Timing Belt - Good/bad luck with Gates?

[GirchyGirchy]

Hi,

Getting ready to change out the timing belt on my wife's 8G soon, and ordered most of the stuff this weekend. I went with the Gates kit on Rockauto with the pulleys and belts, but was thinking of possibly ordering OEM belts along with the other stuff I'm getting from oemmitsubishiparts.com.

That's another $60 though, and since Gates is an OEM supplier to many other brands, I figure it's pretty darn safe to go with the Gates belts. Has anyone had good/bad experiences with them?

Thanks,
Brian

[keith6110]

I have a gates belt on my car and have put 10k miles on it so far. I also knew a guy that had a 500hp v6 engine galant and he always ran gates belts.

The kit you bought from rockauto is the exact same thing I'm running on mine, worked perfectly. You just need to buy the water pump and make sure you buy the timing belt tensioner. I highly recommend replacing it as I have tried re-using the original tensioner and was stranded pretty far from home due to failure.

I have had bad luck with dayco serpentine belts where a new one split and shredded on the highway.

Great sites you are using! Hope this helps.

[GirchyGirchy]

I also ordered a Gates water pump and went OEM on the tensioner, so I got that covered, thanks! Also picked up the heater core hoses and lower rad hose, crank position sensor, as well as the two front motor mounts. It's gonna be a blast.

[keith6110]

That's a nice shopping list!

Make sure when you do the tensioner part of it, the tensioner pulley is positioned correctly. Don't forget the correct torque specs.

[M-Rod]

Gates belts are fine. You shouldn't see an issue there as I run one on my Galant. However, ContiTech is OEM and that's what I use on my Eclipse.

As long as you go with either of those 2, you're getting a high quality belt.

[GirchyGirchy]

Thanks guys! Got my Rockauto stuff today and everything looks great. I love shiny new parts.

Keith, I picked up the little tensioner tool for $10 used on eBay. I think all I need to pick up now is a puller for the crank pulley.

[deeznutz]

No puller needed for the crank pully

[GirchyGirchy]

No puller needed for the crank pully

FU, Haynes. Does it just pull right off then?

[keith6110]

Thanks guys! Got my Rockauto stuff today and everything looks great. I love shiny new parts.

Keith, I picked up the little tensioner tool for $10 used on eBay. I think all I need to pick up now is a puller for the crank pulley.

Can you post pics of the tensioner tool? It might make it easier for me next time I do a timing belt lol.

Also, I used a rubber mallet to get my crank pulley off, didn't seem difficult.

[GirchyGirchy]

Can you post pics of the tensioner tool? It might make it easier for me next time I do a timing belt lol.

I'll take a couple tonight - it looks like this though:

https://millerspecialtools.spx.com/Detail.aspx?id=1277

It's quite a bit smaller than I expected, maybe 1" square. It wouldn't be hard to put one together really, but since I found it so cheap it wasn't worth my time.

[keith6110]

nice thanks! I'm going to order one too.

[Corey2kG]

I got all my Gates stuff for like 160$ locally

[GirchyGirchy]

Finished up today - what a PITA. Decided not to replace the heater core hoses after having trouble getting them out, not a biggie. Crap started with the water pump - removing it unleashed a torrent of coolant out the block. Oh, Haynes doesn't mention a drain in the block, and I didn't check the service manual.

Then the new Gates pump seemed off just a little bit dimensionally - from the metal tube hole to where it mounts to the block. So installing it on the tube first and trying to push it towards the front of the car while starting the bolts didn't work. Ended up starting one bolt and forcing it onto the tube while pushing the tube forward, then getting the rest of the bolts. I didn't like that but didn't have a choice.

Then a feature on the new pump was slightly different than the OEM so I had to cut a little bit out of the lower timing cover. Not a huge deal but I'd rather not have had to do that.

Also found some oil in two of the spark plug holes - about time for new plugs anyway, so I'll put in new tube gaskets and new plugs some other day.

Car started and seemed to run fine though! I'm just glad I won't have to go through that again.

[John165]

Finished up today - what a PITA.

