Timing Belt Replacement Brand

[gcozmo]

I am about to replace my Timing Belt on my '97 and after looking through a tremendous amount of threads on the subject I can't find not one that talks about brands of kits.

My question is what would be your recommendation of the brand Timing Belt Kit (Gates, Goodyear, Toyota, etc.) that you used and where did you get it? I hate to buy one that is not going to last or people have had bad luck with.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[JohnGD]

You do plan to do a "complete" timing belt job, with oil seals, pump, pulleys, etc right?

Toyota OEM brands are usually Mitsuboshi or Bando. For aftermarkets I'd go either Gates or Dayco. Dayco is typically Contitech from Italy (good stuff too). In general I prefer Gates drivebelts (and timing component kits with two pulleys included). But in recent years Gates outsourced some of their timing belts to Japan instead of making them themselves, and there are more GMB bearings instead of the OEM Koyo.

Others have bought complete kits from eBay by aircabinman for about $184 shipped. He's a top rated seller but there are other top rated sellers too. Just don't get a cheaper eBay kit with no-name parts.

The $184 kit will be cheaper than mixing and matching your own. Except I'm not sure how OEM the thermostat is if you get a Motorad (OEM=Kuzeh) and I don't know about these oil seals either (I thgouth OEMs are NOK).

[carsrus]

I have a Dayco kit (belt and both pulleys) 20k miles so far and its fine. I got a Gates(Napa) waterpump and it makes a weird whurrr noise at a certain rpm range. At least I think thats making the noise, it could be my Gatorback drive belts.

Order off RockAuto, great pricing. I would go for the Aisin waterpump. The housing is optional, the water pump alone comes with all the housing o rings but I did not change them.

Definitely change the oil seals. I was back in there 15k miles later with everything apart changing them all.....

[pmesfun]

Aisin(OEM) timing belt kit.

[gcozmo]

Thanks for the replies. I was looking at the Aisin on Rock Auto's website. Is this the same kit that you get from Toyota?

[molson.david]

get OEM parts for that, nothing else.
contact Gary (toyotapartsman) -parts department manager at Toyota of Newman, he saves TN members 30+% on OEM parts.

[pmesfun]

Originally Posted by gcozmo

Thanks for the replies. I was looking at the Aisin on Rock Auto's website. Is this the same kit that you get from Toyota?

Yep.

[fenixus]

yup, Aisin makes a great kit.

other than that there is also a decent OEM kit on ebay (aircabinman seller).

[JohnGD]

Yeah, NAPA's been carrying Gate belts just about forever. And when Gates started carrying (reboxed) water pumps NAPA switched over from Airtex. While I prefer Gates belts I don't think I'd use their pumps - they don't make them but do try to be a one-source shop. I've used NAPA's Airtex pumps and think they are solid. Sometimes they make their own and other times they rebox.

The same with Bosch pumps at Pep Boys as well. Some of their outsourced castings don't look like much, but seem to work fine with low silicated G-05 5-year coolant that Mercedes use.

However unless it's an Aisin pump for the Gen-5 that like to die an early death, I think it's always a safe bet on Gen-3/4s. Asian pumps generally can't handle silicates, so stick with Toyota Red and distilled water.

Originally Posted by carsrus

I have a Dayco kit (belt and both pulleys) 20k miles so far and its fine. I got a Gates(Napa) waterpump and it makes a weird whurrr noise at a certain rpm range. At least I think thats making the noise, it could be my Gatorback drive belts.

Order off RockAuto, great pricing. I would go for the Aisin waterpump. The housing is optional, the water pump alone comes with all the housing o rings but I did not change them.

Definitely change the oil seals. I was back in there 15k miles later with everything apart changing them all.....