Quality timing belt suppliers
 

Hi All,

Are there any engine parts suppliers that are known for supplying consistently higher quality belts (and other engine parts in general) than the rest of suppliers? In particular how good are Nipparts and Gates? I'm looking at Nipparts J1124019 balance shaft belt and J1124031 timing belt at the moment, which are reasonably priced but afaik Nipparts order them from several makers, not all of which are Japanese. Are Gates 5235XS and 5480XS resp. any better? They're similarly priced.

Btw is it *usually* necessary to change any accompanying parts besides these 2 belts? The car's done 135K miles with the belts changed once at 69K miles by one of the previous owners, so I have no clue whether anything else was changed as well. There are kits like Gates K015480XS.

Many thanks,

Dmitriy

Gates makes good belts, and I don't know (good or bad) about Nipparts.

It's common to replace the waterpump along with the timing belts. The waterpump likely will begin leaking before ANOTHER 100k miles, and changing the waterpump means the timing belts have to come off.

Different opinions about whether to replace oil seals on the camshaft, balance shaft, or crankshaft. I personally go with "if it ain't leaking leave it alone". But some people replace the seals anyway.

Earlier F-series engines (like 1994 4-cyl Accord) had a new retainer bracket for oil seals, search for a recall on that. I think your 1999 is OK, but for other readers with earlier cars you should make sure you have those seal-retainers.

External drive belts (alternator, etc) are easy to change whenever they are needed but it seems silly to put the OLD ones back on when you do timing belts.

JimBlake:

Many thanks for the list. I'll then buy all those seals but will only replace the leaking ones (if any). It's worth replacing the water pump indeed in such case. Something made me think Honda engines last "forever" including all the seals etc. ))

Btw are the idlers/tensioners usually fine after 100K then?

Yeah, I probably should've mentioned those too. There's one idler for each belt and they can't easily be replaced without dismantling the timing belts all over again.

Honda "officially" says to inspect the idlers & waterpump when the timing belts are changed. Problem is, no matter how good they look, you won't know if they'll last another 100k miles.

I did that with a 95 Integra. Not too long after changing the timing belt, my waterpump started leaking. I did the timing belt myself, and I made the concious decision NOT to replace the pump. So I can't blame anyone but myself. So YOU'LL have to decide for yours.

) Yeah I understand it's my own decision and my own risk. Looks like it'll cost $170 more in parts to get all those parts replaced as opposed to just replacing the belts alone. I wish I had driven the car for a while by now to guesstimate how long it'll keep going. Still am more inclined to absorb that extra cost for peace of mind... either way the risks are much better understood now after learning all that.

I just bought a '97 EX - VTEC Wagon w/ 150k miles on it - timing belt had been replaced @ 98k miles - turns out the guy was selling it because the water pump was intermittently leaking [wasn't leaking the day I test drove it, or for 2 days after...]. When I changed the timing belt to get to the pump, the old timing belt was Goodyear and looked NEW. The water pump, however, was totally broken inside, the seals and bearings were toast and you could feel them grinding when you moved it by hand. I couldn't tell if it was the original pump w/ 150k on it, or a bogus brand one w/ 52k on it. There were no manufacturer indications on it, so my guess is cheapo brand.

I bought an Aisin pump to replace it with - I always get Japanese parts when I can find them. The whole kit [belts/tensioners/springs/pump] was $120 on RockAuto. The only downside for me in the kit was the Mitsuboshi belts [made in Taiwan]. I'd have bought different brand belts if I did it separately... though the Mistuboshi seemed a decent quality, and Taiwan is capable of producing quality goods. I put them in, so we'll see what happens!

A 'cheap' water pump can be gotten for $35 at O'Reillys - though I don't know if that'd be any better than leaving the OEM in, even w/ 100k miles! I recommend springing for a new, quality, water pump and doing it with the belt. The last thing you want is to drive 20,000 more miles and have your water pump bug out on you. A less than $100 gamble on the chance to redo the job early doesn't seem worth it.

There turns out to be so many different ones here in the UK that I'm finding it difficult to choose one! Also most of them don't say which exactly make and model that is. They average around $45 here, which I guess is cheap ones; the ones like QH (Quinton Hazell) that are reportedly OEM approved cost starting from $60. I like Nipparts J1514021 but have been unable no feedback about their parts quality so far.