You can say that again! I dont know about the pump but belt yes. It took me two days trying to Tension that Tensioner pulley! The tension was like couple ft lbs holding the pulley while torquing the tensioner pulley bolt was like 35 ftlbs! That to me was pretty hard. That 35 lbs is pulling against about 3 lbs.

After It was said and done I checked the auto tension twice! And all seemed good.. Its been about 14K miles since replacement.

[GirchyGirchy]

You can say that again! I dont know about the pump but belt yes. It took me two days trying to Tension that Tensioner pulley! The tension was like couple ft lbs holding the pulley while torquing the tensioner pulley bolt was like 35 ftlbs! That to me was pretty hard. That 35 lbs is pulling against about 3 lbs.

Huh, I didn't have problems with that part - I tensioned the pulley with the tool to the 35 in-lb, then was able to snug down the pulley bolt temporarily. While torquing it to spec it stayed put.

I feel better about the whole thing now - for curiosity's sake I called the two garages my wife and I have used and liked, and was quoted $750 and $775 for only the timing belts/tensioners/pulleys and the water pump. For those parts alone I saved around $650 - not bad for about 8 hours of work!

[John165]

Sounds good! Gotta love having the saved cash in your pocket!


Well the way you put it, that part was easy. It really did take me two days to tension that pulley. Now after thinking about it I guess the problem was me not having a in-lb torque wrench at the time. I was guessing the tension, by ensuring the little grenade pin would install and remove from the auto tensioner. After I had it set, after the 15 minute waiting period to recheck tension after rotating the engine over two revolutions if i remember right, i said to myself I dont want to go through that again... But after what you said, I wouldnt mind doing it again.

Could it have been that I used a new bolt on that tensioner that it made it so hard on me or the lack of a torque wrench. That pulley should have moved in left direction while torquing it to 35lbs because only a hair under 3lbs is pulling from the opposite side. That is what got me. But yours being stationary after you snug the pulley down, so you could then torque it to spec is good to hear. It makes look forward to replacing it again when time comes.

Btw what torque wrench did you use? A micro click or one that has a needle on a gauge?

[bgood12]

I tried to do that stuff I had it off by one half a tooth I said eff it after 3 days and had a shop do it thankfully they have a ex mitsu mechanic

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[GirchyGirchy]

Could it have been that I used a new bolt on that tensioner that it made it so hard on me or the lack of a torque wrench. That pulley should have moved in left direction while torquing it to 35lbs because only a hair under 3lbs is pulling from the opposite side. That is what got me. But yours being stationary after you snug the pulley down, so you could then torque it to spec is good to hear. It makes look forward to replacing it again when time comes.

You had the hydraulic tensioner pushed in, right? I'm trying to see where the problem came from.

Btw what torque wrench did you use? A micro click or one that has a needle on a gauge?

You almost have to use a beam (needle & gauge) type for the 35 in-lbs. I have a small one I use for working on bicycles, the Park Tools TW-1. It's pretty cheap and worked well.

For the other stuff I use Snap-On click types.

[GirchyGirchy]

I tried to do that stuff I had it off by one half a tooth I said eff it after 3 days and had a shop do it thankfully they have a ex mitsu mechanic

Huh? How can it be off by a half a tooth?

[John165]

You had the hydraulic tensioner pushed in, right? I'm trying to see where the problem came from.


You almost have to use a beam (needle & gauge) type for the 35 in-lbs. I have a small one I use for working on bicycles, the Park Tools TW-1. It's pretty cheap and worked well.

For the other stuff I use Snap-On click types.

Yeah, I had the hydraulic tensioner allready set with the grenade pin installed, because it is allready set when you buy a new one.

After you set your tension, did you:

"Turn the crankshaft two revolutions clockwise so that the
timing marks are aligned. After leaving it for 15 minutes,
measure the amount of protrusion of the auto-tensioner.
Standard value (A): 3.8 − 4.5 mm (0.15 − 0.18 inch)"


Or did you use the method of ensuring the grenade pin will reinstall after waiting the 15 minutes. I went with the grenade pin method instead of the above method.

Thanks for the info on the torque wrench, I have that bookmarked so I can order me one.