Which Cambelt ? (1 Viewer)

[joggerman]

When I go to my local garage, which specialises in light commercial vehicles, and get prices for a cambelt kit, I am offered the official Fiat kit or the Gates brand which they use extensively. They say that Gates make the cambelts for many of the vans' own brands. The price difference is massive !

I know Gates is a big manufacturer of belts.
Anyone have opinions on this?

 

[stagman]

When I go to my local garage, which specialises in light commercial vehicles, and get prices for a cambelt kit, I am offered the official Fiat kit or the Gates brand which they use extensively. They say that Gates make the cambelts for many of the vans' own brands. The price difference is massive !

I know Gates is a big manufacturer of belts.
Anyone have opinions on this?

Gates is a well know established company manufacturing quality components for the motor trades and others . The diffrence in price may well be down to the warranty check this with your installer , and as for quality I would suspect no difference :thumb:

 

[simsy56]

Gates are a good product. l have fitted numerous Gates belts and never had any problems. You will always pay more for named brands, It doesn't mean they are any better though.
Just look at a nice shirt, and then one similar with a "designer label" (whatever that means), which would you choose?

Craig

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[spannermanwigan]

You would only benefit from fitting the original Fiat belt kit if you were in fact to have
the work done by a main Fiat dealer as it would then carry a full warranty. Which in case of a failure would cover you from all angles, failure of the timing belt or its associated
components is normally catastrophic and results in a major rebuild of the engine.

If in fact you are having the belt kit fitted at your local independent garage, warranty would be restricted to that of the garage backed by the product guarantee, in this case you may as well fit the Gates kit as the components contained are equal to the original and will if fitted correctly perform just as well as the Fiat parts.

Having fitted many of the Kits and belts in the past, the majority having been manufactured by Gates, I can recommend them for their quality, and can only say that any failures I have seen, have been due to incorrect fitment or failure of associated components i.e tensioners, pulleys and water pumps. which had they not been ignored during the belt fitment, would not have resulted in the belt failing.

I can only Stress that correct Fitment is equally as important as the components used.

regards
Steve

 

[aba]

as has already been said gates timing belts are one of the best and they seem to manufacture belts for the manufacturers and they just print different names on them.
i have never had a gates belt fail and i always use them if i am replacing one.
i would also recommend that anything that the belt runs on be replaced at the time of fitting this includes all tensioners / idlers etc and if the water pump is driven by the belt change that too as the tension of the new belt may cause it to fail.

 

[pappajohn]

Gates......the best money can buy :thumb:

genuine belts will have a massive markup on price

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[schojac]

Replaced mine with gates after the recommended 5 years; came highly recommended. Warranty; difficult to prove what ever make you have fitted, unless it went in the first 500 miles or so.

 

[Johno]

It would be interesting to know where Fiat source their parts from possiblly Gates ?.

 

[injebreck99]

Cambelt change

I also fitted many cambelts in my years in the motor trade, we fitted a lot of Gates belts, also Goodyear made kits that were fully guaranteed, I agree that any subsequent failures were usually water pump or pulley failures, not the belts themselves.
On a different note , I have just purchased a 2009 Swift Bolero with the 130 muli engine with 5k recorded, what's the recommended interval for changing the belt on this engine, presumably 4-5 years as the milage won't be that much.

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