Gates belt is great but I'm not convinced that anyone not tracking their car needs it. Even then, it's probably not necessary 80% of the time.
By the way, that Gates thermostat (good brand - OEM quality, includes gasket) is $24, delivered, while AutoZone in my area wants $32
My gates belt looks identical to that and has ever since 5 miles after i changed it, and that was like 4 years ago....
Gates all the way. I have just a basic timing kit and water pump and i auto-x mine in the summer. Haven't had a single little problem so far.
I would highly recommend replacing the oem hydrolic tensioner and pulley with a conversion kit to the older style manual mk3 tensioner. The kit provides an idler pulley. Very nice kit from integrated engineering. This is a sure way to avoid another possible failure and i would also recommend going with a gates timing belt. I just did this job on my1.8t and am very happy with it and can sleep peacefully at night knowing i won't have a failure.
Just did my timing belt on my EJ22 (98 Outback Sport) two weeks ago. Gates kit ran me $200. I wouldn't recommend anything aftermarket under Gates.
i got the gates racing timing belt. have had no complaints about the belt. other than it squeaking at first and making me think something was wrong.
Gates kevlar and tracer belt is shiaatt.
Don't use Gates water pumps.
Gates seems to have lost some quality in recent years.
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