religious when it comes to water pump/ timing belt changes. Three already in the Camry @ 60,000. I know, I overdue it, but the car sits a bit & the serpentine belt can crack.

[carsrus]

I just did my timing belt job and went with aftermarket. I got the waterpump at napa which was chinese. I got dayco tensioner bearings (korean) and dayco belt (italy). i also got gatorback belts.

The dayco stuff seems to be of OEM quality and i paid 105 for the 2 bearings, spring and belt.
The pump was only 40 bucks at napa, almost 20 bucks off list.
The 2 belts cost 40, you could probably get those at the dealer for the same price.

Dont forget the oil seals, I didn't do them since I didn't want to get to over my head on my first ever timing job and had to get the car on the road asap since the water pump seizing at 111k was the cause for the job.

If you want to do a tune up at the same time the OEM plugs are NGK R and 10$ each and the NGK wires are 40$.

[JohnGD]

In the end, just use whatever you feel comfortable, if that gives you peace of mind it's important. Toyota belts are mostly Bando now, used to be Mitsuboshi and some drive belts were Dayco.

The only things I an adamant about is the OEM thermostat. I've not found an aftermarket thermostat (import or domestic) worthy of the time to install. I have good experience with NAPA water pumps(Airtex), which reboxes some Japanese import pumps for those applications, but I agree it's also a better get getting the Aisin pump from Toyota.

IMO, Gates belts and hoses are superior to the Bando, Mitsuboshi, Dayco, GoodYear belts. However, these other ones look fine too. However, I probably wouldn't use a Gates pump at this time becasue I haven't inspected it in my hands before, ever.

Personally, I would get OEM thermostat, water pump, Red coolant and distilled water. The rest I would pick the list below. But your mileage may vary. Go with what gives you the peace of mind. Or go with your dad and give him the peace of mind.

an earlier list from rockauto.com:
GATES TCK199 (kit of timing belt with two pulleys and instruction)
$84.79
GATES Part # K030295 PS belt $4.32
GATES Part # K050435 Alt/AC $12.12
FEL-PRO TCS45641 Cam seal $4.11
FEL-PRO TCS45920 Crank seal $6.04
BCA Part # 221820 Oil pump seal $2.71
AISIN (Toyota #16110-79185) water pump $58.79
FEL-PRO VS50304R valve cover gasket set $13.94

www.gates.com
www.ngksparkplugs.com
www.akebonobrakes.com

Originally Posted by Retrospekt

My dad is real sketchy on using aftermarket parts for my timing belt job. I can get a GATES timing belt kit for 85 bucks off of ebay and various other seals from GATES also...but he said he doesn't trust them.

Is there really a difference? And if so...how do I go about obtaining Geniuin Toyota parts? I'm assuming the prices the dealer will give me are going to be insane.

[RU2CHKN]

Nice I'm doing my timing belt for the first time by myself sometime next week

[fenixus]

interesting ... since I probably never would be able to replace timing belt or water pump myself LOL - amateur mechanic here - i let my friendly shop guys replace both parts for me and of course they went with aftermarket ones of their own choice (they gave me 1 year warranty on those parts). i would have to ask them what they used. all running fine here, almost 2 years later, ~9-14k miles more, zero problems so far (knock, knock on the wood) ...

[JohnGD]

You know, every brand's gotten so much better these days, even Hyundais are scoring high on JD Power.

But it would be interesting to know what went in, just so we know which brands are good and which brands cause problems. Besides, you got as good a warranty as OEM parts installed by the dealer -- 1 year (or 12K miles typically).

Originally Posted by fenixus

interesting ... since I probably never would be able to replace timing belt or water pump myself LOL - amateur mechanic here - i let my friendly shop guys replace both parts for me and of course they went with aftermarket ones of their own choice (they gave me 1 year warranty on those parts). i would have to ask them what they used. all running fine here, 2 years later, 10k miles more, zero problems so far (knock, knock on the wood) ...

[JohnGD]

Besides a method of holding the pulley without damaging the rubber layer (no chain wrench grabbing on the outer pulley), I'd recommend getting a belt tension gauge. At least the feel/deflection method hasn't worked very well for me.

Pulley holder tools, local machine shop made:
DIY: GEN3 Timing Belt + Waterpump + Oil Seal Change - Part 1

Krikit-II $21.57 on Amazon (or similar I guess, at your local NAPA store):
http://www.gates.com/brochure.cfm?br...cation_id=2742

Get the Krikit-II for Micro-V belt, not the Krkit-I for the V belt.

1/2"-drive torque wrench, ~$15 on sale:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...Itemnumber=239

Originally Posted by RU2CHKN

Nice I'm doing my timing belt for the first time by myself sometime next week

[RU2CHKN]

thx for the info my car is a 1mz-fe btw

[JohnGD]

FWIW, another old list from rockauto.com for 1MZ-FE:

GATES TCK257 timing component kit $89.79
FEL-PRO TCS45890 crank seal $6.27
FEL-PRO TCS45889 cam seal set $8.55
GATES K060410 Alt/AC belt $13.09
GATES K040345 PS belt $8.61
AISIN Part # 1610029085 water pump $61.79
Total ~$188 + shipping

If needed:
FEL-PRO VS50471R valve cover set (with spark plug tube seals) $30.79

Originally Posted by RU2CHKN

thx for the info my car is a 1mz-fe btw

[fenixus]

thanks for making me feel better about parts installed in my ride. i was afraid of being flamed for not sticking to toyota/denso/something brand LOL

I edited above post, i think i lied about time and mileage. thing is that i needed to check my repair/maintenance log (which is very clumsy). seems i got timing belt/water pump done in Dec '07 but i didn't write the mileage down ... probably was around 50-55k, now have around 64k (i know my sig lies, sorry hehe)

on Tuesday maybe i will pay my mechanic a visit, need to ask him about recent fuel filter brand and that damn engine splash shield (passenger wheel) - not sure if it was therebefore they replaced v-belts or not. will try to get timing belt and water pump brand info from them (maybe hard after roughly 2 years though).

[Retrospekt]

Just wanted to come in and say THANK YOU to John, you've been a fantastic help.

My brother has some "connections" at Toyota that he just told me about, perfec timing. If he can get me the parts at a comparable price of aftermarket, I'll obviously go with the Toyo parts. If not, I won't lose any sleep over getting GATES parts, I've heard good things.

[fenixus]

on a side note, i talked to my friendly shop mechanics and it seems they use whatever they can get cheapest from nearby autozone or if unavailable they use some local parts reseller (Capco or something, unsure about name).

according to that i've got Timing belt by Duralast and water pump by either Duralast or Valucraft (both aluminum), front struts by Gabriel, belts (p/s and alt&a/c) by Valucraft and fuel filter by AZ Filters ... LOL it all works good though hehe

CORRECTION:
after recalling some facts and phone calls from the local shop while they were working on my car (i was at work), I believe my water pump is a Duralast.
as per v-belts got changed recently, I saw one of belts having Good Year on it (p/s v-belt) and the other one had red packaging, so most likely alternator&a/c v-belt is Duralast.

anyways quite recently my water pump started running noisy (sort of a "bath tub" noise if you know what i mean)... next time will remember to put original OEM water pump in there. too much (for) labor to save on those parts, it doesn't add up.